J 'r is rarely that we find after-dinner oratory rising to
so high a level as it did at the dinner recently given in Edinburgh to the retiring Professor of Greek. The Prime Minister, who was in the chair, made an admirable speech, in which friendliness, good sense, and a delicate vein of para- doxical humour were cunningly mingled. But excellent as the other speeches were, that of Professor Butcher far outshone them. A more perfect valedictory address it would be hard to imagine, perfect in its feeling, its restraint, and its felicity of phrase. It contained, too, one of the most eloquent defences of the educational value of Greek literature which we remember to have read. An apologia for the work to which one of the foremost teachers and most accomplished scholars of our time has devoted twenty years of his life must command an attentive hearing. The value of a classical education resembles other truths in being in constant need of restate-
ment. With the majority of educated men it is a conviction; but, like most convictions, it is dormant, and they have no neat set of reasons ready with which to meet the utilitarian foe. Because it has been accepted for generations, it appears to have no case when it is impugned. If an opponent asks " Cui bono ?" we are at a loss for an answer, partly because we have never thought of its utilitarian side, and partly because the benefits are, many of them, subtle and difficult of definition. And yet how many of the sceptics are really believers : how many are standing witnesses on its behalf ! Mr. Balfour, after quoting Lord Cockburn's saying that "any education which is not classical leads only to ignorance and self- conceit," admitted that though he had spent ten years in the study of the classics, he had learned no more of them than was necessary to induce the University of Cambridge to teach him something else, and confessed that Lord Cockburn's dictum gave him much searching of heart. But would Mr. Balfour be what be is if he had not been familiarised in early life with the spirit of the classical literatures ? Would his books have shown their large and tolerant judgment and their grace of form, and his arguments their remarkable dialectical power, if he had been nourished solely, let us say, on German philosophy and modern science ? His mind, as Professor Butcher said, is of the truly Hellenic order; and it is in this formative influence, and not in the acquisition of technical learning, that the value of classioal literature is to be found. -
Let us admit that a great deal of nonsense has been talked about the matter. In "Friendship's Garland" there is an amusing discussion on education. "'They followed,' said I, the grand, old, fortifying classical curriculum.'—' Did they know anything when they left ? ' asked Arminius." And when his friend goes on to expatiate on the bracing effects of such a course of mental gymnastics, Herr von Thunder-ten-Tronckh asis reasonably enough for any sign of this result in the sporting clergyman and heavy country gentleman who had undergone the treatment. There is no special coercive virtue in the classics beyond other educational forces to train what is untrainable ; but the fact remains that to those who approach them in the right spirit they are an instrument of true culture which cannot be equalled. If, however, they are sought as a body of dry knowledge, as a man learns the rules of procedure at the Bar or the statistics of trade, then assuredly they have very little value. Far too much emphasis has been put upon the barren side of classical literature. We are far from denying the merits of exact and minute scholarship, but it cannot be claimed as a remarkable educational force. The dry bones of Greece and Rome are no better worthy Of study than the dry bones of elementary science. A man who can excel in "pure scholarship," and at the same time appreciate the vital meaning of classical life and literature, is greatly to be envied; but for the majority, who have neither the time nor the talents for the first, we must see that there is the chance of at least a share of the second. We may readily admit that the old system of teaching the classics left much to seek ; and having made this admission, we are secure from the attacks of the moderns. They give something which no other study can give in the same degree. For a young man, looking forward to the Bar or Parliament, commerce or diplomacy, there is a vast amount of technical information to be acquired which concerns only his particular profession. That comes after- wards ; but to begin with there must be some mental admit:, which will not only train and discipline the mind, but will ensure a synoptic view, a standpoint from which to regard the practical detail of life. A case lawyer who stumbles blindly from precedent to precedent is a much less effective advocate than the man who can go to the heart of a problem and argue on principles. There is no profession in which this clarifying process is not invaluable, and there is no specialist acquirement which will not be more readily obtained by a trained mind than by a mere burdened memory. Order, lucidity, and balance are qualities with so great a practical value that, however low our view of the end of education, we must acquiesce in a system which labours to create them. And there is another side, for to a man who has once felt the charm of the Greek world a new possession has been created, a world to which he can turn for refreshment without fear of satiety.
Professor Butcher, as a teacher of Greek, dealt only with his special subject. Greece, he said, was not a geographical expression, but "a mode of feeling and thinking, a certain direction of the human spirit." The spirit of Greece stands for the things of the mind above all material possessions, for fearless inquiry, for wisdom, which is the union of intellect and heart. It is the sense of proportion, adjustment, and organic unity. In action it is the foe of all fanaticism, and at the same time it stands for public spirit, citizenship, devotion to the common good. "To live for any length of time in the companionship of the poets and thinkers of Greece ought to be a preservative against all intellectual narrowness and con- tracted sympathies." The world had never more need than to-day of the Greek qualities, order, lucidity, and balance. They are the only solvent of the narrowness and egotism, whether insular or Imperial, which build up false antagonisms in modern life. They are the corrective to that fatal rhetoric which is one of the vices which democracy and progress bring in their train. But the Greek is but one half of the classical culture, and the Roman world has as many lessons for a nation of wanderers and State-builders like our own. If Greece teaches the power of ideas, Rome shows us the value of practical achievement. The Greek order was not the Roman : fair dreams of ideal cities became gross and hard in the iron hands of the legionaries and the cruel hands of those who loved the arena. But since there is no value in faith without works, it is well to learn that a halting per- formance is better than a perfect fancy. The strenuous and patient upbuilding of the great Empire and the austere citizen- ship of the great Romans are in their way as noble examples for the world to-day, and especially for our own race, as the genius of Greece. Let us by all means rid the study of the classics for the average man of all that would impede true access to their spirit, but in some form or other they must remain the foundation of culture for ourselves, as for our fathers.
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