New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-06
THE BIGOTRY OF SCIENCE
With Harsh Words for Fools Who Would
Touch the Classics in Translation

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: In an editorial of Wednesday, jan
uary 81, you have sharp things to say OF
conservatives. These folk are, OF course
fair game.
"The old three-cornered hat,
And the breeches, and all that,
Are so queer"
had supposed, though. that shying stones
at our moribund classical curricula was no
longer thought good sport by the clever
/ funditores Of the liberal press. 1t is such
difficult matter to know what that press
or any press-does consider opposite and
timely!
| 1t was but natural that, in the course OF
! time. as knowledge grew from more to more,
the study Of Greek and Latin language ana
/ literature should yield the ascendant place
it so long and so worthily had held. used
to fancy that the alleged failure OF a
classical training was at least debatabIe, but
Dr. Flexner has spoken. To me, confess
DR.. Flexner's opinions on education and edu-
cational history carry but little more weight
than Mr.. Edison's interviews on future
life. Yet, because DR.. Flexner is an au-
thority in certain phases of applied science
his pronouncements have been Tapped up by
the multitude and quoted'as final. The VIC
torians quoted Herbert Spencers views on
educational subjects with similar venera-
ton. To-day most people have forgotten
that Spencer ever wrote anything about
education.
Naturally, however, as ! have said, the
classics suffered from modern academic con-
gestion. Under stress of competition our
American colleges and universities put IN
their shop windows the goods that busi-
nesslike president thought would attract the
largest number of Purchasers. Then the
elective system allowed youths of seventeen
and eighteen to choose wholly or largely
what they should study. Then the prepara-
| tory schools, which have developed increas-
ingly into feeders" for the universities and
colleges and have been governed by entrance
requirements, modified their courses OF
study. II was only reasonable to expect
that the study of the classics, which de-
mands of the pupil certain degree OF I'M
agination--a certain ability to project the
mind out of ones own parochal environ
ment would suffer. There were so many
"snap" courses-like the modern languages
English lit. and Bib. lit, economics, politi-
cal science. history do not include the
natural sciences.
But why, oh, why, does your writer refer
TO science as "new faith" and charge 1t
against the classics that they did not lift all
men heavenward as if that were unique
offence, and complain that inspired teachers
! OF the classics were occasional as II
teachers who arc gifts from the gods" were
/ not rare in any branch Of learning? II sell
/ ence generally referred to by it's corybants
with an initial capitaD is still faith, it is
/ a faith to which many have proved recreant
and of which many arc indeed skeptical
Science had its turn, and it did not lift all
men to the sky. Among its teachers were as
many dull and pedantc and uninspired per
/ sons as among teachers OF most other things,
! including the classics.
So many seem to think that science IN
this country has been consistently taught by
kind of apostolic succession of men like
the great Agassiz On the contrary, | vent
ure to assert that in no other academic field
has there been so much bigotry-so utter
| lack of nexibiity. Most of these men did
not come from Sinai, but lets of them did
| come from German universities where they
| had donned the system of some specialist,
| and that system they wore sacred
! straitjacket for the rest of their lives. To
the great men OF American science, all
| honor. Too many of them have been devoted
almost wholly to private research to have
had much influence in the spread of the
faith" as an academic cure-all.
Just word as to practical value. We
are told that one day Professor Simpson,
of Edinburgh, was asked by the university
| Librarian to indicate the books on his sub
ject that might be removed to make room on
| the library shelves. "rake every textbook
that is more than ten years Old he said
| "and put it down in the cellar" The biol
ogy, the chemistry, the physics of to-day
speak language that sounds unfamiliar
| to one who studied those subjects as they
were twenty years ago, and then went out
bravely believing that they would regulate
| his attitude toward nature and human life
| forever. But if the proper Cor fundamen-
tall study of mankind is Mainland not his
stumbling scientific" guesses about himself
and his world-then the classics and all
worthwhile languages and literatures have
for the ordinary layman an abiding "practi-
! cal" value that science cannot claim.
As to studying the classics through trans
lations-I do not mean in individual cases,
but as academic policy should think the
results would be most humane, especially if
most of the Bohn versions were employed.
G. s. BRYAN.
Brookfeld Conn. Feb. I, 1917.