On Wednesday, Mr. Goschen delivered an address to the students
of University College, Bristol, in which he insisted on the importance of the distinction between useful knowledge, and knowledge which gives the mind a mastery over itself, which it cultivates the mind to acquire. He maintained, for instance,—most justly, we think,—that the study of Latin and Greek, though not, perhaps, so useful to men at large as the study of French and German, is far more cultivating, and that it is therefore a far better gymnastic for the intellect. No one who knows anything of the two classes of study can doubt that this is so. But that does not decide the question in favour of Greek for those at least who have chosen science, and not language, as the field of culture which they prefer. Doubtless, every man is intellectually the poorer for not knowing Greek ; but for students of mathematics and physical science, the question is not so much between Greek and no Greek, as between a little Greek, the time for which must be deducted from The time for scientific culture, and a more thorough scientific culture, without any Greek. So considered, we suspect that for average students of science, the more thorough study of science is the better cultivation.
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