NOTES 143 



the objects that the manifesto says ought to be the objects of 

 education. However, let us take it that the object of education 

 is not solely to develop the faculty of thinking to the highest 

 possible degree, an accomplishment that some of us, in spite of 

 a classical education pushed to the highest possible degree, 

 appear somehow to have missed, but is also to enable us to 

 understand our civilisation ; and let us further agree with the 

 manifesto that in order to do this we must study the history of 

 Greece and Rome, because our whole civilisation is rooted 

 in the history of these peoples, and without knowledge of them 

 cannot be properly understood. Let us allow all this ; but 

 then for the same reason it is equally necessary that we should 

 study the history of the Village Community, of the Tribal 

 Assembly, of the Manor, of the Roman Catholic Church, and 

 of the Feudal System ; for in them also our civilisation is 

 rooted, and rooted more directly and intimately, and without 

 knowledge of them cannot be properly understood. Yet the 

 manifesto does not advocate these studies . It is clear, therefore, 

 that the signatories never read the manifesto, for a very moder- 

 ate development of the faculty of thinking clearly, a develop- 

 ment far less in degree than any of these able champions of 

 classical education possesses, would have detected such a 

 notable confusion of thought. 



Lastly, if they did read it, we are forced to adopt a con- 

 clusion from which the minds revolts. " In the literature of 

 Greece," says the manifesto, " we find models of thought and 

 expression." We do indeed. We find models of thought and 

 expression so excruciatingly bad that though their meaning 

 has been debated for more than two thousand years, it is still 

 wrapt in the densest obscurity. Of what can be understood, 

 we find a few masterpieces, comparable with the many master- 

 pieces of modern times, but by no means surpassing them, or 

 even equal to them. By universal consent, Homer is placed 

 in the very first rank of Greek poets, and is usually regarded 

 as the supreme Greek poet ; yet Dryden, who was himself not 

 only a great poet, but also a great critic, who certainly had no 

 bias in favour of natural science, and in fact had no more 

 interest in it or knowledge of it than some of the signatories 

 of the manifesto in the Times — Dryden declared that it would 

 need the addition of all Dante's greatness to raise Homer to 

 the level of Milton. Apart from what is unintelligible, and 



