194 



It remains for us to consider the subjects and the method of 

 instruction. 



I. In discussing the subjects to be taught, the first and most important 

 topic that meets us is the place to be accorded to languages, and especially to 

 the languages of ancient Greece and Rome. No one who has a desire to 

 promote the highest culture in himself or others, will seek to exclude these 

 languages from a full system of education. Besides the arguments which are 

 usually adduced in their favour, there are two which appear to be of pre- 

 eminent authority. One of these is, that the civilization of these two countries 

 is the only one which we can definitely trace from its early dawn, throughout 

 a splendid though varied career, right onward to its final disappearance amid 

 the clouds of luxury, depravity, and barbarian invasion. The history of no 

 other nations presents us with an account so full in all its details, so complete 

 as a whole, of the growth and decay of the principles of art, philosojmy, law, 

 and political action, diffused throughout whole generations of a social system, 

 and expiring with it : and the world, it is to be hoped, will never see the like 

 again. The other main argument in favour of the classic tongues is found in 

 the important use which is made of them, as forming together a sort of common 

 language for scientific men, and affording the basis of one common scientific 

 nomenclature. From the countless names of the ever-increasing lists of botany, 

 upwards, to the words which describe the newest and most important dis- 

 coveries, such as the electric telegraph, palaeontology, seismology and the 

 wonders of the solar spectrum, we are indebted to Greek and Latin for terms 

 which are universally intelligible among scientific men of different countries, 

 and which interfere with the genius and tendencies of no living language. 



The admission of the classic languages, then, into every system of 

 education, which aims at either completeness or high cidture, may be regarded 

 as placed beyond all question. But the grounds on which they are admitted, 

 and the kind of study of which they will form the objects, may be said to have 

 undergone a complete revolution. Languages may be acquired and mastered, 

 either on account of their usefulness as instruments of thought, and of the 

 literary and philosophic treasures which are found in them, or as objects of 

 interest in themselves, means of disciplining the mind, and permanent, 

 crystallized records (I know not how otherwise I can express the idea) of a 

 certain cast of national life and thought. For the sake of this second class of 

 objects, it may be most desirable and necessary that the nrinutise of a language 

 be completely mastered, and the power of composing both prose and verse in 

 it be fully acquired. But Gx"eek and Latin have no longer the exclusive 

 claims to be so studied, which they once possessed. 



The science of language in general, and of universal grammar, as illus- 

 trated in the works of Bopp and Max Miiller, at once supplants them, and 

 includes them as a part of a more comprehensive scheme ; while the Sanscrit 

 of India, and the Anglo-Saxon from which our own language is derived, have 

 as certain, though not as great, a claim upon our attention. 



What knowledge may be required of the minutiae of idiomatic Greek and 

 Latin, ought therefore to be relegated to the preparatory schools ; while the 

 University ought in its several colleges to assume this knowledge as acquired, 

 and instead of professorships for instruction in Latin phrases, Greek dialects, 

 and metrical niceties, should establish professorships of the combined study of 

 the history and languages of ancient Greece and Rome. The works of Grote, 

 Stuart Mill, and Rawlinson, indicate sufficiently what the course of study 

 might be in this department. 



This short explanation may perhaps have paved the way for the account 

 of such a course of study as ought to be pursued. 



But here two principles require to be steadily kept in view, and used to 



