ON THE GREEK LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. BY N. F. MOORE, LL. D. NEW-YORK: 1835. 304. f. 12. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1835, by N. F. Moore, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New-York. WINDT AND CONRAD, PRINTERS, PREFACE. THE thought of printing these lectures (the first six of a short course read in Columbia College) was originally entertained in consequence of a difficulty alluded to in the beginning of the fourth, which made it necessary for the lecturer to aid his instruction on the subjects treated in that and the two following lectures, by written examples and illustrations exhibited before his class. But various considerations interfered to prevent this publication hitherto; and now the motive above specified has no longer, as regards the author personally, any weight; yet having observed that the more zealous among those he taught, derived advantage from these lectures, he is not without the hope that for others also, engaged in like studies, they may possess some interest. The first, or introductory lecture is published for reasons that will be obvious to all who read it: the second, and third, not only that they may, being of a more popular character, invite readers of a different class from those for whom the last three are designed; but also to give a sort of completeness to this little work, which without them it might want. Throughout the second lecture the author has been much indebted to Schoell's Histoire de la Littérature Grecque Profane, and this general acknowledgment is made because there, as elsewhere, the sources whence he draws, and the authorities on which he has relied, are seldom pointed out. He would to little He would to little purpose, have crowded his pages with a vain parade of notes, not wanted by those readers who possess the means of verifying them, and a mockery, as it were, of others, that is of far the greater number, as referring them to books, which, in this country, they would in most cases vainly seek to find. portion of the sixth lecture is derived from "Remarks on the Pronunciation of the Greek Language," a small pamphlet published by the author seventeen years ago, and not now in print. COL. COLL. July, 1835. A LECTURE I. INTRODUCTORY. ON THE STUDY OF GREEK. ABOUT to speak of the value of Grecian Literature, considered in itself, or compared with that of modern times; and of the relative importance of classical and scientific studies; I am sensible that I undertake no easy task. The difficulty of treating worthily a subject increases together with its importance, and in proportion too as a theme has become trite from frequent handling, it will be easy, indeed, to speak concerning it, but hard to say any thing that shall be new. Yet those who plead the cause of classical studies should not be deterred from asserting their just claims, by the apprehension of dwelling on a hackneyed topic. The undeserved neglect of these studies is no new complaint, because the |