CLASSICS OR SCIENCE?

Sun (Christchurch), Volume V, Issue 1339, 29 May 1918, Page 4

CLASSICS OR SCIENCE?

REPLY TO THE CRITICS. ARE GREEK AND LATIN REALLt* DEAD? To the Editor of THE SUN. Sir, —It seems to he the fashion notr* adays where two or three are gathered together in the name of Education to pronounce (on the so-called "dead languages") funeral orations embellished touching references to departed glories. The requiem of Latin has just been resung at the Teachers' Conference. Jn the judicial realm, I believe, it is etiquette to hold the inquest an.l arrange for the obsequies only when satisfactory evidence is forthcoming that the spirit has really fled. Apart from the fact that in other countries (Germany included) the evidence is in the opposite direction, and an increased interest in the Classics is being shown, there are still a few oldfashioned people in New Zealand, who have not yet been convinced of the ileadness of Greek or Latin. The writer is one of these back numbers. Now, we have all heard about flogging dead horses, but you don't find people bai-kiug dead horses, even if they do not always pick winners, and backers are usually sure there is some life in. the animal before they put the money on.

The case in favour of the vitality of the Greek horse, which was buried in effigy at any rate, a few years ago in New Zealand, is a very simple one. The Greek of Homer, and of the great classical age is nearer to modern Greek by far than Chaucer is to our own in point of intelligibility. Result—the Greek fishmonger of to-day with a primary school education reads in the original the amazing literary heritage of his country with greater case than most University men read Chaucer, and the Greek classics are two thousand years further away. I have not studied modern Greek myself, but the small knowledge I have of the ancient tongue enabled me to translate a few months ago a modern Greek marine certificate with very little trouble. It is hardly necessary to point out that as the realms of science and philosophy go on expanding, they constantly draw on Greek for their new terms. These, of course, are mere sepulchral echoes of that speech admittedly the unrivalled instrument for the expression of philosophic - thought. On the deadness of Greek let me quote a few words from Professor Burnet's " Education and the War"—"lt is a strange thing that the only languages which are still living after all these centuries should be called the ' dead languages'. . . .

Latin and Greek alone anil above all Greek, seem to be ageless ami deathless. It is only because those 'who use the term have an uncomfortable feeling; that they ought to be dead, ami are not that they trouble to call them dead. Greek at any rate was never more alive than it is to-day." Professor Burnet knows other things than Greek and Latin, amongst them philosophy and German education, and those who imagine German higher education is saturated with science had better read his book, and they will get the shock of their lives.

I come now to the Latin horse to se9 if there is any chance of collecting money on him. I remember a friend of mine now a "wicked" science professor in Australia telling me that cnce when ho was at the beginning of a cycle toar in Italy, he came to a point where the read forked and uncertain which arm to take he asked an Italian road-mender his direction by means of signs and by naming his destination. He rece: vrd the instruction. "Sempre continuare, signor," which the veriest tyro in Latin would recognise for "Keep straight on, sir." To the amazement of his tjuide hj« burst, out laughing, for not lacking a sense of humour he realised that the "dead" language that had been p-.unf-ed iuto him at school had come to life again most unexpectedly and in a very practical shape. Expressing his thanks, he rode on, saying to himself, "I shall get on finelv if thev speak Latin like that."

Thanks to the same dead language and. Dint's "Temple Classics" edition of "Dante," and with some help from Dr Carlyle *s version on the right-hand page, I have been able to appreciate ranch of this sublime poet in the original, and also to make some progress with modern Italian without having recourse to systematic grammatical study or other aid than the dictionary. I sometimes ainuse myself by trying to make out by the aid of Latin the advertisements on Colgate's shaving soap and certain .'patent medicines printed in Spanish and | Portuguese, and I have come to the conclusion that I should not have much ' trouble in learning either of those ton- ! gues, while I am quite sure that the ease with which I learned French was due to my knowledge of Latin. However, so far from being influenced by the rising popularity of French, I shoul 1 advocate a boy's beginning with Latin and then passing on to Italian for his modern language, and if he wanted another, he would find French, after Latin and Italian had supplied his vocabulary, a mere bagetelle. The stock arguments on the value of Latin as forming with Greek the foundation of Western culture, as being a powerful nil] to the study of the mother tongue (wl>i.-h is simply undeniable) and :is a means of mental discipline. I mention only to pass by. In reference to the last point, I jiiight add for the benefit of those who imagine that the doctrine of formal training is fighting a losing battle in the last ditch, as I have seen it expressed, that a perusal of the chapter on "Humanism" in Burnet 's book might cause them to modify that view considerably. Professor Baur, a Vienna scientist, is quoted as saying: "<!ive me a boy who knows his Latin grammar and I will answer for his chemistry." Let the scientific bigots brood over that. One of our greatest English scientists has also confessed that In- owed a {ireat deal to the systematic fashion in which he was taken through •lelf's "Greek Grammar" at college. Now, I do not hold that either classics or science has the secret of the elixir of life, but 1 cannot for the life of me see that a strong enough case has been made out for scratching the Orcf-k and Latin horses and advancing th<» science horse halfway up tLe stm' ' t for :i great concourse to collect a .«n dividend nt the finish. Abandoning my frivolous metaphor. I say with Mr Bevan Blown tlint we cannot :iffor.| to go on incontinently jettisoning tilings of spiritual import so that we may the better lay up the treasures that moth and do corrupt and where thieves break through and steal. —I am. etc., S. R. DICKIXSOX. St. Andrew's College. Mav 21.