Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-10-17
LATIN AND GREEK.
L Plea for Their Use in ths Public
schooIs.

schools.
Editor MOFain9 Ntl-S: One Of -our cor
. respondents recently made powerful
plea in favor Of The study Of Latin IN the
public schools. and IL doing 50, may be
said to have opened in this part Of the
country, question which has been agi-
tatins for long time the minds Of the
leading scholiasts Of tie world-that OF
the desirab4lity, or otherwise, Of classical
education. IN ms humble opinion IL
seems 10 be an Injustice 10 discontinue the
study OF Latin aui Greek, but by alI
means let us cease o. treat these tongues
as dead languages. bearing IN mlnd the
TACT tnat the one is 10 ade hying language
~ being spoken bv the most highly edu-
Gated clergy and lavmen u the day, while
the other Is the language Of some eight
millions OF the most intelligent people
TIE modern Greeks who are rapidly pur-
d. lng the ROmalc 0t harbarsms.
A dead LANGUAGE What sad and
sorry thought For in it are involved
l9atns untold, innumerable. l can I'M
derstand what is meant by dead sea,
ana lake 1t TO BE- a sheet OF wster cut Oh
from all intercourse with the main ocean,
never rising with IFS low, never sinking
Win lts enb: never skinned by sail OF
commerce. never 1alQed by wing OF wan
Gerlng bird; but Stun ~eriRg In staRnant,
silent, tide-fOTsaken and unneeGeQ repose.
The language Of Eingly snd priesHy
Etruria, he sole remains Of which are
engraved upon sepuiclral vase and tablet,
ls language uuCuestlOnaoly dead"
But can such term be applied TO that
Hellenic speech which. in the liad and
the odyssey, has rolled. ike the Father Of
W aters, its course unlindered down four
thousand years; that in Plato still scars
neayenward staring at the sun; that
pierces with trumpet sound In Demos
themes; tnar COOS Ike the turtle dove IN
-Eschylus, SOphoola,. and AristOphanes /;
AID that is redOisnt with life, beauty,
music and purity ina the hundred other
writers whose works are read and relished
the civilized world over:
or again. is that Old Italian speech
dead" and gone tina I'D Virgil flows. like
the Eridanus. calmly but majestically
through rich lOwland5 frInged with tall
poplars and hemmed by grassy banks !;
tnat MARBLES ike a brook IN Ovid; hat
thrills with wild strings Of passion in HOr-
ace; that smells OF crOcuses in Theocritus
and Lucan; that screams with eagle cry
IN Cicero; and that is savory with wisdom
and equity in Justinian:
No, heaven forbid II, no. Pile upon
these twin daughters Of Omphaan Zeus
mountains OF lexic0ns, graduses, gram
mars. and grammatical exercises, until
Ossa is dwarf and Peion is wart. Let
dull. colossal Pedantry. with her tons of
lumbal lead, press heavily on their pros
trate forms. For awhile they may lie
breathless and exhausted; but when that
is grown again wherein their great
strength lay, then illthey make mighty
effort and throw high ia the air the &C
cumulated scoria Of ages; like hail stones
in hn foil
able multitudes Of gerund-stones, and the
Divine Twain will clothe themselves anew
in their old strength and beauty, and sit
down by the side Of Zeus 0mph8us exult-
ing in glory!
No; no. The music of Homer will die
with the choral chants Of "The Messiah"
and the strains Of Pndar with the SYM
phonies OF Beethoven, Handel and Mo-
Fart. The Mantuan viii 90 to the grave
linked hand in hand with that sweet, fell
lOw-epicure, Montaigne; Anacreon will
be forgotten but a short time before Ra-
cine and Moliere. while Plato and JUS
tinian will be entombed forever beneath
the mausCleum that covers all that is
mortal of Bacon, Newton, Kepler, Frank
lin and Laplace,
Moreover, before the last echoes of
Greece and Rome shall have died away, a
SclayOnian horde will throng the MOrea
anu tue ny Nidutss anu IN SUilc GIuiuDIlDB
cathedral Catholicism will have chanted,
for The last time, Mime Dimittfs'' in the
grand. imperial language of the City on
the Seven HIS. Then, and then only,
may IL be said that Greek is s'dead'' and
Latin is no more; their pomp and their
glory viii then have gone down with them
into the pit.
But wnea all this shall have come
about, Mr. Editor, you and wifi be lying
in very sorry plight-our quips, our
eranks, our oddities all gone. We shall
then have, for many centuries, been
Waiting the call which, so good men all
trust,
WIN maze active OF passive aad spirit of
DUST .r f1
It is "bosh" to call Greek and Latin
| "deadH languages, and to treat and teach
hem as such. As one Of my little boys
says, "lf they are of no other use they
are handy in helping one invent 'cuss
words when his stock of 'cuss words Is
/ exhausted" quote this as an evidence
oftheir use-eQulvocal use though it may
| be. G. g.