9S A LIBERAL EDUCATION; IV 



unlearned, interest in the labours of a Niebuhr, a 

 Gibbon, or a Grote ? Classical history is a great 

 section of the palaeontology of man ; and I have 

 the same double respect for it as for other kinds 

 of palaeontology that is to say, a respect for the 

 facts which it establishes as for all facts, and a 

 still greater respect for it as a preparation for the 

 discovery of a law of progress. 



But if the classics were taught as they might be 

 taught if boys and girls were instructed in Greek 

 and Latin, not merely as languages, but as illus- 

 trations of philological science ; if a vivid picture 

 of life on the shores of the Mediterranean two 

 thousand years ago were imprinted on the minds 

 of scholars ; if ancient history were tanght, not as 

 a weary series of feuds and fights, but tra,ced to its 

 causes in such men placed under such conditions ; 

 if, lastly, the study of the classical books were 

 followed in such a manner as to impress boys with 

 their beauties, and with the grand simplicity of 

 their statement of the everlasting problems of 

 human life, instead of with their verbal and gram- 

 matical peculiarities ; I still think it as little 

 proper that they should form the basis of a liberal 

 education for our contemporaries, as I should 

 think it fitting to make that sort of palaeontology 

 with which I am familiar the back-bone of 

 modern education. 



It is wonderful how close a parallel to classical 

 training could be made out of that palaeontology 



