Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-07-06
MODERN EDUCATION.
Charles Francis Adams. Jr., on tho
study oil Greek and Latin.

From hs Phi Beta Kappa address a Harvard.l
Speakln. in all moderation, will merely
say, that, 50 far as am able TO Judge, the
large amount of my youthful time devoted
to the study of Greek both in my school aud
college life was time as nearly as possible
thrown away.
In these days of repeating rifles my alma
mater sent me and my classmates out into
the strife equipped with shields and swords
and javellns.
We were to grapple with living questions
through the medium of dead languages. 1t
seems to me have heard somewhere else
OF childs cry for bread being answered
with stone. But on this point l do not
like publicly to tell the whole of my own ex-
perence. 1t has been too bitter, too humil-
iating. Representing American educated
men in the worlds industrial gatherings,
have occupied position of confessed ill.,
feriorty. | have not Eeen the equal OF my
peers. 1t was the worlds congress OF to-day
and Latin and Greek were not legal tender
there.
Such is family and individual expert
euce Co;elps 81 century and half. With
that experience behind me, | have sons of
my own coming forward. | want them TO
go to college-to Harvard College; but do
not want them to go there by the path their
fathers trod. 1t seems to me that four gen
crations ought 10 suffice. Neither is my
case single one. am, on the con-
trary, one of a large class in
the community, very many of whom
are more imbued than l with the scientific
and thorough spirit of the age. AS respects
our children, the problem before us is II SIM
Pile one, and yet one very difficult of prac,i-
cal solution. We want no more class
ical veneer we are the modernists and
majority but in the eyes of the class
iciss wo are, fear, vulgar and contempti-
bic majority. Yet | cannot believe that this
singular condition of affairs will last great
while longer. The measure of reform seems
very simple and wholly reasonable AS un-
derstand it, tine modernist neither asks nor
desires the colleges to put the classic tongues
or even Greek alone, on the same footing as
certain of the modern languages. We are
wiling-at least am wlling-to conccde a
preference, and great preference, to the
dead over the living; to the classic over the
modern.
That elementary knowledge of one dead
language should count as equal to thorough
familiarity with two living languages
ought, submit, to be accepted as sufficient
educational bounty on the former. The
clissicist should in reason ask for no more.
Meanwhile the modernist would be perfectly
satisfied with that would pu! no obstacle
in the way of "a scholar whose tastes turn
to classic studies. On the contrary, would
aft lrd him every assistance, and no longer
clog and cucumber his progress by tying him
to whole classroom Of others whose
tastes run in opposite directions, or in no di-
rection at ALL Indeed, it is curious 10 think
how much the standard of class require
ments might he raised. were not the better
scholars weighted down by the presence OF
the worse But while welcoming the class.
icist, why not also welcome the modernist
After all the university is n part OF the
machinery of the world IN which we live,
and, as have already more than once inti-
mated, the college student does not get very
far into that world after leaving these classic
shades before he is made to realize that
II L. a World Of Facts,
and very hard facts. AS one of those facts
| would like to suggest that there are bu
two, or at most three, languages spoken OF
these continents, in which ours is the dom
nant race. There is saying that living
dog is better than dead lion; Z; and the Span
sh tongue is what the Greek is not-a very
considerable American fact.
have made no reference to the accumu
lated literary wealth of the modern tongues
much less compared their masterpieces will
those of Greece or Rome. Yet | would no
have it supposed that in taking this view o
the matter | express my full belief On th,
! contrary, | most shrewdly suspect that Their
! is in what are called the educated classes
i both in this country aud in Europe, yer,
! considerable amount of affectation and cred
u uity in regard to the Greek and Latin mas
c terpieccs. That is jealously priced as par
Of the body of the classics which If publishes
. to-day in German, or French, or Englis
. would not excite u passing notice. Ther
y are immortal poets to-day, whose immortal
/ ity my mature judgment tells me is who'll
due to the fact that they lived 1000 year
: ago. Even dead language can not veil el
II treme tenuity of thought and fancy.
C For myself, ! cannot but think that tn
Q species Of sanctity which has now, eve
since the revival of learning, hedsed til
u classics, is destined soon to disappear. Y,
q it IS still strong indeed, it is about the onl
y patent of nobility which has survived II
q levellng tendencies of the age. A man wi
s. at some period of his life has studied Lat
r. and Greek is an educated man he who hi
IL not done SO is only u self-taught man. N,
'c to have studied Latin, irrespective of al
y present ability toread it, is accounted thir
ID to be ashamed of; 10 be unable TO spea
m French is merely an Inconvenience | su
lc nit that it is high time this supersttiC
tc should come to an end. The view OF u
,e case is not yet taken Ivy the colleges.
., y, The slaves OF custom and established mode.
y With packh0rse consistency we keep the road,
Ll Crooked or straight through qlags or thor
ct des,
of True 10 the jingling OF our leaders, bells
a And yet | am practical and of this wor