15. *Classicus is a man of learning, and well versed in all the best authors of antiquity. He has read them so much, that he has entered into their spirit, and can imitate the manner of any of them. All their thoughts are his thoughts, and he can express himself in their language. He is so great a friend to this improvement of the mind, that if he lights on a young scholar, he never fails to advise him concerning his studies.
Classicus tells his young man, he must not think he has done enough, when he has only learnt languages; but that he must be daily conversant with the best authors, read them again and again, catch their spirit by living with them; and that there is no other way of becoming like them, or of making himself a man of taste and judgment.
How wise might Classicus have been, if he had but thought as justly of devotion, as he does of learning?
He never, indeed, says any thing shocking or offensive about devotion, because he never thinks or talks about it. It suffers nothing from him, but neglect and disregard.
The two testaments would not have had so much as a place amongst his books, but that they are both to be had in Greek.
16. Classicus thinks, he sufficiently shews his regard for the holy scripture, when he tells you, that he has no other books of piety besides them.
It is very well, Classicus, that you prefer the bible to all other books of piety; he has no judgment, that is not thus far of your opinion.
But if you will have no other book of piety besides the bible, because it is the best, how comes it, Classicus, that you don’t content yourself with one of the best books among the Greeks and Romans? How comes it that you are so eager after all of them? How comes it that you think the knowledge of one is a necessary help to the knowledge of the other? How comes it that you are so earnest, so laborious, so expensive of your time and money, to restore broken periods, and scraps of the ancients?
How comes it that you tell your young scholar, he must not content himself with barely understanding his authors, but must be continually reading them all, as the only means of entering into their spirit, and forming his own judgment according to them?
Why then must the bible lie alone in your study? Is not the spirit of the saints, the piety of the holy followers of Jesus Christ, as good and necessary a means of entering into the spirit and taste of the gospel, as the reading of the ancients is of entering into the spirit of antiquity?