438 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



alone. Though the study of nature is fitted to develop great mental 

 qualities — perseverance, honesty, judgment and initiative — we do not 

 suppose that it completes man's mental equipment. Though the 

 knowledge of nature calls upon, excites and gratifies the imagination 

 to a degree and in a way which is peculiar to itself, we do not suppose 

 that it furnishes the opportunity for all forms of mental activity. 

 The great joys of art, the delights and entertainment to be derived 

 from the romance and history of human character, are not parts of it. 

 They must never be neglected. But are we not justified in asserting 

 that, for some two hundred years or more, these ' entertainments ' have 

 been pursued in the name, of the highest education and study to the 

 exclusion of the far weightier and more necessary knowledge of nature ? 

 ' This should ye have done, and yet not left the other undone,' may 

 justly be said to those who have conducted the education of our higher 

 schools and universities along the pleasant lines of literature and his- 

 tory, to the neglect of the urgently-needed ' improvement of natural 

 knowledge.' Nero was probably a musician of taste and training, and 

 it was artistic and high-class music which he played while Eome was 

 burning: so too the studies of the past carried on at Oxford have been 

 charming and full of beauty, whilst England has lain, and lies, in 

 mortal peril for lack of knowledge of nature. 



It seems to be beyond dispute that the study, firstly of Latin, and 

 much more recently of Greek, was followed in this university and in 

 grammar schools, not as educational exercises in the use of language, 

 but as keys to unlock the store-rooms — the books — in which the knowl- 

 edge of the ancients was contained. So long as these keys were 

 needed, it was reasonable enough that every well-educated man should 

 spend such time as was necessary in providing himself with the key. 

 But now that the store-rooms are empty — now that their contents 

 have been appropriated and scattered far and wide — in all languages 

 of civilization, it seems to be merely an unreasoning continuation of 

 superannuated custom to go on with the provision of these keys. Such, 

 however, is the force of habit that it continues: new and ingenious 

 reasons for the practise are put forward, whilst its original object is 

 entirely forgotten. 



In the first place, it has come to be regarded as a mark of good 

 breeding, and thus an end in itself, for a man to have some first-hand 

 acquaintance with Latin and Greek authors, even when he knows no 

 other literature. It is a fashion, like the wearing of a court dress. 

 This can not be held to justify the emploj-ment of most of the time 

 and energy of youth in its acquirement. 



A second reason which is now put forward for the practise is that 

 the effort and labor expended on the provision of these keys — even 

 though it is admitted that they are useless — is a wonderful and incom- 

 parably fine exercise of the mind, fitting it for all sorts of work. A 



