Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-04-21

| seeds of fresh development One
| these is the modern expansion OF tlI
field of study. IT was only a few dAy
| ago, for INSTANCE, that a site for a n61
| engineering science laboratory was al
| located at oxford. Where classics ami
| theology once reigned alone, or onll
admitted mathematics to an equal an(
law to a. subsidiary and incidentaI
| place beside them, one after anothe1
subject has indicated its claim to 4
share in the studies proper to q unf !
lyersity The field is not yet fully cow
cred; perhaps it will never be, nor ID
il necessary that of a multiplicity %
institutions of university rank every
one should aim at dealing with the.
whole of learning. 1t will be sufficient
If ii realizes and recognizes that learn
Ing IS a whole. But the nine HonorsI
schools of oxford, the thirteen triposesI
of Cambridge, even now cover q Very
large part of the field which is still
larger, and which i'm truth has no lirn-
1t. Nor has the last word been vet
said. or the process of expansion In the
field IF studies come, even temporarily.
to staRdstil. Aid ex alio clareseet.
the principle Of growth feeds on the
growth already made, and each fresh
territory annexed leads the way to an
other.
The other thing to be noticed is the
intensive cultivation of the traditional
subjects. Any one revisiting Oxford
and Cambridge now after the interval
of thirty or forty years would find the
change as great in the pursuit of the
old studies as in the introduction of
the new. This would be so most of all
in classics. The old certifying CLASH
cal curriculum" fine in It's methods.
hard in it's discipline, narrow In its
scope and outlook, has been trans
muteI. Modern classical study touches
on life at all points, takes it up into
Itself, brings it into focus in a way
which the peculiar quality of the clas-
Steal writer's and the classical civiliza-
ton makes for practical as we'll as the
ore tfcaf proposes, unsurpassed and un-
repfaceabfe Not only specialized stud
lbs IKE ARCHAEOLOGY or anthropology,
'htt tifstbfy, at, economies, religion.
the Whole sociaf structure and organ
ism Of life, Are studied In and have
light thrown on them by the classics.
This twofold expansion in the scope
ana .f1eanihg of classical studies, ex-
tensEe ami intensive. reacts, it strikes
backward and inward. Together with
the increasing specialization which Is
deplored as fatal to the old deals OF
scholarship there is growing sense
OF the interdependenee of all studies.
the essential unity of all culture. We
NAV Join in the regret over the dis
appearance of those old ideals with
out being either reactionaries or OBJ
grieve when even the shade of that
which once was great mas passed
away" The old ideals were noble, but
they were n mould which has peen
broken by organic growth; 1t had to
break. or to stife the growing life
within 1t, which 1t had once fitted.
adorned. and protected, like suit OF
beautiful plate-arrnor. Or, TO vary inc
metaphor we may think OF the Ola
classical university with its old domain
of classical study as of an ancient CITY
state which has grown less by choice
than by circumstance into an empire
1t has thrown out colonies and annex
ed dependencies which at first We're
self-a ssertive, rebellious, looked on by
the mother State with jealous eyes,
kept dependent and subordinate WheH
they claimed due autonomy, q proper
share in the national councils. Gradu-
ally, in spite 'ofawrangies and misun-
derstandlngs, this chaos of conflicting
forces is growing into n federated
commonwealth The sincere desire or
accommodation between what might
have been regarded years ago as ire
concilable interests has been Well IL
Illustrated at oxford just now in the
grod-tempered discussion on the pro-
per site for the future engineering
laboratory. II is the latest proof,
among many, that mutual understand
ing IS growing Mutual respect VIII
come of understanding Both together
will bring about mutual snpport.-Lon-
.I..,,t u,s,