EDITOR'S TABLE. 



3 6 9 



his own, and so out of all relation to 

 the hard workaday facts of college and 

 university life, that it practically served 

 little other purpose than to confirm a 

 had state of things, and to put a new 

 weapon into the hands of the educa- 

 tional obstructives. Let us see how 

 this result was effected. 



Mr. Mill began by enforcing the 

 largest claims of ancient learning. He 

 outstripped all contemporaries in the 

 extent and rigor of his classical exac- 

 tions. He refused a place to modern 

 languages in the collegiate course, say- 

 ing that these can be best studied in 

 the countries where they are spoken, 

 while three or four of them can be ea- 

 sily picked up after the classical tongues 

 have been secured. With the modern 

 languages modern literature was also 

 ruled out. " The only languages, then, 

 and the only literature," says he, "to 

 which I would allow a place in the or- 

 dinary curriculum are those of the 

 Greeks and Romans, and to these I 

 would preserve the position in it which 

 they at present occupy." The reasons 

 which he offered for studying Greek 

 and Latin were far from being the stock- 

 reasons that we are accustomed to 

 hear. These languages are to be ac- 

 quired for the purpose of mastering 

 their literary contents. Not for any 

 such slight considerations as the bear- 

 ings of the classical languages upon 

 English, or to be able to understand 

 current quotations, or for the mere 

 discipline of lingual study, are they to 

 be acquired, but that the student may 

 enter into the spirit and breathe the 

 atmosphere of ancient life. He is to 

 be at home in Greek and Roman thought 

 as he is in that of his native speech. 

 " We must be able in a certain degree 

 to think in Greek if we would repre- 

 sent to ourselves how a Greek thought ; 

 and this not only in the abstruse region 

 of metaphysics, but about the political, 

 religious, and even domestic concerns 

 of life." Translations are not to be ac- 

 cepted. Though the profoundest schol- 

 vol. iv. — 24 



ar, after life-long preparation, renders 

 an ancient author into English, the 

 student of the " ordinary curriculum " 

 must be able to translate it better for 

 himself. He must not trust to other 

 person's impressions, but must have 

 every thing at first hand, and go di- 

 rectly to the fountain-head. Greek 

 and Latin must be studied, that the stu- 

 dent may get at the original materials 

 of history, so as to check and correct 

 the historians. The modern classics, 

 English, German, and French, are in- 

 sufficient as models; those of Greece 

 and Rome are more perfect, and there- 

 fore the student must use them to form 

 his style and perfect his literary taste. 

 Mr. Mill then went on to argue the 

 claims of the sciences, but his work was 

 superfluous. Methuselah might have 

 listened to him with interest, but prac- 

 tical men knew that the demands he 

 had already made were far beyond the 

 possibilities of realization by general 

 students in the usual period of study. 

 Already he had laid out a scheme of 

 professional scholarship not attainable 

 in its completeness by one in a hun- 

 dred of those who give their lives to it. 

 Mr. Mill's words, to be sure, were hot 

 with scorn when he referred to the 

 " shameful inefficiency," and " wretch- 

 ed methods," and " laborious idleness," 

 of current classical teaching — the con- 

 stant fruits of the system for centuries, 

 as testified to by similar denunciations 

 of the most eminent men. But he did 

 not say, "Improve these methods or 

 get them out of the way." On the con- 

 trary, he indorsed unqualifiedly Greek 

 and Latin studies in "the position which 

 they at present occupy ; " and, to carry 

 out his views, nothing remained but to 

 give them a greatly-increased attention. 

 The practical effect of his argument 

 was, to lend renewed and powerful 

 support to the classical system as it 

 now exists, and this was the general 

 interpretation given to the address. 

 It was universally hailed as a triumph 

 of the classical party, and thrown in 



