EDUCATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20760, 31 December 1930, Page 14

EDUCATION.

Sir, —" Audi Alteram Partem" writes with such evident sincerity that it, is difficult to say anything to disturb Jiim. But his reference to Shakespeare as a classical scholar is unfortunate. "Nominis umbra" is the verdict. But Ben Jonson, a classical scholar and his friend, says, " He had little Latin and less Greek." The argument that Julius Caesar, etc., necessarily means a deep knowledge of the classics is weak. Queen Elizabeth encouraged classical learning, and the stories were a common property, with lustre untarnished by time's withering hands. Shakespeare married at eighteen. We must allow time for courtship, etc. Why, I was told the usual heroics about Troy, etc., at my mother's knee. Perhaps, as " Alpha of the Plough" says, "We are all flunkeys." Could this apply to classics ? I mentioned botany for a reason. Linneas made it the medium because' he thought Latin was a universal. This was a calamity. It debars the common man, and creates confusion. God makes the world full of variety. Monotony is- death. If only roses were the flowers, or we had to live on toffee, as Gilbert says, life would be stale, flat and unprofitable. The same in medicine, law, etc. You shut out the common man. In conclusion, lam thankful for such a dignified reply. It has rebuked me in the best way for my. perhaps, overstrained attack. Altiora Peio.