CLASSICS IN SCHOOLS. 273 



There was a time when the University was a place solely devoted 

 to the humanities, and it was only right and fair that entrance 

 to it could be gained solely by a competent knowledge of Latin 

 and Greek, which then was not only the key to all human know- 

 ledge, but also the sole medium of intercourse between the learned 

 of all countries. But that time is gone by for ever. The study of 

 modern languages and their literature, beginning with the mother 

 tongue, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the study of 

 nature in all its endless diversity, both from the theoretical and 

 the practical side, have claimed and won for themselves a position 

 in University education equal to that so long held by the Humani- 

 ties. When we recognise this fact, it behoves us to bring our old 

 methods into harmony with the new conditions. 



Let us then admit frankly that the modern Lhiiversity. besides 

 being the seat of the highest literary culture, broadbased on the 

 civilisation of the ancients, has also become the place for every 

 form of higher education, technical, industrial, commercial and 

 agricultural, and that it is no longer possible to put across the 

 entrance to it the barrier of an examination which does not dis- 

 criminate between the different aims for which admission to the 

 University is sought. 



These are the considerations which have led me to submit my 

 first proposition : that Latin be removed from the list of com- 

 pulsory subjects in the Matriculation examination for all candidates 

 who want to obtain a degree, diploma or certificate in Science, 

 Medicine, Land Surveying, Mining, Engineering, Commerce or 

 Agriculture. In other words, that we should not go on, as we 

 are doing at i)resent, admitting, as it were on the sly, by a side 

 gate, candidates for a few subjects, but throw open the gate of the 

 University, without the barrier of Latin and Greek, to all whose 

 future studies in the University will be concerned mainly with 

 Natural Science and Mathematics. 1^ 



In submitting this proposition I wish, however, to emphasise 

 the fact that by granting such relief to the students of Science 

 the only thing we take from them is a mere smattering of Latin, 

 destined to be forgotten more quickly than it has been acquired. 

 I still cherish the conviction which I have always held that there 

 exists no sounder and firmer basis for a general linguistic education 

 than the study of the Latin and Greek languages, nor a better 

 means for developing a love for art and literature than the study 

 of the art and literature of Greece and Rome. But I maintain 

 that there is no connection between such studies and the mere 

 smattering of Latin which is all that our secondary schools under 

 existing circumstances have been providing. 



And this brings us to the second and, to my mind, more imj^ortant 

 part of our subject : the necessary reform and the raising of the 

 study of Classics in our secondary schools and. as a direct conse- 

 quence, in our University of the future for all who aspire to literary 

 culture or would devote themselves to the study of language, 

 history or philosophy, which objects cannot be attained without a 

 first-hand acquaintance with the language, the literature, history 

 and philosophy of the ancients. 



