I20 CLASSICS IN MODERN EDUCATION. 



if he does not, now and then, weigh sadly the heavy price at 

 which he has purchased a scholar's pleasures — the vast fields of 

 modern Literature in all civilised languages with which he can- 

 not, even at best, hope to gain more than a superficial acquain- 

 tance ; the long stretches of History which must remain for him 

 blank spaces, or a confused medley of hazy happenings shot 

 through, here and there, with more vivid episodes ; the rich 

 wonders of modern Science which he must leave unexplored. 

 Surely, the price which we are paying for a knowledge of Latin 

 and Greek is great indeed. Is the sacrifice worth the results 

 achieved ? 



§ 8. This brings me back to the original question. \Miat is 

 the educational value of the Classics? To answer this question 

 we must make a distinction of supreme importance. We must 

 distinguish betw'een the ancient languages and the ideas of which 

 the languages are but the vehicle. Our classical education at the 

 present day fails because it neglects the distinction. \\'ill any 

 school-master, will any College Professor even, dare to deny that 

 the bulk of our Classical teaching in South Africa is linguistic? 

 We praise the Classics for the world of ideas which they open 

 to us, but we occupy our pupils with grammars and dictionaries. 

 We recommend the Classics for their philosophy and their art, 

 ■\\e call them the fountains of our civilisation and culture, but in 

 teaching them we omit the ideas which live perenially, and feed 

 our pupils only on the dry bones of dead languages. The prac- 

 tice might be defensible if we wished to train a nation of 

 " scholars," but who even pretends that this is our aim? Except 

 the few students who continue the study long enough to pass 

 beyond the linguistic stage, all others are condemned by our 

 system to remain in the antechamber. They never enter the 

 inner temple at all. 



Hence my main theses, briefly, are : — 



1. That the real educational value of the Classics lies in 

 the thorough knowledge and enjoyment of ancient philos- 

 ophy, history, literature and art. 



2. That the linguistic studies have little value except 

 as a preliminary to this appreciation of the masterpieces of 

 the ancient mind. 



3. That all who never get beyond the linguistic stage, 

 or whose classical education remains mainly within the 

 linguistic stage, miss all that makes a classical education 

 worth having. 



§ 9. If these principles are accepted, the practical proposals 

 required to give effect to them are : Let us throw overboard the 

 study of the ancient languages, or at least of Greek, and read 

 instead in the best translations obtainable as many of the master- 

 pieces of Greek and Roman Literature as we can, interpreted 

 by the best hand-books and commentaries which scholars can put 

 at our disposal. If we can give our students a background of 

 ancient History, Philosophy and Art, we need not deplore the 



