VICTORIA LEAGUE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 151, 29 June 1927, Page 12

VICTORIA LEAGUE.

ADDRESS BY ME. DORIC ALU lE. "The Influence of Roman and (.'reek Qassics Upon Modern Life" was the subject of Mr. Doric Algie's address at tlie Victoria League last evening. "A wise man once said.'' said the speaker, "there was nothing new under the sun. That truism has been borne out by the literature, history and civilisation of the day. What we are to day is the outgrowth of something that has gone before. The Greek and Latin classics hold a unique position. They are the fount and source of other classics. Classic implies that which belongs to a class, i and they stand at the dawn of historv and all literature. The Grecic -lassies were the father of the Roman, but thev are inseparable. It can he said that one is the ancestor of the othe- and the latter the descendant of the former. All our theories of social and modern organisation were held by the Greeks, and to them we owe our intellectual achievements, art, culture and beauty. Though not so original in the tine arts, th Remans were imitative and original in directions which were equally dispell sable. I hey rounded i.iF where the Greeks had begun. In their constructive way they elaborated and made permanent what the Greeks had originated. While the vest of Europe was steeped in barbarism and subterfuge, the Greeks were developing a literature to stand the I test of time. But if it had not been for Latin civilisation the i«reek literature and culture might never have reached us That is our debt to Rome- Also. the foundation of our legal codes come? direct from the Romans. It has been said that there is nothing that moves that is not derived from the Greeks: there is nothing that stands that does not derive from the Romans. -^' r - Algie spoke of the intfueurc of Homer. Homer, he said, was the mirror of his age. He gave Us a picture of

social organisations of government of liis ': own historic time. His influence is paramount, and that is one of the debts we owe to the Greeks. Homer was the father of European literature. During the Middle Ages there was a tendency to belittle these great works. Now we have arrived at a truer balance, and we assign to the classics their true place. We will best arrive at a true understanding of our own Imperial relations by an appreciation of the unique place the classics hold for us. Citizenship, which is Latin in derivation, is a direct creation and the fruits of Roman genius, and always do we return to rioman ideas of citizenship. Speaking of patriotism and its descent rom the classics, the speaker said that Jreek and Roman history was resplenient with patriotism, and he quoted in- | tances. While the classics hold a ' dace for us in divers respects in modern ife, he said, while they make for us a .rue picture of the lessons we can learn rom the past, by holding up a mirror to .heir own time, they instil in us a truer ind more fervent patriotism. Patriotsm forms a great part of modern life, md the classics are written records of mcient patriotism. j Speaking of the so-called "dead | 'anguages," Mr. Algie said Latin is still au important subject on the school curriculum, and to study Latin is but to wish to study Greek. A translation is ! tike a photograph, true in outline but acking in atmosphere. The beauty and I ?race of expression of Greek have as j vet not been surpassed, and the gravitv, | dignity, and precision of the Latin tongue have not been equalled. I The classics have earned for them-1 selves a place which even violent controversy cannot wrest from them. ' Mr. J. H. Luxford, who was in the chair, thanked the speaker. There was a good attendance of members and friends. >