EDITOR'S TABLE. 



413 



progress on the question in the follow- 

 ing paragraph: "A discussion took 

 place in the Arts Schools at Cambridge 

 on Tuesday, October 26th, on the report 

 of an influential syndicate, which had 

 been appointed to consider a memorial 

 sent bv schoolmasters and teachers, in- 

 eluding the head-masters of Eaton, Win- 

 chester, Westminster, St, Paul's, Har- 

 row, and Rugby Matthew Arnold, C. 

 Darwin, Sir J. Hooker, Professor Hux- 

 ley, Professor Tyndall, Dr. Vaughan, 

 and the Bishops of Exeter and Win- 

 chester. The memorial stated that ' the 

 present regulations, according to which 

 a knowledge of Greek is required from 

 all candidates for the Previous Exami- 

 nation at Cambridge, have the effect of 

 excluding a large and increasing num- 

 ber of able and deserving students from 

 the benefits of university education,' 

 and it respectfully prayed that the uni- 

 versity would be pleased to take into 

 consideration some means whereby can- 

 didates for an honor degree may be re- 

 lieved from the obligation of passing 

 an examination in Greek. After much 

 deliberation and inquiry, the syndicate 

 reported 1. In favor of the relaxa- 

 tion of the requirements of Greek in 

 some cases; 2. That the relaxation 

 should be restricted to candidates for 

 honors; 3. That a knowledge of French 

 and German should be accepted as a 

 substitute for Greek." 



But it seems that this reasonable 

 report of the syndicate was not finally 

 adopted. We learn from the London 

 " Spectator" that the senate of the uni- 

 versity decided against the petitioners 

 by one hundred and eighty-five votes 

 against one hundred and forty-five. 

 The " Spectator " discusses this result 

 in a way that is suggestive. It re- 

 grets the Cambridge decision, not from 

 want of appreciation of Greek, but be- 

 cause the language is so poorly taught 

 in the university. It declares that it 

 heartily concurs in the following esti- 

 mate of this study : " It is said that a 

 knowledge of Greek is the only door 



of access to a certain plane of culture 

 which contains more of the seeds of 

 free life and intellectual energy than all 

 the rest of the intellectual discipline of 

 our schools put together. The genius 

 of the Greek language and literature, 

 it is said, is the genius of freedom. The 

 genius of the Latin language is the ge- 

 nius of authority and law. We believe 

 there is a great deal of truth in this 

 view." 



But no such ideal is realized in prac- 

 tice, and the actual results are thus 

 stated : " The fact, no doubt, is that in 

 the present embarrassing wealth of dis- 

 ciplinary studies a great many men, 

 with a real gift for mathematics and 

 physical science, and whose education 

 at the university, so far as it is of any 

 value at all, is carried through in the 

 sphere of mathematics or physical sci- 

 ence, take up Greek for the Previous 

 Examination in the most perfunctory 

 way, never attain even a rudimentary 

 mastery of the language or the litera- 

 ture, and even lose something in the 

 thoroughness of their early studies, by 

 entering on a subject which they intend 

 to drop as soon as ever it has answered 

 their temporary purpose. Now, for 

 such as these, the compulsory cram- 

 ming of a little Greek enough to ena- 

 ble them, perhaps, to construe decently 

 a little New Testament or a little bit of 

 the ' Anabasis ' of Xenophon, after they 

 have been carefully prepared by a tu- 

 tor is of no kind of good, and yet 

 takes the place of an acquisition which 

 might be of very real use to them in 

 the career they actually propose to 

 themselves." Again : " The real reason 

 for regretting the decision of the Uni- 

 versity of Cambridge is the tendency 

 of modern education toward superfi- 

 ciality. Whatever can be done to pre- 

 vent subjects being taken up which are 

 never to be pursued, and which are 

 never so far followed out that they give 

 those who have entered upon them a 

 new sense of power, should be done. 

 Whatever any university can do to en- 



