The Journal of sacred literature - v. 3 Author:Unknown Author Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE SCHOOLS OF THE HEBREWS. By Dom. Augustin Calmet. Translated from the French by the Rev. Alexander J. D. D'orsey, High School, Glasgow. Schools have... more » always been regarded amongst polished nations as the principal support of states. In schools are formed the clergy, the judges, the magistrates, the people: it is in them we learn religion, law, history, language, and science—knowledge the most important to the commonwealth, and the most useful in active life. It is on this account that the most enlightened princes and legislators have always considered the establishment and support of schools as the thing, above all others, most meriting their care ; and they have ever directed their earliest efforts to the erection of academies, to the choice of masters, and the general promotion of the education of the young. We shall not at present extend our paper by citing the example of other nations in proof of our position ; we confine our remarks to the Hebrews. We are about to exhibit amongst them an uninterrupted succession of schools and prophets, from Moses to Jesus Christ; after which,'we shall examine what they tell us of their schools and of their studies, from their dispersion by the Romans till our own times. The ancient Hebrews have, beyond all other nations, a double advantage as regards their schools. The first is connected with the worth and dignity of the masters, who were nearly all prophets or priests of the Lord. The second relates to the object of their pursuits, which were almost entirely restricted to the study of the divine law and the prophecies. Amongst other nations, philosophy, astronomy, geometry, music, rhetoric, and poetry, were held in high esteem. These arts were little cultivated by the Hebrews. Religion formed almost their sole pursuit. Hence a...« less