THE BRITISH SCHOOL AT ATHENS.
AYEAR and a half ago, a brilliant gathering took place at Marlborough House, under the presidency of the Prince of Vales, in support of a project for establishing at Athens a British School of Archaeology, after the model of the French School and German Institute, which have long existed there. Such a project is of national importance ; and accordingly the formal resolutions then adopted were spoken to by persons eminent in all lines of life,—by the Prime Minister and the leader of the Opposition, by Lord Granville and Lord Garnervon, by the Dean of Christchurch and the President of the Royal Academy, by the Head Masters of Eton and Harrow, by Sir Stafford Northcote and Mr. Matthew Arnold. After such a meeting it might well have been thought that the speedy success of the scheme was from that moment ensured, the more so that the public mind had been already prepared directly by an able and eloquent appeal in its favour in the Fortnightly Review, from the pen of Professor R. C. Jebb, whose name has been from the first honourably identified with the proposal ; and indirectly by many other influences of the same tendency, notably the foundation and rapid success of the Hellenic Society. And yet it appears, from the Report submitted to a meeting of subscribers on Monday, that no more than a fifth part of the sum originally asked for-24,000 out of £20,000—has hitherto been raised. The Executive Committee is composed of men of influence, losenly interested in the project. We may, therefore, assume that they have done all that could reasonably be done for its welfare. Why is it that their efforts have led to so comparatively small a result ? Partly, we think, because to the public at large the idea is new, and not easily grasped. The " man in the street does not quite see why such a :school is wanted at all. What is its practical value ? For an Englishman is nothing, if not practical. And "Athens," so far as it suggests anything to many people, especially of the moneyed class whose interest it is so desirable to secure, suggests "sentiment ;" and a plain man does not care to open his pursestrings for sentiment of other than a humanitarian kind. But a further reason, possibly, for the only moderate success of the scheme so far, is that its promoters have been working too much iu the dark. The Marlborough-House meeting made, as it were, a great splash in the pool of public opinion. But the ripples were apparently allowed to die almost away without tangible result. We know now, from the Report just issued, that the Cc. -umittee have, as a matter of fact, met pretty frequently in the meantime, and hare testowed constant attention on the scheme. They have formally accepted the generous and valuable gift of a site on the part of the Greek Government. They have raised more than £4,000. But until Monday last an original subscriber, who did not happen to know intimately any member of the
Committee, might have been pardoned for thinking that the promoters of the proposed School had gone to sleep, so little was their action to be traced above the surface.
Space does not permit us to repeat in detail the arguments, once more weightily urged on Monday by the Bishop of Durham, Professor C. T. Newton, and other speakers, in favour of such a School. It is enough to say here that in these days, when it is sought to place every kind of knowledge that admits of being so placed, upon the firm basisof observation and of experiment, the establishment of a School where, under competent guidance, the monuments of G reek Art and architecture, inscriptions, topography, local customs, and dialects, can be studied at first-hand, and on the spot, is an essential corollary to our system of classical education. Archmology is the branch of classical study which, as bringing the student in all but personal contact with the life of the past, vivifies all the other branches. This subject is at last being introduced both at Oxford and Cambridge. But this is not enough. We must, as the Bishop of Durham well said, " connect ourselves directly with the heart of Hellenic culture, so that its very life-blood may flow through our veins." A School at Athens is to the Hellenist what a marine-station is to the biologist, or an observatory to the astronomer and the meteorologist. It directly advances knowledge by concentrating the efforts of individual workers. Moreover, when a splendid site has been given by the Greek Government, while Germany, France, and America are already before us in a field where there is, nevertheless, so much work of exploration and examination still to be done, it touches our honour as Englishmen that the School shall be established without further delay.
Two important decisions were taken at Monday's meeting, both, we feel sure, calculated to advance the interests of the scheme. The first was at once to build a suitable house for the Director and for a Library ; the second, to make a formal appeal on behalf of the School to the Universities and other public bodies who are not at present officially cognisant of its existence. The money in hand was shown to be amply sufficient for building; and such a step, as proving that the promoters are in earnest, will do more than anything else to encourage hesitating subscribers, while, the farther need being for an endowment to provide the Director's salary and the working expenses of the School, now is the time when help may most appropriately be asked from public bodies who have income rather than capital at their disposal. To such bodies and to all our readers we cordially commend the claims of the Institute, which is now no longer in posse, but in esse. To the Committee we would say, in conclusion, "Be constant, in season and out of season, iu keeping the project prominently before the eyes of your countrymen."
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