OF EDUCATION 31 



especially in the case of the higher establishments. 

 What is termed classical learning arrogates to itself a 

 space that excludes much more important things. It 

 finds means to appropriate, practically, all collegiate 

 honors. This evil has arisen from the circumstance 

 that our system was imported from England. It is a 

 remnant of the tone of thought of that country in the 

 sixteenth century ; meritorious enough and justifi- 

 able enough in that day, but obsolete in this. The 

 vague impression that such pursuits impart a train- 

 ing to the mind has long sustained this inappropriate 

 course. It also finds an excuse in its alleged power 

 of communicating the wisdom of past ages. The 

 grand depositories of human knowledge are not the 

 ancient, but the modern tongues. Few, if any, are 

 the facts worth knowing that are to be exclusively 

 obtained by a knowledge of Latin and Greek ; and 

 as to mental discipline, it might reasonably be in- 

 quired how T much a youth will secure by translating 

 daily a few good sentences of Latin and Greek into 

 bad and broken English. So far as a preparation is 

 required for the subsequent struggles and conflicts of 

 life, an ingenious man would have no difficulty in 

 maintaining the amusing affirmation that more might 

 be gained from a mastery of the game of chess than by 

 translating all the Greek and Latin authors in the 

 world." — Professor J. W. Draper, of the University of 

 New York. 



" Our whole system of instruction requires an hon- 

 est, thorough, and candid revision. It has been for 

 centuries the child of authority and precedent. If 



