WHAT KNOWLEDGE IS OF MOST WORTH? 275 



antithesis holds. We are guilty of something like a platitude when we 

 say that throughout his after-career a boy, in nine cases out of ten, 

 applies his Latin and Greek to no practical purposes. The remark is 

 trite that in his shop, or his office, in managing his estate or his family, 

 in playing his part as director of a bank or a railway, he is very little 

 aided by this knowledge he took so many years to acquire — so little, 

 that generally the greater part of it drops out of his memory; and if 

 he occasionally vents a Latin quotation, or alludes to some Greek myth, 

 it is less to throw light on the topic in hand than for the sake of 

 effect. If we inquire what is the real motive for giving boys a classical 

 education, we find it to be simply conformity to public opinion. Men 

 dress their children's minds as they do their bodies, in the prevailing 

 fashion. As the Orinoco Indian puts on his paint before leaving his 

 hut, not with a view to any direct benefit, but because he would be 

 ashamed to be seen without it; so, a boy's drilling in Latin and Greek 

 is insisted on, not because of their intrinsic value, but that he may not 

 be disgraced by being found ignorant of them — that he may have 'the 

 education of a gentleman' — the badge marking a certain social position, 

 and bringing a consequent respect. 



This parallel is still more clearly displayed in the case of the other 

 sex. In the treatment of both mind and body, the decorative element 

 has continued to predominate in a greater degree among women than 

 among men. Originally, personal adornment occupied the attention 

 of both sexes equally. In these latter days of civilization, however, 

 we see that in the dress of men the regard for appearance has in a 

 considerable degree yielded to the regard for comfort; while in their 

 education the useful has of late been trenching on the ornamental. In 

 neither direction has this change gone so far with women. The 

 wearing of car-rings, finger-rings, bracelets; the elaborate dressings 

 of the hair; the still occasional use of paint; the immense labor be- 

 stowed in making habiliments sufficiently attractive; and the great 

 discomfort that will be submitted to for the sake of conformity; show 

 how greatly, in the attiring of women, the desire of approbation over- 

 rides the desire for warmth and convenience. And similarly in their 

 education, the immense preponderance of ' accomplishments ' proves how 

 here, too, use is subordinated to display. Dancing, deportment, the 

 piano, singing, drawing — what a large space do these occupy ! If you 

 ask why Italian and German are learnt, you will find that, under all 

 the sham reasons given, the real reason is, that a knowledge of those 

 tongues is thought ladylike. It is not that the books written in them 

 may be utilized, which they scarcely ever are ; but that Italian and Ger- 

 man songs may be sung, and that the extent of attainment may bring 

 whispered admiration. The births, deaths, and marriages of kings, 

 and other like historic trivialities, are committed to memory, not be- 



