New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-02-10
TIE FREE ACADEMY EXAMINA TIONS.


That in publishing the written exercises of the four
best Seniors have done injustice to the kind of
classical education obtainable at the Free Academy,
was abundantly proven at the oral examination in
Latin and Greek Of the Sophomore class last week.
The students, by one, read, translated, and
questioned upon passages in Book Of XenOphOns
Anabass and i'll Cicero's Orations against Catalina.
Out of ten five Of whom were styled "medum boys"
while the other five were we have every reason to
think among the loremost), who called up during
visit, not read sentence of the original o. if
sensible Of its meaning, pronounced the words ac
cording to any system, right or wrong False qaanti-
ties not uncommon, and gross ignorance OF the
simplest properties of letters constantly displayed.
The termination cG was pronounced he by both stu.
dent and professor.
In TRANSLATION the class displayed equally thorough
and accurate scholarship. Not only no attention
paid to the force of particles and the significance of
moods and lenses, nice shades Of meaning, the dis
tnction between irony and earnest but blunders which
a classical student of months standing could have
cured were made word meaning "H1S' was
dercd "Me frst;" word meaning "dN persons
was rendered " all MingS;- a word meaning " camp
JoHo,rcrs" was rendered "boggoge' by the pupil,
camp" by the teacher; phrase meaning " since
"Hc time Of the elder Cyrus, was rendered "aroaad
Cyrus" by the pupil about Cyrus" by the Professor.
What half-educated persons call literal ransations
were the best made. Here are specimens:
IN mcnte eaqtgm"mo Original.
" Taken in ,aiHd."-Transaion.
aquarium genus est rayiDT ct irt" ett"'"eHtr@"-osi
The fourth geuus various and mix and
aton.
Some students appeared to have learned passages
by rote and occasionally skipped ne or tw" = mis-
81. Ip,I. i,.,, do ibor
than their more clever or more c, us flows, who
ratified off slowly dragged forth sentences, not of
sp-shod English, but of no English at all, in which
every foreign diom that easy Of access was
fully preserved and every word angcized in such wise
as in the above specimens. To have thrown the book
aside and have written from memory in ineligible
English the passage construed a moment before
would have been impossible for at least nine students
ont of the ten.
The questions put not deep scientific, evinced
and were calculated to mpart knowledge OF the Ian
guage, and were, in most instances answered by the
Professor.
Scarcely any of the gross plumbers TO which we have
sdvered were corrected, or apparently noticed, by the
teacher. who indeed committed several himself, that
should have disgraccd his youngest pupils.
From high authority which the Professor of the An
cient Languages will hardly gainsay, we understand
that the Free Academy does not aim at going over
much ground in the classics but means to do what it
doc, do thoroughly. Heaven save the mark
person calling himself professor but declining to
state OF what who asserted that he cared for mans
praise, and feared no mans blame Ibis own exam
nations being concludcd-remarked to our reporter
that TIE TRIBUNE was unfair in Judging or leaving
others TO Judge the Free Academy by It's Greek
recitaticns. "You wouldn't call mans whole const
tuition diseased because he had finger, added
the great unknown. "or,' he continued, on being re-
minded that Greek was and was made an important
study, because he had sore eye.
our reporter had already examined the Free Acad-
envy from other points Of view. The punctuation,
spelling and construction of English sentences, even
in translation from the Greek, had seemed 10 him
some test oi the writer's proficiency in other things
beside the dead languages. visit TO the English De-
partment had shed additional light on the subject
The Junior Class was examined whole day IN the
History OF the English Language. Somewhat over
four hours were allowed to prepare written exercises
\ portion of this time was, however devoted 10 M
oral examination, which conducted in another
room, whittier the Glass repaired by sections. The
character Of this oral examination was, HTGts mR'aa-
as very much like that OF the oral examination in
''eeio and Aenophon. The students had with few
exceptions learned such portions of their text book
'ney naa oeen over, by rote, and we're constantly
making sueh ranspositions in the words a. played the
deuce with the meaning. Celts were called Celtics;
and one boy sure that of the Danish sovereigns
| of England was named Charles. con no " said the
Professor, that isl putting the Coroy,n,or perol
e somewhat far back. There was no life, no auima.
ton in the recitation; the boys looked upnteresed
and evidently little in the habit of drawing upop
The Professor talked for them 1t was infusion. no,
education; pouring in not drawing out.
The tex. book was tumble of odds and ends, bits
Of history scraps Of quotation, connected together by
sentences Of the most sesquipedalian English. The
language Of tho teacher harmonized With that of the
book. His expressions were often ungrammsticsi and
bis metaphors almost invariably broken or mixed He
said. at amt" After Listening to Sited sente,ces