The teacher and the pupil alike are placed between the
two stools--interpretation and drill. A new generation of teachers must
arise to attain the dexterity requisite for the task.
Professor Blackie's concession is of no small importance in the actual
situation. "No one is to receive a full degree without showing a fair
proficiency in two foreign languages, one ancient and one modern, with
free option." This would almost satisfy the present demand everywhere,
and for some time to come.
[ARGUMENT FROM RESULTS.]
The article of Professor Bonamy Price is conceived in even a higher
strain than the other. There is so far a method of argumentation in it
that the case is laid out under four distinct heads, but there is no
decisive separation of reasons; many of the things said under one head
might easily be transferred without the sense of dislocation to any
other head. The writer indulges in high-flown rhetorical assertions
rather than in specific facts and arguments. The first merit of classics
is that "they are languages; not particular sciences, nor definite
branches of knowledge, but literatures". Under this head we have such
glowing sentences as these: "Think of the many elements of thought a boy
comes in contact with when he reads Caesar and Tacitus in succession,
Herodotus and Homer, Thucydides and Aristotle".
Pages:
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171