IT AND WHERE TO FIND IT 97 



that the education which should embrace these 

 subjects and no others would be a real education, 

 though an incomplete one ; while an education 

 which omits them is really not an education at 

 all, but a more or less useful course of intellectual 

 gymnastics ? 



For what does the middle-class school put in 

 the place of all these things which are left out ? 

 It substitutes what is usually comprised under 

 the compendious title of the " classics " that is 

 to say, the languages, the literature, and the 

 history of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and the 

 geography of so much of the world as was known 

 to these two great nations of antiquity. Now, do 

 not expect me to depreciate the earnest and 

 enlightened pursuit of classical learning. I have 

 not the least desire to speak ill of such occupations, 

 nor any sympathy with those who run them down. 

 On the contrary, if my opportunities had lain in 

 that direction, there is no investigation into which 

 I could have thrown myself with greater delight 

 than that of antiquity. 



What science can present greater attractions 

 than philology ? How can a lover of literary 

 excellence fail to rejoice in the ancient master- 

 pieces ? And with what consistency could I, 

 whose business lies so much in the attempt to de- 

 cipher the past, and to build up intelligible forms 

 out of the scattered fragments of long-extinct 

 beings, fail to take a sympathetic, though an 



