This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com LIBRARlEs Nvpl. RESEARCH ||J| 3433 O8239722 I. I I - - - - I - - - - - . - - - - - - - - - - |- - |-|-|- - - |-|-|-|- .|-ſae|×- -|-ſ.. |× THE N EW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY, At *^, r, L* ^ ox AND Y , . ' i ; £ C ; N'f} A r 1 O N 8. ,- **- l-- - -* A. t. A L 1 F E # i or* £ - GEORGE WASHINGTON, IN LATIN PROSE : BY FRANCIS GLASS, A.M., OF OHIO. E D I T E D B Y J. N. R E Y N O L D S. * 1 bring another's offéring—for the tomb Contains within its dreary charnel house The guide of earlier days,-who often led My boyish footsteps to the Muses' shrine. And I must now tell others of the friend Whose voice is mute in death.” Old Play. *t Hi i R D E D I T I o N. N E W.Y O R K: PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, No. 82 cliff-strEET, ANno soLD BY THE PrinciPAL BooksELLER s THeouGHoUt tHm unitero states. 1 842.— ii Editor's PREFAcE. of which Lebanon is the shire, situate about thirty miles from Cincinnati. He had excited no small degree of interest among the few who were capa ble of appreciatimg his extraordinary attainments in classical literature.—This man was Francis Glass, the author of the following work, ** The Life qf Washington.” I found him in a remote part of the county, in a good neighborhood of thrifty farmers, who had employed him to instruct their children, who, in general, were then acquiring the simplest rudi ments of an English education. The school house mow rises fresh on my memory. It stood on the banks of a small stream, in a thick grove of native oaks, resembling more a den for Druidi cal rites, than a temple of learning. The build ing was a low log-cabin, with a clapboard roof, but indifferently tight—all the light of heavem, founâ in this cabin, came through apertures made on each side in the logs, and these were covered with oiled paper to keep out the cold air, while they admitted the dim rays. ' The seats, or benches, were of hewn timbers, resting on upright posts, placed in the ground to Keep them from being overturned by the mischiev ous urchins who sat on them. In the centre was a large stove, between which and the back part of the building, stood a small desk, without lock or Rey, made of rough plank, over which $. plane EDIToR's PREFAcE. iii had never passed; and, behind this desk, sat Pro fessor Glass when I entered his school. There might have been forty scholars present ; twenty-five of these were engaged in spelling, reading, and writing, a few in arithmetic, a small class in English grammar; and a half a dozen, like myself, had joined his school, for the benefit of his instruction in the Greek and Latin lan guages, preparatory to a more extended course in one of the Ohio seminaries. The moment he learned that my intention was to pursue the study of the languages with him, his whole soul appeared to beam from his countenamce. He commenced in a straim, which in another would have seemed pedantic, but which, in fact, was far from being so in him. The followjng imperfect sketch, drawn entirely from memory, may serve to give some idea of his . peculiar manner:—“Welcome to the shrine of the Muses, my young friend, Salve ! Xαῖge ! The tem ple of the Delphian God was originally a laurel hut, and the Muses deign to dwell, accordingly, even in my rustic abode. * JN'on humilem domum fastidiunt, umbrosamve ripam.* Here, too, the winds hold converse, * Eurus, and Caurus, and Argestes loud,' and the goddesses of the Casta lian fountain, the daughters of the golden-haired Mnemosyne, are sometimes silent with the lyre, * citharâ tqcentes,' that they may catch the sweet A 3 iw Editor's PaefAcE. murmurs of the harp of Aeolus. Here, too, I, the priest of the muses, Musarum sacerdos, sing, to the young of either sex, strains before unheard, Vir ginibus puerisque canto. Plutus, indeed, that blind old deity, is far away ; ahd far away let him be, for well has the prince of comic poets styled him a * filthy, orooked, miserable, wrinkled, bald, and toothless creature ? gurówrw, xvpôv, άθλιον, ἐναῦν, μαδύντα, vwööv.” Such was my first interview. It was a display perfectly natural, and without the least apparent consciousness of effort on his part. From this moment he took the greatest interest in my studies, and I enjoyed not only his instruction during school hours, but—as I had taken up my lodgings at a farm-house about half a mile from his school, on the road to his own humble residence, situate a mile beyond—almost every evening, from his deep im terest in my progress, was spent with me at my dwelling. While at the Ohio University, I had enjoyed the privilege of able instruction from the Professor of Languages in that institution ; but so far as I was capable of judging, or making comparison, the attainments and readiness of Glass seemed altogether superior to any thing I had witnessed. While reading Horace, for instance, the happy illustrations applied to each line, or word, gave an interest to my studies absolutely fascinating. Editor's PREFACE. v Sometimes, when in a happy mood—and I soon learned that he was not always happy—he would hold me a delighted auditor, fof a whole evening, while analyzing and pointing out the beauties of a single ode. The whole fange of classic authors was at his tongue's end, and he would recite from them with a facility and am accuracy truly astonish ing. Every thing, by way of illustration or com parison, was introduced, with such an inimitable and sweet simplicity, that, to me, it seemed as if I had mever before understood the beauties of the authors I had been reading, or properly appre ciated the flow, strength, and grandeur of the Latin tongue. His method of teaching the languages was - thorough and philosophical ; the judgment, as well as the memory, was brought into requisition, and he illumined the page of the author with such brilliant remarks, that his pupil seldom felt the longest lesson as a task. Enamoured with standard works, he discovered a strong affection for those who had earnestly engaged iii mastéring their beauties : and if, at any moment, he showed a partiality for any ome of his students, the love he bore to learning was the only cause of it. He was proud of being a professor of languages, and mewer lost the self-satisfaction that arose from the consciousness of his abilities. With him, as with Dr. Busby, the teacher could be second to no one vl EDIToR'S PREFAcE. in the nation; and he often dwelt upon that en lightemed age of Greece, when the lecturer at the Academy or Lyceum was a greater man, in public estimation, than the commander of armies. He took it upon himself to judge of the improve ment of his scholars, and gave them diplomas ac cording to their merits, from his own authority, without reciting a chartered right, or asking the privilege of a board of trustees. The form of one of these diplomas I have preserved, and deem it of sufficient interest to be here introduced, “ OMNIBUS, ad quos præsentes hæ LITERAE pervenerint, SALUTEM in domino sempiternam. OMNIBUs hominibus per literas has præsentes notum sit, harumce latorem —~, maximae spei adolescentem, in studió Graec. et Lat. lin guarum, aliquandiù operam strenuam (me ipso vice Præceptoris fungente,) navàsse': easdemque linguas qui doceat in quovis gymnasio, omnino idoneum esse. In cujus rei fidem, præsentes literas manu nostrâ exarandas curavimus, ** FRANCISCUS GLAss, A. M. * Græc. et Lat. Ling, Prqfessor, Scripsi in Republicâ Ohioensi,* • Glass knew nothing of the world more than a child. He was delicately formed in mind and body, and shrunk from all coarseness, as a sen Editor's PREFAcE vii sitive plant from the rude touch. A cold or um feeling word seemed to palsy every current of his soul, and every power of his mind; but when ad dressed in gentle confiding tones, he was easy, communicative, and full of light and life. At such hours, he poured out a stream of classical knowledge, as clear, sparkling, and copious, as ever flowed from the fountains of inspiration in the early days of the Muses. During these excursive fiights, I have sat a delighted listener for hours, hardly daring to hear my own voice, for fear I should break the spell by some unclassical word, and that then the Oracle would be dumb. He had all the enthusiasm of Erasmus, and of those revivers of learning in the fifteenth century, who considered the languages the ormament and the charm of life, and more worthy of pursuit tham all other attaimments, and, who, from this love oflet ters, called them ** the Humanities.* The mind was, with him, measured by the amount of classical acquirements. He was not deficient in mathematics and other branches ofuseful science, but they were only mere matters of utility, and not of affection. Such a man is seldom properly appreciated any where, evem in the bosom of letters, where many are capable of understanding such gifts; but a new country furnishes few competent judges of "high literary acquirements. I had been with him about three months, when viii EDIToR's PREFAcE.