[To THE EDITOR Or TER "SPROTATOB.1 SIR, —To my letter in
the Spectator of November 22nd you have appended the question as to whether I am prepared to find a Russian Thucydides. May I ask whether the fact that a Russian or other Thucydides is not likely to be found to the end of time is a reason, in the train of thought here followed, why the language of the works of Thucydides shall continue for all time to be a study as much as hitherto ? In the suggestive article in the Spectator of November 15th one part of the main argument for the teaching of dead languages was thus concisely stated : "The mental discipline of mastering an exact language —no modern language being exact—is the best possible training for the delicate machinery of a boy's mind." To a boy's mind the very depth of the author is, at that stage and for directly benefiting by such discipline, a difficulty rather than a help. For that discipline the literature of any modern language—should there be one exact or sufficiently exact—would afford, although not Thucydidean, yet worthy material. The question will, of course, ultimately again turn upon whether to the cultured man familiarity with the tongue of Thucydides is necessary for an intelligent knowledge of his works, or whether the gap can well be bridged by the translator. So much of his work as ought to be an abiding essential of culture has forsooth not been properly assayed if an adequate translation into a language of culture is not found. Swimming across the stream is healthy exercise, and gives a more real sense of the strength and refreshing of its waters ; but crossing by the bridge may be wiser, and presently become a necessity when the fields of knowledge to be encompassed beyond the stream become wider and wider. And the builder of the bridge, the scholar and translator, will have a yet greater opportunity for so much breathing of the living spirit of the ancient tongue as shall give us a Thucydides so translated as to be more of a reality to more men.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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