80 A. D. GODLEY 



sober, who still considers that he is something 

 above ordinary mortals because he can turn 

 anything in the world into Greek iambics. 



So classical culture was the fashion; parlia- 

 mentary oratory was tricked out with classical 

 quotations; the House, less candid, or less vir- 

 tuous than ours, must at least pretend to 

 understand its Virgil and Horace. The second 

 Aeneid, I have been told, furnishes the great 

 majority of the Latin parliamentary quota- 

 tions. Mr. Gladstone, in his day the typical, 

 brilliant young politician, fresh from the tri- 

 umphs of the schools, continued the habit of 

 quotation through his life ; and I have heard it 

 said that he was the only speaker who in his 

 later years could venture to quote Greek in the 

 House. We have changed all that now. Per- 

 haps their association with a ruling clique has 

 given the classics an unpleasant flavor of aris- 

 tocracy. Perhaps a knowledge of extinct and 

 mysterious tongues implies sinister designs. 

 Anyhow, for whatever reason, an acquaintance 

 with even Latin and a fortiori Greek is sup- 

 posed to corrupt democratic virtue. It is a 

 fact that Greek literature is singularly out- 



