Popular Education, and Other Matters. 231 



able to show that the order of ideas in these four stages 

 gives a progressive training, and completes the circle of 

 mental requirements in this respect. But I am tired, and 



so good-bye. 



NEW YORK, March 23, 1867. 



MY DEAR SPENCER : I send you the Atlantic to-day. 

 Holmes has reached the philosophy of hysterics in No. 4 

 of the Guardian Angel, and will treat the psychological 

 sequelae of its paroxysms in the next number. Fiske deals 

 with University Reform in a very quiet but able article 

 as liberal as could be expected from a devotee of philol- 

 ogy. His argument does not touch the case as it stands 

 in my mind, but its suggestions require careful pondering. 

 Fiske is strong, but a little pedantic on the lingual side.* 

 I see that Mill makes an unqualified indorsement of Greek 

 and Latin. I shall pay him my respects and include Fiske. 

 By-the-by, Mill is the champion of the classics here now. 

 He is thrown in everybody's face who questions tradition. 

 There are many excellent things in his address, but what 

 he says about the classics won't hold water. 



As for what lies before me this summer, Omniscience 

 alone knows it ! I should be glad to come over, but fear 

 it will be impossible. 



* He means that I am too fond of Greek and Latin, and attach too 

 high a value to the study of those languages and to philological training 

 generally. On this point I have never been able to agree entirely with 

 Spencer and Youmans, owing perhaps to peculiarities of early training 

 and the bias resulting therefrom. From childhood I was steeped in Greek 

 and Latin, and read ancient authors with a zest which time has done noth- 

 ing to lessen. Naturally, therefore, as to the educational value of the 

 classics, I was inclined to agree with Mill in his Inaugural Address at the 

 University of St. Andrews, to which Youmans here refers ; and with such 

 views as those of the late Prof. W. F. Allen, of the University of Wis- 

 consin, in his Essays and Monographs, Boston, 1890, pp. 155-164. The 

 article of mine referred to was Considerations on University Reform, in 

 Atlantic Monthly, April, 1867, reprinted in Darwinism and Other Essays, 

 revised edition, Boston, 1885. 



