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that either the study of the classics ought to be maintained in 

 its full supremacy as at present, or it should be abandoned 

 altogether ; and I believe that the time is not far distant when 

 the latter alternative will be insisted upon, when it will be 

 joyfully accepted even by those who cling tenaciously to the 

 old system from the recollection that the only literature teach- 

 ing which they have received, all the love they may have for 

 poetry and noble thoughts, came to them through the old 

 classics. 



What should we lose by giving up classics '^ It is worth 

 while to look carefully into this question. The teaching of 

 classics as at present pursued has, it is maintained, a high 

 linguistic value ; and in good hands, when they are treated as 

 history and as literature, they become the best instrument that 

 we have for training both the imagination and the character. 



Let us consider the linguistic value first. It is urged that 

 they teach us the rules of syntax as no analytic languages can 

 teach us ; that they show us the true meaning, through deriva- 

 tion, of the vocabulary that we use ; that Latin, at all events, 

 is the best foundation for the study of most modern languages, 

 and that the masterpieces of the ancients are literary models 

 for elegance of expression more perfect than the world has 

 since produced. Now, on these points I confess that, before 

 English grammar was started as a distinct subject, any ideas 

 which men had in syntax came from their classical training ; 

 but I believe also that much of the confusion that now reigns 

 in English grammar arises from the attempt to force into 

 classical moulds, and tabulate under classical headings, the 

 methods of expression current in an analytical language like 

 our own. 



The subtleties of the subjunctive in Latin, and of sub- 

 ordinate moods and negatives in Greek, even the eccentricities 

 of accents (though the Greeks themselves did not use them), 

 are excellent material for teaching mental accuracy ; but I am 

 one of those who feel deeply grateful to our forefathers for 

 abolishing genders from English, for reducing inflexions to a 

 minimum, and for practically getting rid of the subjunctive 

 altogether. It is this sensible simplicity in its syntax and 

 accidence which to my iiiind forms the great strength of the 

 claim of English to become the universal language of the 

 future ; and surely it is unprofitable to spend our time in 

 mastering the refinements of the ancients on these distinctions, 

 when English itself shows how well thought can be expressed 

 without any of them. We should aim at simplicity of thought 

 and ease of expression, and, without being pedants, should try 

 to make grammatical usage and logical accuracy agree in our 

 structure of sentences ; whereas in the study of the classics 

 any inaccuracy in the laws of thought like the Attic attraction 



