EDITOR'S TABLE. 



269 



classics would stop the progress of 

 knowledge, and arrest the advance of 

 civilization. The failure of dead-lan- 

 guage studies is therefore a salutary 

 result in the course of nature a ne- 

 cessity, a blessing, and an occasion of 

 thankfulness, rather than of regret and 

 lamentation. 



QUEER DEFENSES OF THE CLASSICS. 



They played it rather rough on Lord 

 Coleridge the other day in calling him 

 out on the classical question at Yale 

 College. To he sure, it was a great 

 temptation to exploit so illustrious a 

 man in behalf of a declining cause, es- 

 pecially just now when it is understood 

 that they are somewhat sore at that 

 venerable seat of learning at being pil- 

 loried as fetich-worshipers, on account 

 of their devotion to dead languages. It 

 looked a little like a put-up job, as 

 President Porter called up the subject 

 in his pleasant little opening speech, 

 and Lord Coleridge acknowledged that 

 he had been posted that very morning 

 with reference to Mr. Adams's address 

 attacking the curriculum for which 

 Yale is especially distinguished. But 

 it was a little cruel not to have al- 

 lowed his lordship more time, so that 

 he might at least have refrained from 

 giving away his whole case. Lord 

 Coleridge was reported as saying: "I 

 have done many foolish things in my 

 life, and wasted many hours of precious 

 time ; but one thing I have done which 

 I would do over again, and the hours I 

 spent at it are the hours which I have 

 spent most profitably, and the knowl- 

 edge thus gained I have found the most 

 useful, and practically useful. From 

 the time I left Oxford I have made it a 

 religion, so far as I Could, never to let 

 a day pass without reading some Latin 

 and Greek, and I can tell you that, so 

 far as my course may be deemed a suc- 

 cessful one, I deliberately assert, main- 

 tain, and believe, that what little suc- 

 cess has been granted to me in life has 



been materially aided by the constant 

 study of the classics, which it has been 

 my delight and privilege all my life to 

 persevere in. This is not said for the 

 sake of controversy ; still less is it said 

 to an audience of American university 

 young men for the purpose of appear- 

 ing eccentric ; but it is said because I 

 believe it to be true, and I will tell 

 you why. Statement, thought, arrange- 

 ment,however men may struggle against 

 them, have an influence upon them, and 

 public men, however they may dislike 

 it, are forced to admit that, conditions 

 being equal, the man who can state any- 

 thing best, who can pursue an argument 

 more closely, who can give the richest 

 and most felicitous illustrations, and 

 who can command some kind of beauty 

 of diction, will have the advantage over 

 his contemporaries. And if at the bar 

 or in the senate anything has been done 

 which has been conspicuously better 

 than the work of other men, it has, in 

 almost every case, been the result of 

 high education. I say high education, 

 not necessarily classical, because every 

 man can not have it. The greatest 

 orator of my country at this moment, 

 as he himself has often said, has ' only 

 a smack of it.' " 



But for the gravity of the occasion, 

 and the dignity of those who figured in 

 its proceedings, we should say that this 

 was a little funny, and might query 

 whether the noble lord had not been 

 misreported in citing the greatest orator 

 of England in connection with classical 

 education. But there can be no mis- 

 take, for his lordship again remarks, 

 "The man who has influenced his con- 

 temporaries the most is, generally speak- 

 ing, the man of highest education" 

 and he had previously said, " If John 

 Bright comes here, you will know what 

 English speaking is you will know 

 what English oratory is." Since the 

 celebrated case of Balaam, who was 

 sent for to prophesy one way, and, 

 when it came to the pinch, went back 

 on his employers, and prophesied in ex- 



