"The Dead Humanities"
SIR.- -Mr. Green's article, The Dead Humanities, seems to overlook two important facts. The first is that every generation interprets the authors of the past anew, and finds &Efferent aspects in the old civilisa- tions important or attractive. Consequently judgements in such a field as the classics have rarely a permanent and objective value. It there-. fore seems to me arrogant and narrow to say, for instance. that "the true nature of Greek and Roman civilisation was hopelessly obscured . . . being interpreted by such men as Goethe . . . in the light of their own beliefs and desires." Mr. Green's example over the rational and irrational in Greece is illuminating here. As he says, we recognise today that the rationalism of a Plato was a notable excep:ion in the Athens of his time. But that in no way lessens the value of the contribution made by Greek rationalism;, and who judges a civilisation on the beliefs of the great majority ? Thus, I would say, the admiration of Greek rationalism in the past was fully justified, even if we today, perhaps, find rationalism less attrac.ive, and look to other aspects of Greece for inspiration. The second of his errors is the belief that learned men have occupied themselves with the classical authors for four hundred years without finding anything else there than the crossword-puzzle pleasures- of textual criticism. The truth is that behind this scientific work with the words has always stood the lasting inspiration from the matter. Once again Mr. Green's example is helpful. For, though Housman apparently -concerned himself only with the texts, and is perhaps the standing example in modern times of a " pure scholar," the real inspiration he obtained from the classics is to be seen time and again in his poems.
As in any field, a man may work day after day in recondite details, but he never forgets, in fact he is always stimulated by, the wider aspects, the general worth of his subject. My experience of enthusiastic classicists here in Munich, in a country which has had of late more excuse to look to purely practical benefits, has confirmed my opinion that the so-called " protracted rearguard action " of the classics is a mistaken description of the present-day state of a subject in which men of every generation find inspiration.—Yours faithfully, -A. JOHN GRAHAM. Allinchen 13, Tengstrasse, 6/0.
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