CLASSICAL STUDIES IN ENGLAND 83 



advocacy of compulsory Greek has come to be 

 identified with a reactionary obscurantist habit 

 of mind. I have heard it said, "so and so is 

 a Liberal in politics: very strange that he 

 should be in favour of retaining Greek in 

 Responsions !" Political terms are strange 

 things in their use and abuse. In England 

 Liberal is a political term, liberal is a moral 

 one: but what of that? It is only to be ex- 

 pected that we should get credit for liberality, 

 when it is only Liberalism after all. 



The defenders of compulsory Greek at Ox- 

 ford (and I suppose I may speak for Cam- 

 bridge too) are not all of them merely 

 hidebound pedants, timid reactionaries, dull 

 obscurantists. They hardly look forward to a 

 period when the British workman will demand 

 a knowledge of Greek with the same enthu- 

 siasm as that with which he now demands beer. 

 But they do hold that our civilization would 

 suffer if Greek ceased to be fairly widespread 

 and became the study of a few savants, like 

 Sanskrit. They see that Greek suffers in 

 schools (in some, perishes altogether) where 

 it is not supported by universities; and they 



