posed statute and so prevent the rest. 'No,' says Professor Murray, 'the alternative is not complete compulsion, but complete abolition.' In other words, he thinks that if we reject the proposed statute we shall be forced to give up the necessity of Greek. I doubt it. Convocation is the University of Oxford assembled. The Oxford Convocation and the Cambridge Senate are the two most highly educated bodies of men in this country. They consist of members of the various professions, the Church, the Bar, doctors, schoolmasters, politicians, who understand the essentials of the education which they have received and know, if anybody does, how their sons ought to be educated. If the Convocation of the University of Oxford should first declare with no uncertain voice its settled belief that Greek is an essential of the education of its members, and the Senate of the University of Cambridge should hereafter do likewise, I believe that the English nation will think many times before it decrees the abolition of the necessity of Greek at Oxford and Cambridge. C.C.C., Oxford, Nov. 24, 1911. PRESERVATION OF GREEK AT OXFORD TELEGRAM FROM LORD HALSBURY Fulham Road. To:-Reply paid to Thomas Case, Chairman of Preservation of Greek, How late can I vote to-morrow? Nov. 27, 1911. Lord Halsbury, 4 Ennismore Gardens, London. On the next day Lord Halsbury visited the President of Corpus at his Lodgings, and voted for Greek in Convocation, when the proposed statute was rejected and Greek preserved by 595 votes to 360, on November 28. 91 This was Case's last letter on the Greek question, and is particularly interesting as a statement of his grand principle of political philosophy, the Common Good. The Provost of Oriel is the Rev. Dr. L. R. Phelps. The proposed statute was rejected in Convocation on June 18, 1919. The voting was placets 306, non-placets 312. Case took no part in organizing the opposition to the statute on this occasion. This task was undertaken with great energy and devotion by Mr. R. W. Livingstone, Fellow and Classical Lecturer of Corpus, subsequently Vice-Chancellor of Belfast University. In the year 1920 a form of statute substantially the same as the proposed statute of 1919 was introduced in Congregation and finally passed Convocation on March 2, 1920. The voting was placets 434, non-placets 359. Thus at last Greek became optional in Responsions. FROM The Times, JUNE 14, 1919. In your issue of to-day the Provost of Oriel rightly attacks the proposed statute which is to come before the Convocation of Oxford University on June 17. 'By this statute', as he says, the principle of a smattering is extended to English, French, German, and Natural Science,' or, more generally, the proposed statute would make Responsions easier for some and harder for others than it has been, for to most boys the new French and German are easy, the old Greek and Latin are hard. Now, the proposed statute imposes unprepared translation on candidates who offer any of these languages; but unprepared translation of French or German is much easier than unprepared translation of Greek or Latin. Consequently, while it appears to be fair, the statute really makes the examination easier for the new modern subjects and harder for the old classical subjects, and that, too, though it is undeniable that the teaching of the classics, and especially of Greek, is already declining more and more in schools. The proposed statute will therefore increase modern and diminish classical students; it will modernize the subsequent examinations for the degree of B.A.; it will lower the study of Greek down to freezingpoint and chill the study of Latin; it will encourage the study of the New Testament without the Greek in which it was written by authors educated in Greek surroundings; it will impair the study of Latin language, literature, and law, deprived of their Greek foundations; it will ultimately involve in one common ruin Greek, Latin, and the Bible, and bring the superstructure of European civilization, gradually reared on these three bases, down to the ground. In their somewhat democratic appeal to Convocation the supporters of this statute rest their case on freedom and liberty of choice, and on the recent development of schools in the direction of modern languages and natural science. But they do not ask what are the constituents of a good education, nor prove that schools are developing in the direction of human good, nor perceive that freedom and liberty of choice are not ends in themselves, but are good so far as they are and bad so far as they are not regulated by aiming at the general good of mankind. A good education, as Bacon saw, consists partly in allowing a boy to learn what he likes in order to develop his natural capacity, and partly inducing a boy to learn what he does not like in order to correct his natural defects. For example, one boy has a gift for languages; then incite him to study Greek, of all languages the most concrete, the most elastic, the most significant and expressive, and therefore the nearest to both things and thoughts; but do not let him become a pedant by allowing him to neglect the study of the laws of nature. Another boy has a gift for the observation and generalization of the laws of nature; let him study natural science, but do not let him become a barbarian or a materialist by neglecting the laws of language and of human nature. Modern schools have divided human nature into too many departments. In order to prevent them from being so one-sided, and to ensure that they should send not half men but whole men to Oxford and Cambridge, I suggested years ago in your columns that all candidates in Responsions should be examined in Greek and Latin, mathematics and mechanics, so that they might bring up to the University minds directed to things in general both without and within themselves, and at the University should thus be able to specialize without becoming narrow. I think so still. All education should aim at perfecting the whole man. A good education is one which develops the capacity and corrects the defects of the pupil. The best education of a candidate preparing for the University such as that of Oxford is one which, among other things, includes on the more linguistic side enough Greek and Latin, and on the more scientific side enough mathematics and mechanics, to enable the student to understand and to act according to the laws of nature and of human nature. In the production of this beneficial result Greek is not the least but the most necessary of these excellent accomplishments. It is indeed coming to be thought that the things best to learn are the natural sciences, and especially chemistry, physics, and biology, on the ground that the laws of nature discovered in these sciences are useful for material prosperity and important in war. But in the ordinary vocations of life the proper study of mankind is man-what man is, what I am and what other men are, how man reasons truly or falsely, what it is to be good or to be bad, to be happy or miserable, and especially what is the end of good government, what it means, and who are the statesmen able and willing to govern other men for this end by those means. It is evident then that, necessary as it is to study subsequent examinations for the degree of B.A.; it will lower the study of Greek down to freezingpoint and chill the study of Latin; it will encourage the study of the New Testament without the Greek in which it was written by authors educated in Greek surroundings; it will impair the study of Latin language, literature, and law, deprived of their Greek foundations; it will ultimately involve in one common ruin Greek, Latin, and the Bible, and bring the superstructure of European civilization, gradually reared on these three bases, down to the ground. In their somewhat democratic appeal to Convocation the supporters of this statute rest their case on freedom and liberty of choice, and on the recent development of schools in the direction of modern languages and natural science. But they do not ask what are the constituents of a good education, nor prove that schools are developing in the direction of human good, nor perceive that freedom and liberty of choice are not ends in themselves, but are good so far as they are and bad so far as they are not regulated by aiming at the general good of mankind. A good education, as Bacon saw, consists partly in allowing a boy to learn what he likes in order to develop his natural capacity, and partly inducing a boy to learn what he does not like in order to correct his natural defects. For example, one boy has a gift for languages; then incite him to study Greek, of all languages the most concrete, the most elastic, the most significant and expressive, and therefore the nearest to both things and thoughts; but do not let him become a pedant by allowing him to neglect the study of the laws of nature. Another boy has a gift for the observation and generalization of the laws of nature; let him study natural science, but do not let him become a barbarian or a materialist by neglecting the laws of language and of human |