THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



NOVEMBER, 1883. 



"THE GKEEK QUESTION."* 



By JOSIAH PARSONS COOKE, 



PROFESSOB OF CHEMISTRY IN HARVARD COLLEGE. 



THE question whether the college faculty ought to continue to 

 insist on a limited study of the ancient Greek language, as an 

 essential prerequisite of receiving the A. B. degree, has been under 

 consideration at Cambridge for a long time ; and, since the opinions 

 of those with whom I naturally sympathize have been so greatly 

 misrepresented in the desultory discussion which has followed Mr. 

 Adams's Phi Beta Kappa oration, I am glad of the opportunity to say 

 a few words on the " Greek question." 



This question is by no means a new one. For the last ten years 

 it has been under discussion at most, if not at all, of the great univer- 

 sities of the world ; and, among others, the University of Berlin, which 

 stands in the very front rank, has already conceded to what we may 

 call the new culture all that can reasonably be asked. 



Let me begin by asserting that the responsible advocates of an 

 expansion of the old academic system do not wish in the least degree 

 to diminish the study of the Greek language, the Greek literature, or 

 the Greek art. On the contrary, they wish to encourage such studies 

 by every legitimate means. For myself I believe that the old classical 

 culture is the best culture yet known for the literary professions ; and 

 among the literary professions I include both law and divinity. 

 ,Fifty years ago I should have said that it was the only culture worthy 

 of the recognition of a university. But we live in the present, not in 

 the past, and a half -century has wholly changed the relations of human 



* Remarks made at the dinner of the Harvard Club of Rhode Island, Newport, Au- 

 gust 25, 1883. 



vol. xxrv. 1 



