XXXVIII EOYAL SOCIETY OP CANADA. 



state and the church. To these universal means of culture the school is now, by common consent, 

 superadded. If nothing else is taught in it save the abilitj^ to read, a key is thereby put into the 

 hand of the capable scholar by which he can open innumerable doors. The masterj)ieces of his own 

 literature are, at any rate, open to him, and by the study of these he can obtain that comprehension 

 of life which is the essence of education. Secondary schools and universities aim at a culture for the 

 few who can avail thomselves of it, that puts within their reach not only the best thought of their own 

 nation but of the world. There they learn to " read in various languages, in various sciences." The 

 study of Latin and Greek was once thought the only means for attaining this liberal culture, and I 

 am one of those who consider it to be, on the whole, the best means still. When, however, the study 

 of the ancient classics degenerated into mechanical verse-making or the minute analysis of words, it 

 ceased to be humanistic. No wonder that a reaction took place. All through this century the cry 

 has been heard : " Back to nature ; nature at any rate is better than dead languages. Study science. 

 Science is the knowledge of real things and not of mere vocables." It is now acknowledged, however, 

 that this second extreme is as bad as the first. The study of the natural sciences has not yielded what 

 was once fondly expected. It is again felt true that education must consist in the study of man and 

 of society, and that, of course, can be found only in literature. Must all who would be scholars 

 fall back, then, on Latin and Grreek ? By no means. Modern life is too complex to be satisfied with 

 only one form of the humanities. In every country that possesses a great literature the question is 

 being asked, Is it not possible to so organize the study of that literature that vast numbers who can 

 not spare the time necessarj^ to master the ancient classics may receive some share in the common 

 inheritance of intellectual life that has been accumulated by the race to which they belong, and so be 

 enabled to live a fuller life than they otherwise would ? Is it not possible to make the study of Eng- 

 lish litei-ature interesting and practically related to life, even in common and in high schools; and in 

 the universities to make it one of the means by which a type of thorough liberal culture can be 

 secured? With regard to this question Mr. Freeman declares that English literature cannot be 

 taught, " because it does not deal with facts, but is a matter of taste and opinion, for which there is 

 no agreement; again, because it cannot be crammed, and, lastly, because it cannot be examined ujjon. 

 He therefoi'e calls on us to give up all efforts to teach literature." (' Contemporary Eeview,' October, 

 1889.) Mr. Freeman always speaks so dogmatically that be silences or frightens timid people. It 

 must also be confessed that English literature has generally been taught in such a way that scholars 

 have not been allured to its furthei- study. They have sometimes been rather made to hate it, and 

 their departure from school or college has been to them the signal for selling oft" their books, and 

 thereafter confining themselves to newspapers. Now, I do not undervalue the education given by the 

 pi-ess. If we could only succeed in establishing the ideal newspaper, it might be very considerable. 

 But, after all, newsj)apers must deal to a gi-eat extent with the local, the temj)orary, the accidental, 

 the sensational, the partial and incomplete; and the man who trusts his education to them will, of 

 necessity, be a scrappy creature intellectually. In spite, however, of Mr. Freeman's magisterial utter- 

 ances and of admitted failure in the past, I am inclined to think that the study of English literature 

 can be organized, and that it might be made to take a place second to that which the ancient classics 

 long held as an effective means of discipline and culture. We must admit that only an occasional student 

 now acquires "such a mastery of the classical languages as to make them a more effective means 

 than his native speech and his native literature for teaching him all the varied powers of language, 

 the significance of style, the secret force of rhythm, the psychological relations between thought and 

 expression, the development of literature as representing the character and intellectual life of a 

 nation ; all this culture, in which lies the key to the higher phenomena of history and life, the student 

 will, in many cases, now acquire more naturally and more thoroughly from the study of English than 

 from the study of foreign authors." It is true, adds Prof. Cappon, from whom I have just quoted, 

 that there is considerable difficulty in organizing all this knowledge in an English course, consider- 

 able difficulty in finding practical methods of teaching it, and, lastly, considerable difficulty in exam- 



