accomplishments, their own characters were striking recommendations and illustrations. They were scholars, ripe and
good scholars; widely acquainted with ancient, as well as
modern literature, and not altogether uninstructed in the
deeper sciences. Their acquirements, doubtless, were different, and so were the particular objects of their literary pursuits; as their tastes and characters, in these respects, differed like those of other men. Being, also, men of busy
lives, with great objects requiring action constantly before
thera, their attainments in letters did not become showy or
obtrusive. Yet I would hazard the opinion, that, if we
could now ascertain all the causes which gave them eminence and distinction in the midst of the great men with
whom they acted, we should find not among the least their
early acquisitions in literature, the resources which it
furnished, the promptitude and facility which it communicated, and the wide field it opened for analogy and
illustration; giving them thus, on every subject, a larger
view and a broader range, as well for discussion as for the government of their own conduct.
59. Literature sometimes disgusts, and pretension to it much oftener disgusts, by appearing to hang loosely on the character, like something foreign or extraneous, not a part, but an ill-adjusted appendage; or by seeming to overload and weigh it down by its unsightly bulk, like the productions of bad taste in architecture, where there is massy and cumbrous ornament without strength or solidity of column. This has exposed learning, and especially classical learning, to reproach. Men have seen that it might exist without mental superiority, without vigor, without good taste, and without utility. But in such cases classical learning has only not inspired natural talent; or, at most, it has but made original feebleness of intellect, and natural bluntness of perception, something more conspicuous. The question, after all, if it he a question, is, whether literature, ancient as well as modern, does not assist a good understanding, improve natural good taste, add polished armor to native strength, and render its possessor, not only more capable of
