EDITOR'S TABLE. 



675 



scientific studies are introduced, as their 

 results are not measurable by these old 

 standards, it is inferred that they are 

 not measurable at all, and are therefore 

 unfitted to form the staple of systematic 

 education. 



But, although much is made of this 

 difiiculty, it is not serious. Science will 

 create its own standards when it has 

 had time and experience, and meantime 

 its demands are for opportunity — room 

 — facilities. An edifice can not be con- 

 structed until space is first granted for 

 it to occupy ; scientific education can 

 not be organized until time and mate- 

 rials are yielded for the purpose. Old 

 studies must be put out of the way, 

 that new studies may take their place 

 and the new education have a free 

 course. 



From this point of view we note 

 and record with interest all indications 

 that the old subjects which are now 

 holding their place by the right of pre- 

 scription and any pretexts that are 

 available are yet compelled, by the ten- 

 dencies of the times, to abandon their 

 claims and surrender their ground. 

 The advocates of the dead languages 

 fight desperately to maintain their an- 

 cient precedence, but they are losing 

 the battle. Even in England, where 

 the whole fi-amework of society is 

 braced and bound by endowments which 

 conserve the old and resist the new, 

 and where the universities and public 

 schools, rich and independent, combine 

 against all modern encroachments, 

 there are increasing indications that 

 the old classical claims are i-egarded by 

 their partisans as now untenable and 

 must be given up. It is virtually if 

 not avowedly conceded in high quar- 

 ters that one or other of the dead lan- 

 guages must go, and in fact the clas- 

 sicists are already themselves at logger- 

 heads as to which it shall be. 



A step in the liberal direction was 

 taken a few year ago, when the gram- 

 mar-schools were remodeled by the 

 Public Schools Commission by ceasing 

 to make Greek an ordinary subject of 



instruction, and allowing the substitu- 

 tion for it of French or German. But 

 now a still more significant step has 

 been taken by several bead-masters and 

 other gentlemen interested in educa- 

 tion, who have united to petition the 

 authorities of Cambridge so to revise 

 the scheme of university studies that 

 Greek may be omitted if the student 

 does not choose to learn it. At present 

 it is a compulsory study, so that, though 

 men entering the university "maybe 

 the equals of Airy and Adams in piire 

 mathematics, of Tyndall and Huxley in 

 natural science, of a Whewell and a 

 Hamilton in moral science, they must 

 be able to read a play of Euripidis 

 and the Greek Testament, or Cambridge 

 will not have them among its gradu- 

 ates." 



The appearance of this memorial, 

 signed by various weighty names, as 

 might have been expected, has raised a 

 controversial storm which has been 

 chiefly vented through the columns 

 of the London " Times." Mr. Oscar 

 Browning led off with a letter full of 

 sad forebodings, remarking, "To those 

 who believe that national intelligence 

 is the final cause of national greatness 

 and prosperity, the proposal to surren- 

 der Greek will sound like the knell of 

 disaster." The quiet way in which 

 such a smattering of Greek as the stu- 

 dents get at the universities is here 

 taken as the equivalent of that nation- 

 al intelligence which leads to national 

 greatness, shows us at all events that 

 Mr. Browning believes in his Greek. 

 He is, however, aware that there is 

 another kind of knowledge with strong 

 claims to attention, and thus refers to 

 it : " There are many who look forward 

 with satisfaction to the decay of clas- 

 sical education. In tlieir eyes modern 

 science, modern literature, modern in- 

 terests, are fitted to give a wider and 

 better education than was ever given 

 by the contemplation of antiquity. 

 The new learning which clamors on all 

 sides for recognition, calls out their 

 enthusiasm and zeal; the old learning 



