644 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



and " character "-building which is put forward by others for the 

 Grecian curriculum in schools. 



The zeal of the defenders on this point leads them into some 

 perilous admissions. It was argued, for example, by the Presi- 

 dent of St. John's, in a recent debate, that to relax Oxford's 

 requirements is to root out the knowledge of Greek over large 

 areas in this country. Yet, according to him and to other 

 compulsory Grecians, it is the pride of Oxford, of Cambridge 

 too, to have supplied the whole country, up to now, with an 

 educated parish clergy ; and by " educated " they mean Grecian. 

 If this boast be true, where is the difficulty in finding every- 

 where, within a mile or two and for half a century to come, a 

 missionary of Hellenism to put the would-be Grecian in the way 

 he should go ? If, on the other hand, it be not true — if the 

 President of St. John's be right in his gloomy forecast— what 

 has " compulsory Greek " — with " Divvers " thrown in — achieved 

 for Hellenism in England in the last fifty years ? 



What these pessimists ignore, as is their habit, is the keen 

 classical activity of the new and " dehumanised " universities. 

 At Manchester, where there is a considerable class to learn 

 Greek without Latin at all, 1 the students have just performed in 

 Greek the Choephoroi of iEschylus 2 : only one of his plays has 

 been staged at Oxford (and that was thirty years ago) and only 

 one at Cambridge. At Cardiff, where there is another'such class 

 in addition to ordinary " Graeco-Romans," they have acted 

 already as many plays of Aristophanes as have been performed 

 at either of the old universities. At Liverpool the classical 

 students, with old students and their friends, meet regularly 

 of an evening to read Greek plays and dialogues aloud, as 

 students of German meet to read Goethe. Some Oxford 

 colleges have Shakespeare Societies ; but does one of them 

 maintain a Sophocles Club ? In my own experience, indeed, 

 it is not because students in the new universities dislike Greek 

 or have no use for it but simply because they are occupied most 

 of their time in making good the deficiencies in the only kind of 

 school training that they can obtain at present, that they omit 

 the ordinary classical courses and drop away from the extra 

 courses which it is always worth while to provide in Greek for 

 non-Grecians. At Liverpool I was never without students of 



1 Times Literary Supplement, January 2, 191 1. 

 1 Times i March 14, 191 1. 



