632 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



not very great. A small portion of natural science was introduced 

 into the secondary schools ; but, as the classical teaching was kept up 

 as before, the pupils were simply subjected to a greater crush of sub- 

 jects ; they could derive very little benefit from science introduced on 

 such terms. The effect on the universities was nil. They were true 

 to Dugald Stewart's celebrated deliverance on their conservatism.* 

 The public, however, were not unmoved ; during a number of years 

 there was a most material reduction in the numbers attending all the 

 Scotch universities, and the anti-classical agitation was reputed to be 

 the cause. 



The reasonings of Combe will still repay perusal. He puts with 

 great felicity and clearness the standing objections to the classical sys- 

 tem ; while he is exceedingly liberal in his concessions, and moderate 

 in his demands. " I do not denounce the ancient languages and clas- 

 sical literature on their own account, or desire to see them cast into 

 utter oblivion. I admit them to be refined studies, and think that 

 there are individuals who, having a natural turn for them, learn them 

 easily and enjoy them much. They ought, therefore, to be cultivated 

 by all such persons. My objection is solely to the practice of render- 

 ing them the main substance of the education bestowed on young men 

 who have no taste or talent for them, and whose pursuits in life will 

 not render them a valuable acquisition." 



Before alluding to the more recent utterances in defense of classi- 

 cal teaching, I wish to lay out as distinctly as I can the various alter- 

 natives that are apparently now before us as respects the higher 

 education that is to say, the education begun in the secondary or 

 grammar schools and completed and stamped in the universities : 



1. The existing system of requiring proficiency in both classical 

 languages. This requirement is imperative everywhere at present. 

 The universities agree in exacting Latin and Greek as the condition 

 of an Arts Degree, and in very little else. The defenders of classics 

 say with some truth that these languages are the principal basis of 

 uniformity in our degrees ; if they were struck out, the public would 

 not know what a degree meant. 



How exclusive was the study of Latin and Greek in the schools in 

 England, until lately, is too well known to need any detailed state- 

 ment. A recent utterance of Mr. Gladstone, however, has felicitously 

 supplied the crowning illustration. At Eton, in his time, the engross- 

 ment with classics was such as to keep out religious instruction ! 



As not many contend that Latin and Greek make an education in 

 themselves, it is proper to call to mind what other things have been 

 found possible to include with them in the scope of the Arts Degree. 



* " The academical establishments of some parts of Europe are not without their use 

 to the historian of the human mind. Immovably moored to the same station by the 

 strength of their cables and the weight of their anchors, they enable him to measure the 

 rapidity of the current by which the rest of the world is borne along." 



