GERMAN TESTIMONY ON CLASSICS QUESTION. 29 



cialist who expects to earn his bread and butter by teaching the 

 classics, may be gained after the student has entered college in half 

 the time commonly devoted to its acquisition in the schools. 



The ideal school course would allow a share of time to mathemat- 

 ics continuously, and this subject may be passed over with a few 

 words, not because it is unimportant, but because, unlike Greek and 

 Latin, it "needs no bush." It may be mentioned that practice in 

 deductive reasoning, for which mathematics is chiefly recommended, 

 is obtained especially from "mental" arithmetic and geometry, while 

 " written " arithmetic and algebra are less important for this purpose. 

 Some time must be devoted to learning those facts of physical and 

 political geography which the educated man is expected to know. 

 Every English-speaking boy should become familiar with the history 

 of the English race, and, if there is time for anything more, this sug- 

 gestion in the pamphlet from which I have been quoting deserves 

 attention : " To make amends for abandoning the study of Latin and 

 Greek authors, an affectionate look into the life of antiquity should be 

 taken. Besides reviewing historically the literature and civilization of 

 the ancients, good translations of the classics should be diligently and 

 spiritedly read and explained, in order that the vanished interest may 

 be recalled, and that the now qualified pupil may be spurred on to take 

 the optional instruction in the Latin and Greek languages in the upper 

 classes, and tread the path to the original sources." 



Those who can spare time for these studies are to be congratu- 

 lated, as are those who have the opportunity to study the history of 

 the line arts, or Egyptology. But as "flowers out of place" are 

 called weeds, so the study of antiquity becomes noxious when it 

 crowds more beneficial studies. An additional instance of such 

 crowding is contained in the following : 



" It is passing strange that, during the long period of their educa- 

 tion, the rising generation should never hear an earthly syllable about 

 the constitution and administration of their nation, about their own 

 civil rights and duties, about matters of finance, etc. Of course, there 

 is no time for this in a school in which the pupils learn exactly how 

 the ' revenue-administration of the Athenians ' was constituted, what 

 salary a Roman judge received, and what share of his father's prop- 

 erty the noble-born Attic youth was entitled to." 



Much the same view was taken by Paul Pfizer : " The wisest peo- 

 ples held the subject of education to be worthy of the most careful 

 attention and the deepest reflection ; but, since education has no longer 

 any reference to the state and to public life, since the duty of the 

 educator has been made merely to be at home in a world which per- 

 ished long ago, and to take no cognizance of his native land, it has 

 covered itself with the dust of the school, and assumed the color of 

 the ridiculous and the pedantic." 



Would not a boy who had completed the course just outlined be 



