among us, and respecting possible changes, some remarks which may not be without a more especial bearing and interest.

28 In the first place, I remark that, since the two kinds of studies I have spoken of, Classical and Mathematical, have their value, primarily, as permanent subjects of thought, connecting us with past generations, and fixing in our minds the stable and universal principles of Language and of Reason, these studies must be pursued in such a way as to imply a regard for this, their permanent character. For instance, with respect to the Classical Authors, the reason why we make them, especially, the subjects of our educational studies is, that having been selected at first as objects of especial admiration on account of the truth of their thoughts and the felicity of their expressions, they have continued to be studied by the successive generations of well-educated men; and thus they connect all such men with one another, by their common familiarity with these subjects of study. Hence we cannot, consistently with the meaning of a Liberal Education, substitute for the Classical Authors of Greece and Rome any other authors; for instance, eminent modern writers of our own or other countries. if the genius and skill shown in modern poems and orations were as great as that which appear in Homer or Virgil, Demosthenes or Cicero, the modern works could not supply the place of the ancient ones in Education. No modern works can, in men's minds, take their station in the place of the familiar models of poetry and eloquence which have been recognized as models for two thousand years; which have, for so many generations, called forth and unfolded the ideas of poetry and eloquence, and furnished standard examples and ready illustrations of human powers of thought and expression. The most remarkable examples of poetry and eloquence in modern times have

Even

been the works of educated men, and have themselves shared in the influence of the ancient models. We cannot rightly admire the greatest modern poets and orators, we cannot admire them as they sought to be admired, if we read them in ignorance of the works of their great predecessors in the ancient world. If we attempt to elevate modern authors into Classics by deposing the ancient classics, we break the classical tradition of thought which alone gives meaning to the term; and which alone gives classical authors their value in education*.

29 Again: the acquaintance with Classical Authors, which a good education requires, is an acquaintance with the works themselves, and not merely with any speculations to which they may have given rise. The educated man must read and understand the great writers of antiquity in their original languages. He must not merely know, in a general manner, the views which they present, of the progress of history, and philosophy, and art, and knowledge: he must know the sentences and expressions in which these views are conveyed, or from which they are deduced.

So far as the Greek and Roman writers form part of a Liberal Education, the study of the text of those writers is the permanent element of Education; whatever interest or merit may belong to antiquarian, or critical, or philosophical speculations, of which those writings furnish the materials. Antiquity and ancient history, ancient philology and criticism, ancient philosophy and metaphysics, may be the subjects of progressive sciences among ourselves, at the present day: for new writers may present, on such subjects, views very different from their predecessors; may even assume the character of discoverers; and may, by their sagacity and

I have already written to the same effect, English

University Education, p. 32.

gift of generalization, draw to them the admiration of classical scholars. But such Progressive Studies cannot answer the purpose of the Permanent Studies. An acquaintance, however exact, with these new antiquarian, or philological, or philosophical views, cannot supply the want of a familiarity with the classical authors. To be able to translate Homer and Thucydides, Virgil and Livy, is a necessary part of a good Education. Such a power must be acquired in youth. To learn the current theories concerning the Greek and Latin languages, or Greek and Roman early history, however ingenious and plausible the theories be, cannot make an education good, in which such a knowledge of the original authors is wanting. Indeed, such theories are not necessarily any parts at all of a good education. They may be very fitly attended to as the studies of the man, when the education of the youth is completed and to be able, through life, to follow, with an intelligent interest and sound criticism, contemporary discussion on such theories, is one of the beneficial results of a good education.

30 Thus, to be able to understand and translate the ancient Classical Authors is the primary and indispensable part of the Classical branch of a good education. This acquirement implies, of course, an intimate acquaintance with the system of Greek and Latin grammar; and such a knowledge of the customs and institutions of the Greeks and Romans, as may explain expressions in which these are referred to. Moreover, as I have already said, an acquaintance with Greek and Latin grammar supplies a type of Universal Grammar, and has always answered this purpose in the minds of educated men. It is true, that Grammar also may be dealt with as a Progressive Science; and that, in proportion as philosophical grammarians have had to treat of languages very different in their structure from the Greek and Latin, or as they have included

a larger range of languages in their generalizations, they have moulded their science into forms different from the traditional forms of Greek and Latin Grammar. But still those familiar forms answer as a starting point for the widest generalizations; and have furnished the technical phraseology in which grammatical and philological questions have been discussed among cultivated persons in all ages. And thus, a knowledge of the traditional forms of Greek and Latin Grammar is itself one of the permanent studies of a liberal education. The necessity of such knowledge cannot be superseded by any new modes of learning languages which may, perhaps, be applied to the Greek and the Latin with apparent success. Supposing a boy were to learn one or both these languages by the habit of hearing and speaking, as children learn languages, this knowledge could not stand in the place of that grammatical study which is an essential point in education. Even if a person who had so learned were to read the Classical Authors, he might still know nothing of Greek and Latin grammar. He might read Homer and Virgil as many Englishmen read Shakespeare or Milton, without thinking of the grammar, and without being able to give any account of it. And if it be said. that such a person has no need for Greek and Latin grammar, since, without these, he can do that to which they are merely instruments, namely, understand the best authors; we should reply by denying this doctrine. We should say that such a person, if he is to be a welleducated person, has a need of Grammar. A knowledge of English Grammar is essential to a good education; a person familiar with the Greek and Latin grammar, even if he be not taught English grammar directly, frames such a grammar for himself by applying to English construction the analysis and analogies of Greek and Latin. And if a person cannot do this, but, though understanding what he reads, is unable to

analyse the construction of an ungrammatical sentence, so as to point out in what the fault consists, we do not look upon him as a well-educated man. He may be a lover and reader of poetry, or of eloquence, and may have a good practical knowledge of the language; but he has not the spirit of analysis and the perception of rule which are among the habits of all well-educated men. Faults in grammar are the most palpable and universally recognized indications of the want of a good education. Solecisms and barbarisms in language are inconsistent with a good education, because the welleducated man is saved from such errors by principle as well as by habit; by a clear insight into the rules and relations of language, as well as by the imitation of other men*. And thus, not only to know and understand the text of Classical Authors, but to understand the grammar of their sentences, is included in the Permanent Studies which belong to a Liberal Education.

31 As in Classical, so also in Mathematical Studies, we must, for the purposes of a good education, attend to the distinction of the Permanent and the Progressive parts of such studies. It will easily be conceived that there are, in Mathematics, progressive as well as permanent portions. The Sciences which are founded upon a knowledge of the phenomena of the world, as Astronomy, Optics, and the like, make repeated steps of progress by new observations of phenomena, or new combinations of old observations. It may be that in such sciences some progress is making in our own time; and if this be so, such progress naturally draws men's notice in an especial manner. And moreover, Mathematical Science has changed its aspect, not only by the observation of new facts, but also by the invention of new methods of

University Education, p. 36.