268 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



differently from now. The man who thoroughly 

 knows Alterthumswissenschaft, or the science of 

 Greek and Roman antiquity, differs from the man 

 who does not, in much the same way that the man 

 who has travelled all over the world with his eyes 

 open differs from the man whose knowledge of 

 the world is limited to what is going on in his 

 own village. But how a knowledge of ancient 

 civilization is to be got by vain attempts to imi- 

 tate the diction of Ovid or Theokritos it would be 

 difficult to say. The proposal to study the life of 

 modern Germany, to get an accurate idea of its 

 political and social condition, its literature, its do- 

 mestic habits, its contributions to human improve- 

 ment, and the predominant sentiments which ac- 

 tuate its people, by writing quatrains in imitation 

 of the hymns in " Faust,'' would be saluted with 

 peals of inextinguishable laughter. Yet it would 

 be about as sensible as the method of studying 

 antiquity adopted by the verse-makers. 



The subject of verse-making, as we have said, 

 does not concern us so intimately as our brethren 

 across the water, England being alone among civ- 

 ilized nations in the importance which she at- 

 taches to this pursuit. But though our schools 

 and colleges do not require the writing of verses, 

 they often waste a great deal of time and energy 



