Greek grammars were written at a time when the theory
of language was imperfectly understood, and that the rules they lay down are con- sequently absurd. Ho would have the dead languages taught just in the same way as living languages, and Latin, at all events, spoken, just as it is on the Continent. There can, we think, be little doubt that if the classics are to retain their position in education, boys must be taught to read them, at all events at sight, and perhaps in time we may even come to speak them. Mr. Thompson would teach French, German, and Italian pari passu with Latin and Greek, and teach the grammar of all languages simultaneously, and he actually maintains that "a good Latin grammar might be limited to 24 pages, and sold for sixpence." But this is positively Utopian, and implies that all schoolmasters shall understand six languages and comparative gram- mar. Mr. Thompson writes in a strain of pleasant banter, which, however, is sometimes a little forced. His book is very amusing reading, and his ideas if occasionally whimsical are always at bottom sensible.
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