20 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



writing the pupils are mostly graduates of higli schools. The 

 principal of that school tells me that the most serious obstacles 

 which these pupils meet in their study of shorthand is their ina- 

 bility to spell correctly. The condition of affairs is well expressed 

 by a parent who, having seen on his son's school report eighty per 

 cent in French and forty per cent in English, wrote on the back 

 of the report for the teacher's inspection, " This seems to indicate 

 that, in addition to any blame to be attributed to the boy, there is 

 something wrong elsewhere." 



Is it well to fit boys for college so that they may pass the en- 

 trance examination with honors in Greek and Latin, and get con- 

 ditions in English ? Would these boys of their own free will, if 

 competent to judge, desire to offer the maximum requirements in 

 Greek and Latin and the minimum in English, modern languages, 

 mathematics, and science ? Have not pedagogues, as a class, ex- 

 posed themselves to the just criticism of being pedantic, dog- 

 matic, and influenced too much by the example and traditions of 

 the past, and possibly also by their own personal tastes and abili- 

 ties ? Are they at present fully in sympathy with the demand of 

 the American civilization of to-day ? 



It is foolish to deny that there is much that is instructive and 

 ennobling in Greek literature, or that the study of the Greek lan- 

 guage is beneficial to such as desire to study it. Greek grammar 

 is the delight of grammarians, whatever it may be to others. 

 Few or no valid objections can be raised against the study of 

 Greek in itself, and all objections to it are made simply against 

 its being an essential for admission to college. The following are 

 some of these : 



1. It is in a majority of cases studied merely in order to pass 

 the entrance examinations, and it is therefore an artificial and for 

 such cases almost useless barrier. Tom Brown of Rugby, who 

 was a typical English boy of the upper middle class, says, " I went 

 to school to get, among other things, enough Latin and Greek 

 to take me through Oxford respectably " ; and Tom's father says 

 of him : " I do not send him to school mainly to make him a good 

 scholar. Neither his mother nor I care a straw for the digamma 

 or the Greek particles. If he will only turn out a brave, truth- 

 telling Englishman and a gentleman, that's all I want." Mr. 

 Taine says, " Remarkable words these, and well summarizing the 

 ordinary sentiments of an English " (and he might have added of 

 an American) " father and child." 



2. There seems to be no necessity for both Greek and Latin 

 where one will answer every purpose, except where extreme ver- 

 bal subtlety is required. As a means of inculcating clear and 

 exact views on the philosophy of language Latin is nearly the 

 equal of Greek, and there seems to be no need of both except in 



