tributed to so ancient a name. The Spartans therefore were driven to the use of some other metal as the common medium of exchange, and iron being abundantly obtained in the country, they made use of bars of that metal (33ɛλo. ¡Bɛnioxoi,) which was stamped with some mark in the iron furnaces of Laconia; while in the other countries bars of copper or silver were current; whence the obolus or spit, and the drachma or handful, received their names. When afterwards Pheidon abolished the use of metallic bars, and introduced coined money, the Spartans also began to stamp their iron in large and rude pieces; for which purpose they either used, as the author of the Eryxias asserts, lumps of this metal, which were useless for other purposes, such perhaps as are now used for making cannon balls, or, according to other accounts, they softened the best iron, so as to render it unfit for working, by cooling it when hot in vinegar. But when Sparta began to aim at foreign dominion, it had need of a comage that should be current abroad, for which purpose it imposed tributes upon the inhabitants of the islands, and demanded a contribution of a tenth from all the Greeks: a large quantity of the precious metals were also brought into the country by Lysander; and, as we learn from the first Alcibiades of Plato, the wealthy possessed much gold and silver, for when once imported it was never suffered to leave the country. But at this very time the prohibition of all the private use of the precious metals was re-enacted, and the possession of gold or silver made a capital crime, the government remaining by law the exclusive possessor, as in the ideal State of Plato; a sufficient proof that this was an extremely ancient custom of the Spartans; although it again fell into disuse in the times which immediately succeeded, it being found impossible to maintain so unnatural a prohibition after the advantages of gold had been once made known to the people. In this instance therefore the iron-money was founded upon ancient usage and moral views." vol. ii. pp. 385–387.

Such was the Public Economy of Athens-a system, in many respects, rude and inartificial, in many, oppressive and vexatious-in all, widely different from any thing we see in our happy forms of government-and such, upon the whole, as no American citizen could bear to live under. Yet Athens, like the little democracies of Italy in the 12th and 13th century, for some time flourished, even amid the storms that so often shook and desolated her. The spirit of republican equality, bold, energetic, vivifying, aspiring, acting upon minds constituted as no others seem ever to have been, before or since, produced many illustrious examples of the heroic in conduct-many more of the sublime in thought and sentiment. Herodotus, who saw her in her palmy state, and recorded her most glorious past, ascribes all her fortunes to this equality,* and, in a much later age, she is mentioned as a singular instance of a democracy that had risen to grandeur and power. Before the well bal

Lib. v. ec. 77, 78.

+ Strabo, lib. iv. c. 35, § 3.

anced constitution of Solon was subverted by the demagogues of a later age, she had made such progress that she could live through a long period of misrule and adversity, not only without any apparent decay, but even, in some respects, with seemingly increased splendour, and the elegant compliment of Isocrates was well earned, that she had made the Greek name a designation, not of a race of men, but of a particular state of civilization, so that they were Greeks, whom, not a common origin, but her refined discipline identified as one people.

ART. II.-Remains of the Rev. Edmund D. Griffin, compiled by FRANCIS GRIFFIN, with a Biographical Memoir of the deceased. By the Rev. JOHN MCVICKAR, D. D. &c. 2 vols. 8vo.

THESE two volumes, which, perhaps, might better have been abridged into one, exhibit månifest proof of the enviable talents, extraordinary application, and most amiable character of a young man, who, if he had been permitted to remain longer among us, would, no doubt, have done honour to the country of his birth. They are made up of copious extracts from the posthumous manuscripts of the deceased, which, indeed, would have furnished, we are told, four additional volumes, equal in size to the two now presented to the public. Whether this includes such sermons as made part of the author's remains, does not distinctly appear; at any rate, we must admire the zeal, industry, and abilities of one who could effect so much in the comparatively short space that preceded his death, when he was only twenty-six years old: "Heu! quàm immaturé ademptus !"

It is impossible to contemplate the virtues and very limited life of Mr. Griffin, without being reminded of Henry Kirke White and Elizabeth Smith, with whom our young countryman so well bears a comparison. They were all "lovely in their lives," and, in one sense at least, "in their deaths not divided;" for, they were equally the victims of premature disease, and alike favoured in having left friends who were both

family and acquaintances by exhibiting, for the benefit of the rising generation, examples so bright of the most meritorious qualities. It is true that not all are equally gifted in point of talent with Mr. Griffin; but his industry, modesty, ingenuousness, docility, submission to his parents and instructors, and, last, but not least, his ardour in the cause of religion, may justly serve "to fill up (in the words of Dr. McVickar) a moral picture which cannot but be interesting, and which, we may reasonably hope, will be found to be useful." In short, we concur heartily with his family and his biographer that such a young man as Mr. Griffin should not be suffered to descend into the grave—

"Unwept, unhonoured, and unsung."

From the facility with which he learned whatever was assigned to him as a task, and from his unremitted application to study, voluntary as well as enjoined, we cannot be much surprised that he came off victorious in all the literary contests of his school and of his college; but the meekness with which he bore his faculties, his freedom from all ostentation, and a sort of unconsciousness of that merit which was so manifest to others, place his heart and temper in a most enviable point of view, and enabled him to carry off every honour awarded him, without exciting the correspondent jealousy and enmity that are so much more easily provoked than allayed. His disappointed rivals could not but feel for themselves, yet seemed willing to allow that, if superiority were awarded, it was justly due to Edmund Griffin. And here we cannot avoid giving place to the following very judicious reflections of Dr. McVickar, the truth of which we have so frequently seen illustrated in other instances. It appears that a young Italian, highly talented and older than Edmund, "bade fair to be Edmund's 'most formidable rival, if death had not withdrawn him from 'the course, before the race was well begun. Two other 'high-minded competitors, after a two year's struggle, volun'tarily withdrew their pretensions, and, through the remainder 'of his college-life, Edmund's claim to general pre-eminence was 'undisputed. While we call this victory honourable, we cannot 'deny that it was painful, and dearly purchased by the mortifi'ed feelings and injured prospects of others; so that, indeed, 'it may well be doubted whether, in the education of youth, 'such highly-excited emulation be not productive of more evil 'than good. How often do we see the bold heart wear out the 'feeble body in the contest. And when that contest is over, willing and able to gratify their own feelings and those of their

' though some generous spirits may rise above the disappoint'ments, how often do we see it turned into gall and bitterness, weighing down the heart with the double load of sorrow and 'envy! In the name of humanity, then, let us not add this 'curse to the necessary discipline of youth, Let us not dash 'with factitious sorrow the joyous days of boyhood, nor teach an innocent heart to pine with envy at another's talents or " success. Nor is the moral influence of emulation more unfavourable than its intellectual. When made the great engine 'of education, which in our country it is, it often weakens the 'mind by premature exertion: naturally leads to the cultivation of the memory, at the expense of the judgment, and invariably tends to enfeeble the character by building it upon the 'stimulus of external and temporary excitement. Hence the 'anomalous fact that we are so often called upon to wonder at and explain, viz. that the praised and honoured youth turns out a feeble and nerveless man. The explanation is easy. 'He lived so long upon the sweets of praise and honour, that he 'can find no sufficient stimulus in the quiet motives of duty ' and conscience. He has been trained to action by stimulants 'which have no place in the sober duties of life; and, when left to himself, this factious nursling of education pines into feeble'ness and inaction. Like a boy taught to swim on bladders, 'he goes smoothly on, so long as he is buoyed up by praise; 'but, when called upon to act unnoticed and alone, to walk unmoved through good report and evil report, he feels as the same artificial swimmer would do, without his aids, in a rough and stormy ocean.'

6

These very just sentiments will be echoed by many a teacher and many a learner in all the schools and colleges of the United States. We earnestly hope that the authority of one so justly eminent as Dr. McVickar may have its effect, supported as it is by the still higher authority of Southey, and by the practice of the great schools of England, where, if a school exercise happens to exhibit extraordinary merit, it is rewarded by a holiday to the whole school, granted to the request of the meritorious boy-and, thus, poison and antidote are administered together. At Westminster, a silver penny is awarded, commutable into a half crown piece when presented to the boarding dame; after which, nothing is heard of the matter, unless, in a more advanced period of life, the exercise should be found among those Musa Etonenses, or Lusus Westmonasterienses, or Wyckhamical Chaplets, which are occasionally offered to the public eye, rather in honour of the schools than of those who were educated in them. Under such circumstances, neither vanity

nor envy can produce the odious effects which Dr. McVickar has so justly and feelingly described.*

We are here naturally led to the poetical exercises, Latin and English, that make a part of the first volume of these "Remains," and we cannot help expressing a candid wish that they had been suffered to remain where the author left themin his own desk. We allude, chiefly, to the Latin verses: the English may be allowed to speak for themselves, with a slight allusion to Horace's hint (however repeated ad nauseam) that

"Mediocribus esse poetis,

"Non du, non homines, non concessere columnæ."

Praise, however, being far more grateful to us, in this instance, than censure, we shall first proceed to notice, more hastily, indeed, than we could wish, the other ingredients of the volumes before us.

When the usual school and college course was ended, Mr. Griffin's judiciously indulgent parents very properly desired to procure for him that enlargement of mind which nothing so effectually secures, as foreign travel. At the age of nineteen, he had obtained a bachelor's degree, and, in 1828, received his first order from the late Bishop Hobart. This latter circumstance, indeed, might have prevented his going abroad, if a very delicate state of health, the usual result of severe study, operating upon the naturally liberal character and friendly apprehensions of his diocesan, had not overcome professional difficulties that weighed heavily upon the mind of Mr. Griffin, as well as of the Bishop. These were, however, removed,

*We are so entirely of opinion with Dr. McVickar upon the points submitted in this extract from his Memoir, that we cannot avoid supporting our common sentiments by a quotation, the good sense and eloquence of which need not our recommendation.

"In schools and in all fashionable Systems of Education,' emulation is made the 'main spring; as if there were not enough of the leaven of disquietude in our nature, without inocculating it with the virus of envy. True it is that we need encouragement in youth; that though our vices, like poisonous fungi, spring up and thrive in shade and darkness, yet that praise is the sunshine without which genius 'will fade and die, or rather, in search of it, will, like a plant that is debarred of 'light, put forth in contortion and deformity. But such practices as that of writing for public prizes-of publicly declaiming-and of enacting plays before the neighbouring gentry-teach boys to look for applause, instead of being satisfied 'with approbation, and foster that vanity which stands in need of no such cherishing. This is to administer stimulants to the heart, instead of 'feeding it with food convenient for it; and the effect of such stimulants is to dwarf the human mind, as lap-dogs are said to be stopped in their growth by being dosed with gin. Thus 'forced, the mind becomes like the sapling, which shoots up, when it should be 'striking its roots far and deep; and which, therefore, never attains to more than a saplings size."-Southey's Life of Kirke White. 42

VOL. VIII. NO. 16.