The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-02-22
THE CLASSICS AGAIN.

THE CLASSICS AGAIN.
A rather remarkable concession to progress
has recently been made by Harvard Univer-
sity. Considering the age and reputation of
that institution, and the hardening with in
creasing age and honors, of the conservatism
of all institutions and all men, it is the great
est concession made by the cold school of
education to the new one since the latter be-
gan 10 question the value of great deal of the
work held indispensable by the other. The
faculty has decided that examination in Greek
shall not be required of applicants for adlnis-
sion. but shall be optional with them This
virtually 1nles out Greek as a necessity of the
college course, and admits the possibility of a
man being good scholar, and serviceable in
his generation, though he may never know
the dual number from the aorist tense. Other
colleges long ago released themselves from
the tramlnels Of the classics, but they
carried no great weight in their examples.
Harvard, in a manner, gives the stamp Of
authority TO the new order Of things that sub
ordinatcs classics to practical requirements
Not that it OF any institution excludes elias
seal studies, or really depreciates them, but
only gauges more justly than the old system,
their relation to other studies and the after
needs of the students The intimate mixture
of the classical languages in the construction
of our own makes some knowledge of them
necessary to a thorough knowledge, in its
philosophy as we'll as its power, Of our own.
SO they will always and always should, be
studied by those who care to perfect their
pathological attainments But the old-time
devotion to decensicns, and coniugations. and
scansions, and constructions, which has been
slowly slipping back behind the active world
for good while, may now be considered fully
and permanently abandoned We have reached
here as they are trying to do abroad, the edu-
cational condition which Sidney Smith
seemed to regard as sort of ideal
Elysium, unattainable to unprotected hui
mainly sixts-tive years ago. Said he:
"a young Engishman goes to school at six
or seven years old, and he remains in course
of education Til twenty three or twenty-four
years of age. In all that time his sole and
exclusive occupation is learning Latin and
Greek. lie has scarcely notion that there
is any other kind of excellence and the great
eveIoD, &c VIAL ,,,h;ob bo &c 4l,o -, oet na,
fectly acquainted are the intiigues of the
heather gods. If a young classic of this kind
were to meet the greatest chemist or the
greatest mathematician, or the most profound
political economist of his time, would the
slightest comparison between them ever come
across his mind! Would he ever dream that
such men as Adam Smith and Layoisier We're
equal in dignity of understanding or of the
same utility as Gently or Heyne? We are in
clined TO think that the feeling excited would
be good deal like that which was expressed
by DR.. George about the praises of the great
king OF Prussia. who entertained considerable
doubts whether the king with all his victo-
ries, knew how to congugate Greek
verb in IGu iota.'' We have been for full
generation disembarassing ourselves of this
inculnbrance of costly uselessness, year by
year throwing off more and more, till in the
average OF college course the classics have
been reduced at least TO level with the study
Of natural science and modern languages. In
some they have gone lower or gone out.
Availability has displaced erudition, and the
tendency OF the times is to learn only what
can be used or applied, as means of making
practical acquisitions. But still the older and
more powerful seats of learnins; INSTRUCTED
this tendency. The English universities have
only within a few years past made serious
changes in their system, and even yet they
are behind the general course of education
here in this regard, while the schools Of our
country most closely corresponding to them
have resisted with little less tenacity Now
the bulwmk of conservatism gives way, and
we may expect that Harvard will soon be
nearly as practical and commensurate as
institutions of lesser pretensions.
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