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people who studied natural scienre while I was studying classical languages, 

 ancient history, and philosophy. I believe that the influence in the other 

 direction is still more important. At the present time there is a great 

 denunciation of the prevalence of classical studies and a demand for educa- 

 tion in natural science. But I remember a candidate for a scholarship in 

 natural science who presented himself for examination while I was a Fellow 

 of Queen's College, who had apparently not read a line of poetry, who knew 

 absolutely no history :.,t all. had never read a novel, nor even a magazine that 

 was not" scientific; he assured us with conscious pride that since he was 

 thirteen he had read no printed matter except such as concerned _ natural 

 science. An effort to engage him in conversation showed that his mind was 

 very much what might be expected. He came from a day school, and had 

 had" very little intercourse with people engaged in the study of other pursuits. 

 That is an extreme instance. But it is worth while just now to insist tliat 

 specialisation in mathematics or natural science, if divorced entirely from the 

 more humane studies, or from intercourse with those who are pursuing such 

 studies, may be educationally disastrous in the last degree. Of course it is 

 sometimes suggested, as I remarked earlier, that the study of natural science 

 produces a scientific type of mind. But this is one form of the confusion to 

 which I alluded at the outset, which results from our speaking of natural 

 science by the general name of ' science.' The study of languages and history 

 can be, and ought to be, just as scientific as the study of physics. 



We may state the question perhaps in this way. In order that a man may 

 live his life and discharge his responsibilities as a citizen he needs knowledge. 

 What is the most important sort of knowledge to have ? None can be put on a 

 level with the knowledge of human nature. Whatever a man is going to do 

 he will have to deal with his fellow-men and find his own place among them. 

 This knowledge cannot be adequately obtained from books alone, and, as T 

 have said already, training through membership in a social life is the best 

 means to it. But it may be also fostered in a very high degree by what are 

 called the humane studies : the study of the best that men have thought in 

 philosophy, the study of their highest aspirations and deepest vi'oes in litera- 

 ture, the study of their attempts and their achievements in history. This is tlu' 

 most serviceable of all scientific studies that a man can undertake. But it is 

 no doubt true that we have allowed two evil things to happen. In the first 

 place we have not sufliciently recognised the value of natural science in 

 education, and, still more disastrous, we have tended to identify the .study of 

 the humanities with the study of the classical languages. 



The upholders of the classics, taken as a group, have no one but themselves 

 to blame if the studies in which they believe are an object of very general 

 attack, for they have been defiant in manner and retrograde in practice. And 

 yet the attack upon the classics is unintelligent. It is very noticeable that 

 the most elaborate study which has ever been compiled of the British Empire, 

 and of the problems which it must face in the near future, should find it 

 necessary to begin its survey with an account of the civilisation of ancient 

 Greece and Rome. I am referring, of course, to ' The Commonwealth of 

 Nations,' by Mr. Lionel Curtis. European history and civilisation are indeed 

 only intelligible in the whole sense of the word by means of some knowledge 

 of those two ancient nations. And there is this great advantage in the etudy 

 of Greece and Rome, that we can trace there the complete rise and fall of a 

 particular system of civilisation. The modern system is not complete, perhaps 

 it never will be. For that very reason it is impossible to see the events in a 

 perspective determined by an apprehension of the whole. But the history 

 of ancient Greece is a complete thing, so is the history of ancient Rome, and 

 it is possible to study their thought and achievements with a perspective and 

 proportion due to the fact that the whole is known to us. I am not saying 

 that this is always done, for much time is too often spent on studying events 

 which led to no appreciable result at all; but at least the thing is possible. 

 The studv of ancient Greece has this further advantage, that the ancient Greeks 

 asked all the elementary questions of philosophy in the simplest form. All 

 subsequent Euixjpean thought is to some extent sophisticated, precisely because 

 it takes up its problems where the Greek philosophers left them. It is 



