OXFORD AND GREEK 641 



suffering enormously from the dead weight of unwilling men who 

 were dragged into it " ; and also by the Professor of Classical 

 Archaeology, who is clear 1 that "Greek influence must be main- 

 tained rather by appreciation of its intrinsic nobility than by 

 compulsion." The man in the street takes the same hopeful 

 view. " It would be unwise to display a rigid adherence to the 

 principle of compulsion in education, which is the worst enemy 

 of successful teaching." 2 " There would be more Hellenists and 

 better Hellenism if Greek were voluntary." 3 I hope to show, 

 later on, that it is just where there is no compulsion that there 

 is, at the moment, the clearest indication of a revival of Greek 

 studies. 



The Case for the Defence 



In defence of" Greek," it is commonly urged that the Greek- 

 teaching schools turn out the best boys ; and that this is due to 

 the fact that they teach Greek. The first point cannot be tested 

 unless and until the boys from Greekless schools have equal 

 access to university courses and through them to the professions 

 and other careers which are assumed (again without proof) to 

 be frequented only or mainly by " the best boys." Greekless 

 persons not unnaturally object that their inferiority is unproven 

 as regards either intellectual ability or that other asset of 

 " character " in the formation of which the Grecians claim that 

 "Greek" plays so essential a part. They appeal to the large 

 preponderance of Greekless men among the responsible leaders 

 of trade and the industries and to the proverbial lack of economy 

 and alertness in great Government departments, which have 

 hitherto been rather close preserves for " Grecians." They con- 

 tend further — and their contention has been ably re-stated by 

 a recent correspondent of the Times 4, — that it is not the " Greek" 

 but the wealth of the Greek-teaching schools which attracts to 

 them the "best boys"; that the "best boys" might be better 

 still, if the " fashion" at these schools served them at all as well 

 in matters of intellect as in morals and tailoring. They do not 

 see why schools conducted (in a memorable phrase) " by gentle- 

 men for gentlemen" should ascribe their characteristics to 



1 Morning Post, June 28, 191 1. 



1 Times, November 30, 191 1. 



8 Globe, November 29, 191 1. 



4 Times, January 2, 191 1 ; reprinted in Classics and the Average Boy. 



