CLASSICS AND THE COLLEGE COURSE 557 



as one might seek to-day among the heroes of Central and South 

 America. The history of Grecian public affairs is a continuous tale of 

 treachery and dishonor. Treaties between the states were made only 

 to be broken ; truth was unknown and other nations, however much they 

 might disagree in reference to most subjects, were one in believing that 

 the Greek was always a liar. The petty affairs of Marathon and 

 Thermopylae have been matched a thousand times in every land. A 

 New York policeman attacking a band of armed ruffians, single handed, 

 without the moral support of 300 or 10,000 companions, is a nobler 

 spectacle than that at either of the Greek battlefields — and it occurs 

 every week. The hand-to-hand combat on Cemetery Hill at Gettys- 

 burg, where men fought until barely three scores remained in each 

 regiment and the combat ended only because the survivors fell ex- 

 hausted, was truer martial heroism than anything in Grecian history. 



The modern world unquestionably owes much to Greece and Eome, 

 but much less than many would have us believe. The shackles forged 

 by the Greek and Eoman intellect crippled development after the revival 

 of learning and centuries passed before men succeeded in casting them 

 off. One must concede unhesitatingly the brilliancy of many ancient 

 writers, but that is not to say that they excelled or even equalled those 

 of modern times. Modern thinkers excel those of the classic world, 

 because the horizon is farther away; just as civilized man with many 

 concepts excels the Greenlander or Hottentot with his few concepts. 

 And it may be said in passing that Greek civilization was not self- 

 originated. It was but the full blossoming of Egypt and Babylonia, 

 a blossoming which ignored the trunk and roots whence it was derived. 



But granting that the ancients did excel the moderns in intellectual 

 power and in loftiness of thought, one is compelled to ask the classicist 

 why college students are not permitted to come into contact with the 

 authors themselves. One may assert, without any fear of successful 

 contradiction, that the teaching of Latin and Greek as given in the 

 vast majority of our colleges during the last half century, has not done 

 this; for few men have acquired in college such familiar knowledge of 

 the language as would enable them to think much of what the author 

 said. Their labor was expended on lexicon work and construction. 

 If these extollers of classic intellect are honest in their plea, why do 

 they neglect genuine study of the authors in the college course ? Plato, 

 Seneca, Lucretius and the rest have been done into English in such 

 fashion that the study might be made attractive to the last degree, while 

 the English versions themselves could be used as models of style. But 

 this has not been suggested. The clamor respecting the glory of 

 ancient days is but a plea for restoration of classical courses to the pre- 

 eminent place in college. But it is wholly irrelevant. As well might 

 one urge the grandeur of St. Peter's at Eome to support a demand that 



