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LITERATURE.

Scotland have their academies, which are merely great schools, as in Germany would be called g^ymnasia, embracing in some cases both the lan- guages and the sciences, but in general confined chiefly to the latter. In England, again, the colleges of the dissenters are commonly called academies; and the name is also frequently as- sumed by mere private boarding houses, on however small a scale. The government institu- tion at Woolwich for the instruction of military cadets is called the Royal Military Academy. It was founded in 1741, and is under the direc- tion of the Board of Ordnance. There is also a Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth, founded in 1722, under the direction of the Board of Admiralty. The Jewish seminaries for the high- est brancnes of learning, in the diflferent countries of Europe, have usually borne the name of aca- demies. The same name has long been applied to schools of riding, of dancing, and of gymnastic exercises. On the other hand, many of those associations of the learned, which, in all respects, resemble the academies that arose in Italy with the revival of letters, are, nevertheless, not known by that name. They are called not academies, but tocieties, oiioctatiom, tmueums, lycteunu, athenaums, institutes, $cc.

It is commonly stated, that the term academy is derived from the name of the original pro-

Erietor Academus or Ecademus, who is said to ave established a house and garden in one of the suburbs of Atheas, inclosed by a wall, and having the grounds laid out in walks, shaded by trees. . Other etymologies of the term, however, have also been given. About the middle of the fifth century, before the commencement of our era, the groves of Academus fell into the pos- session of Cimon, the Athenian general; and it was he who first adorned the place with statues and fountains, and added other improvements, so as to convert it into a retreat uniting to the charms of natural scenenr many of the luxuries of the art. At his death he left the garden to the public; and it became a favourite resort of the lovers of philosophy and solitary meditation. Hither Socrates was wont occasionally to repair to converse with his disciples. But it was his illustrious pupil, Plato, who first gave celebrity to the Academy as a seat of philosophy, by establishing here the school over which he pre- sided for nearly half a century. Hence the Platonic philosophy is frequently called Aca- demism or the philosophy of the Academy; and its followers. Academics or Academists. Plato died about the year 348 before the Christian era. About the year b. c. 296, one of his successors, Arcesilaus, introduced certain changes into the original doctrines of the school; and he is on this account considered the founder of a second, or Middle, as distinguished from the old Academy. There was also in this sense athird academy, called the New, of which the founder was Carneades, who flourished about a century after Arcesilaus. Some writers even reckon a fourth Platonic

academy, founded soon after the time of Carne- ades, by Philo, (not the celebrated Platonic Jeit) and Charmidas or Charmadas : and a fifth, de- signated the Antiochian, from its founder Anti- ocnus, who had been a disciple of Philo. Cictro had a country seat on the Neapolitan coast, to which, as one of his fiivourite retreats for pbiln- sophical study and converse, he gave, in memoij uf the famous Athenian school, me name of aci- demia. It was here he wrote his Academe Questimu. Its remains are still pointed out near Pozzuoli, under the name of the Bagni de' Tritoli.

With regard to the academy of Plato, we maj further notice that it was situated in the suburb, Ijring to the north-west of Athens, called Ceia- micus, that is, literally, the Place of Tiles; and it has been- remarked, as a curious coincidence, that the principal public garden of that cit; should thus have apparently bad the same origin with the Thuleries of the modern capital of France, a name which also indicates that the site was anciently that of a tile-work.

Having arrived at that period, when it becomes our duty to investigate into the origin and pro- gress of printing; and looking back on the state of mankind from its earliest source, and through the dark and midde ages, must not the heart be warmed with gratitude to that All-wise and bene- ficent Being, who has thus gifted us with this inestimable treasure, — that vtduable fountain of of intellectual enjoyment, — the Press. It b not now, as it was heretofore, that the wealdiy alone could enjoy this delectable repast. Books are not now treasured up as a great raril^ and of high value, but on the contrary, accessible to all : and thus it is, says Dr. Middleton, in his Free Enquiry into the Art of Printing, the ease which we now find in providing and dispersing what number of copies of books we please, by the opportunity of the press, makes us apt to imagine, without considering the matter, that the pub- lication of books was the same easy affair in all former times as in the present. But the case was quite different. For, when there were no books in the world but what were written out by hand, with great labour and expense, the method of publishing them was necessarily very slow, and the price very dear; so that the rich only and curious would be disposed or able to pur- chase them; and to such also it was often dif- ficult to procure them, or to know even where they were to be bought.

Say, what was man ere by the Press refined?

What bonds hi^ glorious enerides confined i

Did Oenios, thro' the dull chaotic waste,

Court the fair form of beauty and of taste,

Tho* strons his ardour, and tho' pure his lovev

Small was the sphere wherein those powers coald move.

The meteor-beam that science lent manlciad,

Dartin;^ eflfulgence on th' inquiring mind.

Oft gleam'd — a weak and transitory light,

A moment glared — then sunk in endless night :

Man knew no means to hold the fiitting race

Of Alt's coy forms, that courted his embrace;

His only hope in Memory's stinted power.

The oral record— changing every hour.— M*C««««T.

VjOOQ IC