NON SCHOLAE SED VITAE DISCIMUS.

Southland Times, Issue 20540, 17 July 1928, Page 3

NON SCHOLAE SED VITAE DISCIMUS.

To the Editor. Sir, —Tempus fugit. It will be half a century next year since the Southland Giris’ High School opened in Ramsay’s Hall where Messrs Thomson and Beattie’s premises now stand. The Boys’ School followed two years later with its first head master in the person of the late W. G. Blanchflower, who gave the school its motto. Yes, time flies! Whatever else crashes Time’s passage meets with no interruptions. These reflections are suggested by your editorial note to “Old Boy’s” letter which appeared in your issue of the 11th inst. My object in writing is not, however, to moralise on the flight of time, but to offer some criticisms on the note referred to. In response to “Old Boy’s” request for enlightment as to the origin and meaning of the High School motto—“ Non Scholae sed Vitae Discimus”—you state that the motto is taken from Seneca’s third letter to Lucilius. This appears to be incorrect. I think I may go. further and say that the motto, as it stands, is not from Seneca at all. I at any rate have been unable to find it. There are 124 of these letters, however, and it may be that my search has failed to discover it. It is interesting to note that the 106th letter closes with the sentence, “Non vitae sed scholae discimus,” and it would appear that the school motto is an adaptation by inversion of this sentence. I venture, further, to question the correctness of your translation—“We learn not for ostentation but for use.” I think the case endings of “scholae” and “vitae” are locatives and indicate place, not benefit or advantage. Both on considerations of grammar and of the general import of the letter which they conclude, I think the words “Non vitae sed scholae discimus” mean “We learn not in real life but in the lecture room.” If this is the meaning of Seneca’s original sentence then it follows that the school motto should be taken to mean “We learn not in the lecture room but in real life”—“Real learning, the getting of wisdom, begins not in the schoolroom but in the battle with the realities of life.”— I am, etc., W.M.