Sta,—In a recent number of your journal I was pleased
to read Dr. W. B. Selbie's stout plea for the study of Greek in times which have seen the slopes of Parnassus swept by a driving hail of evicted Greek and Roman authors. The neglect of Greek, even from the utilitarian viewpoint, not only handicaps the social and political student, as your contributor rightly remarks, but also the budding scientist, especially if he be concerned with the lore of life. I have often seen the young student of biology and physiology appalled at the outset of his career by the long and learned names which he is compelled to commit to memory without any real understanding of their meaning. For the living sciences have drawn upon Greek far more extensively than upon Latin for their nomenclatures. Yet if such a student knew even a little Greek ne would delightedly recog- nise that these hard concatenations of syllables were neither invented at random nor to plague Lim, but were each almost perfect short- hand notes of the properties or qualities of the organ or thing they describe. Even if (which is not true) Greek were of no "use " the paradox would still hold that knowleage has other uses than mere usefulness. For the main loss of a neglect of Greek lies in the aesthetic domain. It is an artistic pleasure even to frame its lovely script. Moreover, to have 'sat under Socrates, through the agency of the Platonic dialogues, is in itself to have received a liberal educa- tion. How, too, our hearts burned within us on the memorable day when we were first introduced to a Greek tragedy or to the rolling line of Homer! Translation is not enough; for in trans- lation we do not converse face to face but are tiresomely aware of the presence of a third person it whom we are not greatly interested.
Though Greek is not for all, yet since complete ignorance of it is so sore a loss, all should be given in their youth opportunity to make its acquaintance. Not that compulsion should be employed, merely that the opportunity should be afforded. How many " Philis- tines " are Philistines merely because, under our present educational scheme, they have never been allowed the choice to become anything
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