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" Manners makyth Man "

OUR RENAISSANCE

TO CAPTAIN

W. L. PAINE

WHO LIVED FOR OUR RENAISSANCE

Our Renaissance

Essays on the Reform and Revival
of Classical Studies

BY

HENRY BROWNE, S.J.

M.A ., New College, Oxford ; Professor of Greek in University

College, Dublin ; Chairman of the Archceological Aids Committee of

the Association for the Reform of Latin Teaching

WITH A PREFACE BY

SIR FREDERIC KENYON, K.C.B.

Director of the British Museum

BROWNE AND NOLAN, LIMITED

DUBLIN BELFAST CORK WATERFORD
1917

PREFACE

PROFESSOR BROWNE has asked me to write a few
words of introduction to his volume, and I am
very willing to do so, not because I think his essays
need any commendation from me, nor yet merely
because we are brother Wykehamists of the College
of St. Mary Win ton at Oxford, but because I am
glad to be associated with him in the educational
crusade which he has undertaken.

Professor Browne has long been working in the
cause of Classical studies. He has been an active
member of the Classical Associations of England
and Ireland, and has held the presidency of the
latter body. He has been particularly concerned
with the re-vitalizing of Classical education in our
schools and colleges, and lays special stress, as
readers of this volume will see, on impressing young
students with a sense of the reality of ancient life,
by bringing them into direct contact with the
extant remains of Classical civilization, such as
coins, pottery, sculpture, architecture, and the
various relics of the daily life of Greece and Rome.
Now, I am not prepared to admit that Classical
education in the past was so lifeless and uninspiring
as Professor Browne appears to hold. Probably we
all argue very largely from our personal experiences
(indeed, many would-be educational reformers seem
to have omitted to inform themselves of the de-
velopments which have taken place since their own
school-days) ; and my own experience is that a

vi Preface

Classical education thirty or forty years ago could
be a very inspiring thing, and could include a very
substantial grounding in subjects other than the
Classics. It could include (in addition to Biblical
and religious teaching) an ample allowance of
mathematics and of history, ancient and modern,
sufficient French and German to enable the student
to develop his acquaintance with these languages
subsequently without difficulty, and a modicum of
natural science ; and it could be taught in a way
which left no doubt as to the reality of ancient life
and the value of ancient literature.

Nevertheless, I do not dispute the need for fresh
stimulus in the Classical teaching of to-day. Each
generation has to face its own problems ; and while
the born teacher will make his methods interesting
by force of his own character, the average teacher
may well be grateful for encouragement and for
hints as to the employment of new devices. Classical
education has to face the competition of many sub-
jects, some of which have a more obviously practical
appeal. Those who believe in it have to justify it
to themselves by the assurance of its superiority as
a training for character and intellect, and to others
by showing its bearing upon the life and thought
of to-day. They must show that it is vital
and interesting ; that the life and problems of
Greece and Rome have lessons of immediate
application to the life and problems of modern
Europe, and all the more instructive because they
can be studied in detachment from the party cries
of our own time ; that their literatures are not only
the basis of our own, but are, in many instances, the

Preface vii

supreme expression of thoughts which are as real
a ad vital to-day as they were two thousand years
ago ; that Greece and Rome at their best are, in
fact, more modern, more closely akin to us, than
most of the centuries that have intervened. All
this can be done by good teaching ; and teachers can
help one another by public profession of their
common faith, and by reciprocal suggestion of
improved methods which they have themselves
found useful.

Among these methods is the utilization of the
archaeological discoveries of the last century. The
eighteenth century, deeply rooted though it was in
the Classics, knew them only as literature. To
them (with a few exceptions) Greece was Homer
and Athens, Rome was Virgil, Horace, and Cicero.
The nineteenth century brought us much nearer to
the life of the ancient world. It is hard to realize
the wealth which the twentieth century has in-
herited from the archaeological labours of the nine-
teenth. The Elgin Marbles ; the Greek vases ; the
excavations of Schliemann and Sir Arthur Evans ;
Olympia and Delphi ; Pompeii and Ostia ; the wealth
of historical detail derived from inscriptions ; the
new literature revealed by papyri from Egypt ; the
intensive study of ancient literature, ethnology,
and mythology — all this and much more has been
added to the literature which has been our inspira-
tion since the Renaissance. And all this is now,
through improvements in the mechanism of repro-
duction and publication, at the disposal of the
teacher who is introducing his pupils to the riches
of which they are the inheritors.

viii Preface

In this connexion Professor Browne lays much
stress on the services which can be rendered by
museums and collections of antiquities ; and the
report which he has drawn up for the British Asso-
ciation, and which is printed as an appendix to the
present volume, is a valuable and interesting docu-
ment. Perhaps he, like others who are interested in
recent developments, is inclined to exalt the work
of the last few years at the expense of the work
of the previous generation. The popularization of
museums is not a wholly new idea, though it has
made notable strides of late ; and the latest de-
velopment— the institution of well-equipped guides
to give oral demonstrations and instruction — is not
the only way in which museums reach the public.
To speak only of the Museum which I know best,
and which led the way in the institution of demon-
strator-guides in this country, the real reform dates
some twenty or thirty years further back, and is
to be found in the arrangement of exhibits with
special reference to the interest and instruction of
the general public, and in the provision of labels
and guide-books suited to the needs of those who are
not specialists. This reform, which should be con-
nected especially with the names of Sir E. Maunde
Thompson and Sir W. Flower, is the source from
which the later improvements spring, because it
contains the fountain idea, that museums can be
centres for the cultivation of educated interest, and
not merely the preserves of specialists or places for
the gratification of an idle and rather bored curiosity.

In this renaissance of museums I believe it is
correct to say that the British Museum, under its

Preface ix

former chiefs, led the way ; but the example has
been widely followed, and there are now, all over
the country, local museums whose curators are en-
thusiastically striving to make the institutions over
which they preside real sources of inspiration and
intellectual encouragement for their own neigh-
bourhoods. The first step is the arrangement of the
exhibits in a way which is at once attractive to the
eye and based upon a scientific system. Where col-
lections are large, the method of selection should be
practised, so that the casual visitor may not be
wearied, nor his judgment confused, through his
inability to discriminate between the better and the
worse examples. Nearly all museums would benefit
by a much ampler provision of storage space, where
a large proportion of the collections could be kept
for the use of such students as require them, while
the public galleries would be at once more intel-
ligible and more restful for the general visitor.
Where facilities do not exist for such a division of the
collections, it is one of the great uses of the guide-
demonstrator that he can perform for the visitor
the needful process of selection and discrimination.

The next step is the provision of full descriptive
labels and simple but scientific guide-books. Without
these there is no education except for the few who
are able to educate themselves. A second-rate
museum with good labels is a better educational
agency than a first-rate museum with labels which
are either too meagre or too technical ; while the
guide-books of a good museum may be real hand-
books to the subjects of which they treat.

A newer development, which has only become

x Preface

possible within the present generation, is the pro-
vision of reproductions on a large scale. Photo-
graphs, whether large or of the popular postcard
size, lantern slides, casts, electrotypes, seal-im-
pressions, can be obtained in large numbers and at
moderate prices. So far as cheap photographs are
concerned, there is not much ground for complaint
in this country. Every active museum has them,
and the public shows its appreciation by buying
them. But lantern slides are not nearly as largely
used as they might be. Apart from the collections
of the Societies for the Promotion of Hellenic and
Roman Studies, no large scientific collection of
archaeological slides exists in this country, to my
knowledge. The demand for the loan sets, which
are available at the British Museum, has not been
sufficient to justify their multiplication to the ex-
tent which would be easily possible. In this respect
the teachers of this country seem to be behind their
colleagues in America ; but I believe the museums
are ready to respond to the demand when it comes.
The provision of guide-demonstrators is the com-
plement of these other methods of bringing the
educational resources of the museums to bear on
the public. The new guide-demonstrator (in the
invention of which as a regular institution America
led the way, though a good deal of informal work
of the same kind had previously been done in this
country) is a creature wholly different from the
ciceroni who used to infest continental galleries.
He is an educated man, well acquainted with the
contents of the museum in which he works, able to
appreciate the real scientific, artistic, or historic

Preface xi

importance of the collections, but with the gift of
explaining them in a way which is interesting and
intelligible to visitors.

How far this new development, which had made
so promising a start before the war, will go it is
impossible to say ; but it has won both popular and
official favour, and its possibilities are very great.
Education depends on two things : the matter taught,
and the power of the teacher. The guide-demon-
strator in the museum combines both elements ; the
material is around him, and if he has the gift of
instruction his opportunity is great. But here, as
in the whole question of educational reform, the
personal element must not be forgotten. No pro-
vision of apparatus, however ample, no accumula-
tion of lantern slides or photographs, will command
the attention or win the interest of the learner,
unless the teacher has a true enthusiasm for his
subject and the gift of imparting it. However much
we may talk about methods and apparatus, success
or failure in education depends upon the teacher.

It is not for me, however, to develop at length the
theories dealt with by Professor Browne, nor to try
to substitute my expression of them for his. I
desire merely to add my testimony to his with regard
to certain points, and to express my sympathy with
his views and his aspirations.

One thing only I desire to say in conclusion, with
reference to the whole tone of Professor Browne's
treatment of the subject. This book is not con-
troversial. It is not engaged in disparaging other
branches of education in order to exalt the Classics.
It is positive and not negative. This is a feature

xii Preface

as valuable as it is, unfortunately, rare in educa-
tional writings. In the present stage of educational
development I believe it is of the first importance
that those who believe in education should co-operate
and not fight one another. There is no reason why
the most ardent believer in the Classics should decry
History or English or Natural Science ; and there is
every reason why the believers in all these subjects
should combine to secure for the youth of the
country an adequate introduction to all of them,
with facilities for further study of any of them,
according to the tastes and aptitudes of the student.
All these subjects are good ; all are necessary for a
complete liberal education. It is for the repre-
sentatives and advocates of each to proclaim the
merits of their own subject, to prove its utility by
results, to forward its interests by their labour ; but
all this may be done without hostility to those who
are concerned with other subjects, humanistic or
scientific. What we want is constructive educational
development, not destructive criticism ; and if the
extremists of all parties would devote their driving-
power to the reforms of their own methods, I have
no doubt that the moderate men could devise a
concordat which would give scope to all.

It is because I believe Professor Browne's work to
be constructive and stimulating that I would com-
mend it, so far as I have any power to do so, to all
those who care either for the Classics or for the
education of the next generation of our race.

FREDERIC G. KENYON.

SUMMARY OF CONTENTS

PAGE

PREFACE ..... v

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER

Our Renaissance : its meaning, aim, and I

method .....
Our Renaissance contrasted with the Great
Revival — Mental discipline supplied by Hel-
lenism— Influence not mainly (Esthetic — Draw-
backs of City-State — Greek achievement —
Struggle between West and East— Prehistoric,
Hellenic, Hellenistic, periods — Combination of
Greek and Roman study — Deeper side of
Greek influence — Religion and war ; Religion
and art — Substitution of Scientific training
for Humanism — Science a branch of Humanism
and founded by it — Mathematics and Medical
science — Are Greek studies out of date ? — Hints
on Method.

PART THE FIRST

THE VOICE OF HELLAS

CHAPTER II — The Pursuit of Beauty . 35

JEstheticism, a superficial test of Greek genius
— How far were the Greeks strenuous? — The
second-rate a fallacious test — Homer, fountain-
head of Hellenism — Inspiration of great world-
epics — Pindaric and Aristophanic art — Thucy-
didean style — Plato the best representative of
Hellenism — His attitude towards poetry — After
Plato, Sophocles.

xiv Summary of Contents

PAGE
CHAPTER III — Greece, the Cradle of

Democracy .... 63

Greek philosophy of the State, its sanity — What
is Democracy ? — Athens, champion of democracy
— In Athens, reaction caused by abuses — Chorus
of condemnation — Aristotle, equally with Plato,
detests Athenian democracy — Reasons for this
failure : industrialism, slavery, and dislike of
hard work — Aristotle's fundamental conception
of the State more ideal than Plato's — He defines
Democracy (of Athens) as Perversion — Seeks
harmony of conflicting interests — Praises the
middle class of the State — Sympathizes with sane
democratic principle.

CHAPTER IV — The Religious Sense . 89

Alleged irreligion of the Greeks — Reverence for
their Dead — Difficulty of inquiry — Cautions as
to employment of tests — Cults of the City-State
essentially non-national — Rational element in
religion — Anthropomorphism easily exaggerated
— Individual Greeks — Evidence of religious
faith — Gaiety of heart not irreligious — Form and
spirit of Dionysiac Drama — Influence of Delphi
— The Eleusinian Mysteries — Attitude of philo-
sophers to popular religion — Darker side of
Greek paganism — Our verdict.

Summary of Contents xv

PART THE SECOND
THE CLASSICAL REVIVAL

PAGE

CHAPTER V—The Gospel of Work . .117

Education a Labour of Love — Competitive ex-
aminations— Drudgery imposed on students — Is
the game worth the candle ? — The old Humanists
— Real knowledge of antiquity — Teacher's mind
saturated with his subject — Our improved posi-
tion as regards hand-books — Critical editions —
Intensive versus extensive reading — Grammar
and composition — Living and dead languages —
The Direct Method — Supremacy of Classics.

CHAPTER VI— " New Wine in Old Bottles " 145

Classics formerly aristocratic — Reform comes
from below — Literature in connexion with
History — Need for enthusiasm — Eye-teaching
and the vis inertise —Cicero's experience of visual
impressions — Attacks of extreme scientists —
Action of Classical Association — Its real sig-
nificance— Lessons of the War — Our dependence
upon Germany for apparatus — Criteria of
Modern Education.

CHAPTER VII — How to Quicken Appre-
ciation of Classics . . .184

Principle of Eye-teaching — Why insisted on
beyond other matters — Numismatic teaching —
Coin-collecting as hobby — Historical aspects of
coins — Illustrations from Roman history, and
Greek — Direct illustration of texts useless — Ex-
periment of circulating museums — Difficulties
of this method — Preparation of special cabinets
— Supply of lantern slides — Photographs and
diagrams — Need of tactual or tri-dimensional
exhibits — Experience of Committee of A.R.L.T.
— Summary of things to avoid.

xvi Summary of Contents

PAGE

CHAPTER VIII— A New Era for Public

Museums .... 208

Educational value of Museums — Lord Sudeley's
propaganda — Committee of British Association
(Education Section) — Three classes of visitors
to museum — Question of Demonstrator-guides —
Views of Dr. Bather (V ice-Chairman of Com-
mittee)— Museum movement in America —
Report by Miss Connolly — Greek and Roman
life at British Museum — Classical material for
Public Museums — Why sparsely provided —
How to press our claims — Detailed suggestions
(sculpture, pottery, metal-objects, reproductions,
numismatic specimens, Romano-British exhibits).

APPENDIX No. 1 — Report on Museums

in relation to the Humanities . 243

PART 1 — British Schools and Colleges . 244

Questionnaire — Queries to Curators only —
Replies from public museums in London — in
the Provinces — Replies from academic museums
— Queries addressed to educationists only — Indi-
vidual replies — The Universities — The Public
Schools — Other Secondary Schools.

PART 2 — American Museums . . . 263

General remarks — University of Pennsylvania
— Boston Museum of Fine Arts — Metropolitan
Museum of New York — Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity— State Universities and others — Classical
Schools — Archaeological Institute of America.

APPENDIX No. 2. — Suggested Catalogue
of Circulating Exhibits, with
estimated cost .... 273

Lantern slides (topographical, ancient art,
general antiquities, numismatic, town-planning)
— Photographs, wall-pictures, and diagrams —
Numismatic cabinets (originals and reproduc-
tions)— Cabinets of small antiquities (Minoan
replicas, pottery, bronze, various) — Epigra-
phical exhibits — Illustrated books — Summary
regarding estimated cost.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER

AN ADDRESS

OUR RENAISSANCE : ITS MEANING, AIM, AND
METHOD

The following was the Annual Address given
at Chicago in April, 1916, before the Classical
Association of the Middle West and South.
The speaker explained that as he had come to
America in a representative capacity — in order
precisely to be able to report to a Committee of
the British Association (Education Section) on
certain methods of Classical Education in use in
America — he had felt some doubt as to the pro-
priety of imposing his own views upon the
Association, but had found it impossible to decline
the honour conferred by their President in
inviting him.

Those who are concerned in our Renaissance
are in no danger of forgetting not only that
the great Revival of Classical Learning a few
centuries ago was the commencement of all
modern history, but that it has a very
particular interest for Americans. Undoubt-
edly the discovery of your country was the
direct outcome of that wonderful stirring of
men's minds and hearts which closed the old
era and heralded the new. Nor will you,
who are involved in the effort to revivify the
Classical learning in the twentieth century,

2 Our Renaissance :

object to my comparing this effort, modest
though it may be relatively speaking, with
the Renaissance of the fifteenth century. The
aim of those great Humanists was no doubt a
great one, but we claim to have one identically
similar. They called themselves Humanists,
just because they wanted to benefit humanity
as a whole, and not in any sectional degree.
We, too, believe, and we try to convince
others, that the restoration of Classical study
on rational lines would be a real boon to
human education all along the line and a
real contribution to the most vital welfare of
human society. They were certainly en-
thusiasts— we are nothing if not that. They
founded academies to promote their cause in
the great centres of Italian, and, later, of North
European, culture ; we have founded Classical
Associations all over the world — in England,
ten ; Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, three ; in
America, three ; in Australia, three ; in India,
one. They aroused opposition, they were
decried and sometimes misunderstood ; we
ourselves — well, it is the fate of all good
people, is it not ? Above all they came to
stay ; we are not going to say where we shall
be in five hundred years time, but anyhow
we are not going to be got rid of very easily,
and we hope to give a fairly good account
of our stewardship.

There are, however, two points of contrast,
which might be indicated, between the posi-
tion of the great Humanists and our own.

Its Meaning, Aim, and Method 3

It was very clearly pointed out by the late
Sir Richard Jebb, of Cambridge, that the
revival of learning owed very little to the
Universities : on the contrary, it was viewed
with great suspicion by the Universities,
which were naturally impregnated with medi-
eval ideas. Now, on the whole, even though
there may have been some exceptions here
and there, the Universities have done very
well by our movement and have generally
extended a generous sympathy and encour-
agement to the work of the Classical Associa-
tions. Again, the Renaissance, at least in its
earlier stages, was distinctly an aristocratic
movement. Our movement, on the contrary,
appeals directly to the mass of the people.
We are trying to democratize Classical study
— we strain our efforts to bring home to the
ordinary men and women of to-day that they
must by no means allow the ancient learning
to be crowded out in the educational struggle
for existence, unless they would deprive them-
selves and their children of a precious inherit-
ance. We tell them that without a knowledge
of the earlier phases of history and letters all
their mental culture would become sickly and
anaemic, that the very soul of humanity would
be wounded and enfeebled, and that not merely
in their academic life but in their social and
civic relationships, men would be poorer and
the standards of their loyal service would be
lowered through daring to despise the record
of the past.

4 Our Renaissance :

In the remarks which I shall offer in illus-
tration of this thesis I shall take it for granted
that you, as members of an almost national
Classical Association, believe with me that no
mental discipline can be better than that
which aims at producing an understanding of
and a reasonable sympathy with Classical life,
and more particularly with Hellenism. But let
this attitude of ours be clearly understood.
We do not by any means contend that the
Greeks were free from faults in their char-
acter, in their domestic life, or, above all, in
their politics. We may learn a great deal
from their deficiencies, and it is no part of
our thesis that any nation has ever been, or
indeed can be, perfect. What we maintain
is that from any human standpoint the
Greeks were incomparably the greatest people
the world has ever known, and that they
were so on account of their ideals or rather
because they knew how to translate their
ideals into reality. What is true of a man
is true of a nation. A dreamer is no good.
The Greeks were not dreamers, they were
practical people. That is my thesis, to put it
as short as I can. And now I will try to
prove it.

In the domain of art and literature, which
has a great deal to say to idealism, nobody
doubts that the Greeks were supreme. But
I believe the champions of Hellenism do
wrong to it by harping so much on one side
of the question that they forget to insist on

Its Meaning, Aim, and Method 5

other aspects which are quite as important.
It is all very well to insist on the excellence
of Greek poetry and Greek drama, and the
importance of Greek sculpture in the history
of high art — but in saying this let us never
forget the greatness of Greece in quite other
departments. What I may call the more
human and even material side of Greek
achievement ought not to be overlooked.

Poetry, of course, is a great thing, but only
in so far as it is a genuine index of the human
spirit in its finest aspiration. If we are to
divorce it from all that it rightly and neces-
sarily implies, if we are to regard it as a sort
of graceful recreation or exotic bloom of
beauty — then I hold it a very doubtful pro-
position that this would be the best mental
pabulum with which we could possibly pro-
vide the generations of our youth. Aristotle
classes poets with lunatics — at least they are
often dreamers, and dreamers many people
hold in abomination. But the great poets of
the world, the Homers and the Vergils and the
Dantes, were not dreamers — they were very
strenuous persons, and they left the world a
deal richer and better than they found it.
When human nature is raised to its highest
power by patriotism, holy ambition, love or
religion, then the voice of the poet will make
itself heard ; emotions thrive by expression,
and hence the true educationist, who is a vital
person, knows that poetry has value in promot-
ing the vital activities of the human soul.

6 Our Renaissance :

I have said this because I want you to
clearly understand that if I take your thoughts
away from the more aesthetic side of the
Classical revival to-night, it is not because I
undervalue Greek art and Greek and Roman
poetry. But it is my belief that, as long as
we emphasize what is more or less obvious,
namely, the supremacy of the Greek mind in
the world of art and literature, we may easily
lose our bearings. The questions which I
shall raise are broader and more vital than any
question of mere artistic excellence.*

Let us now turn to the subject of Greek
politics. At first sight they appear to have
been rather futile. If, for instance, we com-
pare the external history of Greece with that
of Rome we are at once struck by a strong
and painful contrast. By the might of their
hands the Romans built up a large and last-
ing Empire which, beyond question, civilized
Europe and contributed to the progress of the
human race. And what picture does Greek
history present ? Chiefly a weltering mass of
ineffectual and incohesive city-states, without
unity of aim or any very important results in
the political order. To say that the civiliza-
tion spread by Rome was mainly Greek in its
character is to enunciate a fact, and, of course,
it is an important fact, but one not exactly
to the point. The intellect of Greece un-
doubtedly conquered Rome, and that just at

* In Chapter II. this question is discussed from the standpoint
of Greek literature itself.

Its Meaning, Aim, and Method 7

the time when Rome became the great world-
power ; but we are speaking now not of the
triumphs of the intellect, but of political effi-
ciency. Human progress demands intellect,
but it is mainly a matter of strength, of
strength practically applied and wisely util-
ized for the betterment of human society.
Let us, therefore, recall what Greece effected
for mankind in the days of her strength, not
in the way of the spirit only, but also in the
external order of warfare, commerce, and State
administration. It must be granted that,
owing largely to climatic and temperamental
conditions, Greece was never properly unified,
nor was her strength fully turned to account
by the practical methods which imperial
Rome employed. What I have to insist upon
is that this very contrast may cause us to
forget or to under-estimate the genuine
military and political record of the Hellenic
people.

Before going into the details of Greek his-
tory we might ask why it is so conspicuous
for the absence of national unity and of
political concentration of energy ? This was
evidently due to the existence and nature of
the city-state. Every true Hellene was proud
to belong to a sovereign city and to have a
direct and personal share in its government, a
share which might vary indeed in the different
constitutions, but was always the one thing
that marked off the free citizen from the slave
or the metic. This love of freedom and of

8 Our Renaissance :

citizenship was a passion with the Greeks—
when they called foreigners Barbaroi they
meant first and foremost that they were not
free citizens. To trace this idea down through
the ages, to show how the democratic prin-
ciples which we cherish are a very direct in-
heritance from our Hellenic forerunners would
be an interesting task, but perhaps a trifle
obvious. This tendency of the Greek mind
has been so often referred to that we may,
I think, take it for granted to-night. I merely
wish to repeat that, if the Greeks rendered a
service to humanity (and especially I might
add to America) by their love of civic freedom,
which meant what we call municipal, as dis-
tinct from national, politics, it is easy for us
to understand how for them imperialism or
even nationality, in the fullest sense, was sadly
undeveloped. The Athenian Empire was,
perhaps, the least galling of the different
hegemonies which we know sprang up at
various periods of history upon Greek soil.
It was also, perhaps, the best effort made
towards realizing Greek national unity, and
yet we know how it failed. Every city that
belonged to it, in its later and more developed
form, felt gravely humiliated by the very fact
of being included in the Athenian Empire,
and every individual owning allegiance to a
subject city felt something was wanting to
his dignity as a Hellene.

Such was the democratic feeling among the
Greeks, a blessed heirloom for ages yet unborn,

Its Meaning, Aim, and Method 9

and a great force, as events proved, even
in war — but one that carried with it many
drawbacks for the external efficiency of
the Hellenic race. If, then, I can prove, as I
mean to, that, in spite of such serious draw-
backs, Greek policy was by no means as
abortive of permanent results as one could
easily conclude, I shall consider that their
title to our admiration and gratitude becomes
clearer to us by reason of the difficulties
which they encountered.

I need not speak of Marathon, Thermo-
pylae, and Salamis : you will take for granted
that at least for a moment the Greeks did
put up a splendid fight in their struggle with
the Persian invader. But when we look at
the final result of those great victories we
are undoubtedly disappointed to find that
within a century Persia is again exercising a
kind of predominant influence over the Greeks,
somewhat subtle, perhaps, but, practically, so
like her former over lordship as hardly to be
worth distinguishing from it. Again, when
Alexander invades Persia in return and over-
runs the Eastern Empire like a human tornado,
we find after less than a generation his dreams
have been to a large extent frustrated, and
the work he accomplished is undone. You
might urge this point and say : Of course the
Greeks were brilliant fighters, for they were
brilliant at everything, but did they know
how to press home their victory, did they
achieve any permanent results ? For we have

10 Our Renaissance:

a right to inquire about any national policy
what Mrs. Siddons asked the shopman about
his fabric, when she struck her stage attitude
and shouted to him in tragedy tones, " Young
man, but will this wash ? "

I would submit, then, that there is another
side to the story of Greek warfare and states-
manship. Let us take a broader outlook.
What is the greatest outstanding feature in
the history of Europe, and indeed of the
whole world ? It is what is often called the
Eternal Question, the ever-abiding struggle
for supremacy between East and West. The
Orient was first in the field, it put up a great
fight when challenged, it has never been quite
defeated, we cannot say to-day that it ever
will be. I need not particularize. I prefer
not to speak of current events, of the Pacific,
of those Semite influences which are so potent
in our midst.

But I say this. On the whole we of the
West have had the best of the struggle, and
for this we have first and foremost to thank
the Greeks. No one who fails to see this
has read ancient history to any purpose.
He has failed to see the forest for the trees.
Besides, I am sure that students of Greek
history suffer from allowing themselves to be
so much dazzled by the moments of extreme
brilliancy that they comparatively neglect
whole periods, which, though less noteworthy
from the standpoint of literature and art, yet
demand our serious attention. Vixere fortes

Its Meaning, Aim, and Method 11

ante Agamemnona, and long before the days
of Marathon the Greeks had done mighty
acts of valour. One advantage accruing to
the archaeological discoveries of our times is
that the attention of Greek scholars has been
riveted on the first beginnings of Hellenism,
and we are now, for the first time, able to
speak with relative confidence of the earlier
periods of Greek social and political life. We
are in a position to realize better than formerly
the conditions which prevailed in Europe when,
after a period of confusion known as the Dark
Age, the Greek race first began to rise from
obscurity and to have a consciousness of its
own nationhood. We know that after the
break up of Minoan civilization, in the thir-
teenth and twelfth centuries before Christ,
the men of Canaan or Phoenicia were for a
time supreme in the waterways of the West.
With their galleys, built from the pines and
cedars of the Lebanon, they swept the seas,
carried on their world-wide commerce in tap-
estries and dyed-stuffs, glass, ivories, gems
and metal-work, spices and perfumes, and all
the products of the Near and Far East, spread
the use of arithmetic and alphabetic writing
among the people of the coast, and thus kept
alive the torch of humanism. This was the
heyday of the Orient in the West, and it
was owing to the activity and enterprise of
the Ionic Greeks that these Phoenician mer-
chants soon lost the supremacy of the Medi-
terranean. We need not deny that Europe

12 Our Renaissance :

was indebted to those Asiatic sea-lords for
much that is valuable in its civilization;
yet, after all, we are Westerns — you are West-
erns, even though you belong only to the
Association of the Middle West. You will
not, I take it, anyhow, regret that the des-
tinies of the human race were not left to the
hands of the Phoenicians to be finally disposed
of. We have almost no records, monumental
or literary, of the period. Homer had passed
away — in the Odyssey, no doubt, we get a
glimpse of the beginnings of Ionian wander-
ings in search of new fields of activity. But,
at the dawn of Greek history, at the begin-
ning of the eighth century, we find the lonians
had already pushed their way into the Euxine,
had seized its gates, the Dardanelles and the
Bosphorus, and had begun to plant in those
parts colonies which rapidly rose to import-
ance. In the West, Cumae, far up the western
coast of Italy, had been already founded, and
not later than 700 B.C. (according to the
newest chronology fixed on recent examina-
tion of pottery) the Greek cities of Sicily,
including Syracuse, had begun to flourish. At
this date, therefore, clearly the Phoenicians
must have been driven away from Greek
waters to the West, where they founded the
new Empire, which, later on, so valiantly fought
with Rome for the hegemony of Europe and
the world.

Our knowledge, then, of the struggle which
ended in the victory of the Ionian Greeks over

Its Meaning, Aim, and Method 13

the Orient is extremely limited. All we can
say of it is that it must have been a bitter
struggle extending over many centuries, and
that at the period when we count the history
of the Greeks as commencing, this wonderful
people had already shown their grit and had
tasted the delights of hard-won victory.

Next after this period of struggle for the
command of the sea and long before what is
generally considered the Classical period — I
mean, of course, the days of Miltiades and
Pericles — came the Age of Tyrants, a period
to which justice has not always been done by
historians. The reason of this, no doubt, is
that the Greeks themselves, after they had
reached the full stature of their liberty and
democratic power, naturally looked back with
disdain upon a period when Greeks, like
Orientals, owned allegiance to a master.
Despots, in any complete sense of the word,
the Tyrants were not ; yet the later Greeks
were ashamed of the very name, which prob-
ably is not a Hellenic word, and certainly
was something uncongenial to Hellenic tem-
perament. Yet the age of Tyrants was a
great age — it has even been maintained that
it was the greatest age of the Greeks. At
least Freeman (who was a supreme authority
on Classical history, strongly devoted to Hel-
lenism, and not particularly partial to para-
dox) has gone so far as to maintain that when
the Greeks had to defend themselves against
foreign invasion, it was a sign that their real

14 Our Renaissance :

power was beginning to wane and that the
day of their greatest military glory was?
already overpast before the era of the Persian
Wars.

I shall not argue this point further, but I
will content myself with stating that we are
wrong if we regard the success of the Greeks
in the Persian Wars in the light of a startling
episode of the history of Europe. I would
submit that it was nothing of the sort — it was
the climax of a long period of conquest ;
and it was most assuredly a beginning of
new and significant exploits. It is true that
the Greeks allowed it to appear in the im-
mediate sequel that Persia held the winning
hand, though she did not. This was folly if
you will, and truly it shows up all the weak-
ness of Greek political effort. I am not
defending the foreign policy of the Greeks,
but only the essential virility of their nature,
which is a different thing and quite consistent
with bad imperialism.

Something similar has to be asserted of the
later periods of Greek history. The success
of Alexander may easily be misunderstood.
I need not labour the point that, though
Alexander was not a pure Greek, his triumphs
are the triumphs of Hellenism quite as truly
as the victories of Napoleon were French
victories. For Napoleon was not a French-
man in any full sense, and yet he led French-
men to battle and was entirely absorbed in a
French enterprise. All serious students of

Its Meaning, Aim, and Method 15

Greek history know what is not quite on
the surface, namely, that Alexander's con-
quest of the East was the direct result of
previous Greek warfare, and in particular of
victories gained by Greek troops, led by
Cyrus, over the armies of the Orient, about
seventy years before Alexander reigned in
Macedon. If we study history superficially,
we are apt to be struck by isolated events,
especially if they are of the nature of a cata-
clysm. But the deeper currents of human
life, the real causes which lead up to sur-
prising results, are not so readily discerned ;
and it seems to me that this is very true of
the warfare waged by Greek arms against the
powers with which, during her career, she came
into conflict — whether Phoenicians, Persians,
Egyptians, Thracians, or other barbarians by
which she was surrounded, including, later on,
the Gauls, who were overcome by Macedon
and Pergamum. The truth seems to be that
this warfare was searching and continuous,
and, in spite of Greece's heavy handicap, that
her warfare on the whole was badly organized,
she came out victorious. In spite of her in-
curable disunion, a fault which her enemies
knew only too well how to take advantage of,
somehow she managed to keep her end up.
Through the centuries she was often depressed.
Miletus fell. Athens fell twice. Sicily was
hard pressed by her own tyrants. Macedon
faltered. Pyrrhus was conquered. Corinth
was finally wiped out.

16 Our Renaissance :

But in spite of it all Greece did her work,
and, all things considered, she did not do it
badly. One word more before I leave the
question of Greek external policy to consider
quite a different aspect of my subject. In
speaking about Greek history I have treated it
as isolated, and even in a sense as contrasted
with Roman history. Now, that is precisely
not the way I conceive the subject should be
practically dealt with. It is really when we
combine the study of Democratic Greece with
that of Imperial Rome, and only then, that
we provide a perfect historical discipline for
our youth. I am not now referring to the
spiritual debt of Rome to Greece, to the fact
that Roman civilization all along the line was
almost pure and undiluted Hellenism. I do
not wish to mix matters. I am talking of
politics, or civics, if you will, and not of
things of the intellect or the spirit. If we
consider the history of Greece and Rome
side by side, as of course we do in Classical
education, the very contrast they present to
the student's mind appears to be of extreme
utility. We see, on the other hand, the great
success of a huge imperial system clouded by
many defects, many sins, much suffering, and
frequent local failures. The fact that the
Greeks also had their sins and failures,
though these proceeded from quite distinct
and often from opposite causes, is equally illu-
minating. We may, at least, learn the lesson
of the golden mean, and we may also learn

Its Meaning, Aim, and Method 17

the principle which we can never learn too
often, humanum est errare. Human life con-
sists of failures as well as successes — and the
road to success as often as not is through
failure. We " sow in tears to reap in joy."
But, once more, the debt that Rome owed
to Greece, even in a military sense, was im-
mense ; this fact, too, may be easily obscured
and forgotten. Except in the extreme West,
except in the case of Gaul, Spain, and Britain,
the Roman Empire was the direct heir of the
great empires carved out of Alexander's
conquests — Syria, Egypt, Pergamum, to say
nothing of Macedon herself. The Diadochi
were really great men ; as imperialists they
bear comparison with any of the great Romans
except, perhaps, Caesar and Trajan — who alone
could be equated with Alexander himself. The
Hellenistic period is now slowly coming into
its own, its significance is being gradually
grasped. We may hold that, comparatively
speaking, the period of the struggle between
Greece and Rome was also a period of Greek
decadence. It certainly was in the political
order. But if this is so, what then are we
to say of the really great days of the Greeks,
before Rome had yet come upon the scene ?
I have dealt with this aspect of Greek history,
because it can be so easily passed over. I
know it is so because of my own experience
in regard to mental results acquired from
the Greek studies to which I have devoted
many years of my life. I feel that it wras at

3

18 Our Renaissance ;

a late period of my progress that I came fully
to grasp what I now realize to be the true
position of Greece in the external history of
Europe.

After this very brief and inadequate out-
line of bearings of Greek history, we must
now proceed to quite a different aspect of the
revival of Hellenic studies. I have referred
to my own experience, and I shall now ask
you to let me speak of what is even more
intimately personal than this reading of Greek
history : I refer to the subject of religion.
To seriously introduce this topic before a
secular association is, I know, to approach a
delicate question. Yet I have confidence
in an American audience. There is something
reassuring in the very atmosphere breathed in
this land of liberty. And if I speak to you
frankly and fearlessly on the most sacred
interests of human life I know you will give
me a fair, and perhaps even a sympathetic,
hearing. I stand before you, it is true, con-
fessed as a member of the clerical profession,
but I trust you will find my remarks transcend
all danger or suspicion of clerical bias.

Among, then, ordinary thoughtful persons
there is, we must sorrowfully admit, a great
gulf fixed, by reason of our religious predis-
positions and antipathies. But we ought to
be conscious that, underlying all our theological
differences, many of us own much that is
common. Whether Catholics or Protestants,
Agnostics, or even some of those who are

Its Meaning, Aim, and Method 19

called Atheists, we hold in common certain
fundamental convictions. We all believe, do
we not ? in some sort of ideal goodness, in
the ultimate triumph of right, in the power
that everyone has of doing his bit, be it great
or small, to promote the cause of goodness
in the world. You will not misunderstand
my drift nor apprehend that I am hinting
that our theological creeds are unimportant
things. I, of course, hold them to be most
vitally important : but just because of that,
I hold also that those truths which underlie
theological belief are the most important of
all — because without a strong conviction of
fundamental religion, all theology must be
formal, perfunctory, and sterile.

And the reason why I wish to put this
matter in a personal light is because in regard
to religious questions every man has an un-
doubted right to speak for himself, but no
one can properly speak for another.

My own experience, then, is this. As far as
I can tell, any religion that I have been able
to attain to, any religion in the deepest sense
of the word, is very largely due to my Greek
studies. I don't say exclusively. I don't
speak of supernatural grace. I don't refer
to the most cogent arguments of a meta-
physical sort. It is merely a psychological
fact that I would describe. In those dark
hours which, I take it, all souls, Christian
and pagan, have to experience, those hours
of wrestling with doubt, with misgiving, with

20 Our Renaissance :

spiritual despondency, I have found no human
document which has influenced me so poig-
nantly as certain pages of Plato, and in par-
ticular the description of the death of his
great master which he has left us in the
Phwdo. I can only name one Christian book,
outside the canon of inspiration, whose human
appeal can compete with that of Plato, I mean
the Confessions of St. Augustine ; but then
the Bishop of Hippo was himself a close
student of Plato. I do not say merely that
he is tinged with Platonic feeling ; I would
rather describe him as a pure exponent of
Platonism, of course run into a Christian
mould. And in fact he makes it clear that he
owed to his study of Platonic Philosophy ,his
ultimate conversion to Christianity.

Notice carefully, this is not a question of
Plato's philosophy viewed as a speculation of
the intellect. It is true that he exhausts all
his force and ingenuity to prove the existence
of a future life where a just Providence will
reward virtue and punish the sinner ; but it
is also true that his arguments fail most pal-
pably and even miserably. No, it is the
potent influence of Plato's personality, human
insight, his love of truth, his reverence, his
deep religious sense, which gain on the reader,
till he succumbs to the almost hypnotic in-
fluence of the man himself. People talk about
Greek intellectuality, as though that would
explain the spell which the Greeks have cast
over all the ages of the world. Their intellect

Its Meaning, Aim, and Method 21

was great, because they were great all round,
and a man's intellect is no small part of him,
but it is not by any means the whole. No
man ever ruled his fellow-men by dominating
their intellects. Plato can touch the heart :
that is the secret of his strange influence.
The curious thing is that Plato's mind has
ruled the world's thinkers perhaps more than
any other philosopher, and yet his philosophy
as a system is very far to seek. It is not even
quite intelligible. In this he stands in the
strongest contrast to Aristotle, the Stagirite,
whose thought is as clear, moderate, and sys-
tematic as it is wholly untinged by the emotion
of his Athenian master.

Taking this pair of Greek philosophers to-
gether, what a glorious combination they
make. Both of them are giants, both with-
out a rival in his own sphere. Aristotle, too,
did much for the philosophy of religion, for
upon his thoughts is based the philosophy of
the Christian Church ; but his intellect was
perhaps too cold and undisturbed by emotion
to let him produce in the hearts of men the
response which Plato has evoked down the
ages almost without interruption. Like his
followers of his own Academy we are still
content to sit beneath Plato's feet, to gaze,
to wonder, and to pray.

I say nothing about Greek philosophy as a
whole, because mere human philosophy, in its
most formal sense, is perhaps the one thing
we could best do without. I pass over the

22 Our Renaissance :

fact that undoubtedly the Greeks did create
philosophy and that the very word suggests
the fact. I prefer to take my stand upon the
appeal made by Greek studies to the heart.
I maintain that if, indeed, they can do some-
thing towards deepening in our hearts the
very springs of sane religious feeling, surely
this is a strong reason for hesitating to clear
them out of the way in modern education.
There is not too much real religion in the
world, though undoubtedly there is often too
much talk about it.

How far we seem to have wandered now
from the question we were discussing about
Alexander's conquests and the imperialism of
the Athenian State. Yet to my mind the
question of religion is nearer to war and
statesmanship than it is to the aesthetic spirit,
or the conscious persistent quest of types of
beauty in nature and in art.

Here I am stating what I know is contro-
versial. Perhaps many of you think there is
or should be a clear connexion between art
and religion, between sestheticism and the
religious spirit. These are difficult questions,
and no one ought to be over-dogmatic in
dealing with them. But as this question has
arisen in our treatment of Hellenism, I may
be allowed to express my own conviction as
to relation between religion and art. It is
this : There have been undoubtedly some
happy moments in the history of art, when it
went hand in hand with religion, but taking

Its Meaning, Aim, and Method 23

its history as a whole, and particularly look-
ing at the art of the Renaissance and of our
own modern life, I should say the interests
of art and of religion are by no means
generally sympathetic. Religion inclines to
symbolism, and symbolism is frequently un-
congenial to high art.

I thought it wise to touch on this point, but
it is really a side issue. Whether art and
literature ordinarily promote religion or not is
a debatable and very interesting question, but
it is quite certain that they need not neces-
sarily do so. My thesis is that one important
aspect of Hellenism was its religious spirit.

In an address like the present, concerned
with a large and comprehensive subject, it is
hardly possible to deal exhaustively with the
topics which come crowding into one's mind.
My aim to-night has been to suggest lines of
thought which might prove fruitful, to point
out aspects of the Classical revival which may
be obscure and which are in danger of ne-
glect. One thing must strike any thinking
investigator in the highways and by-ways of
Hellenic life and thought, and that is the
extraordinary complexity of Greek nature,
which, I suppose, may be partly accounted
for by its rich endowments.

If, having grasped the significance of Greek

life and Greek achievement in its totality,

you then turn to consider Greek art and

poetry you will be able to estimate it at its

rue value. You will say Greece was bound

24 Our Renaissance :

to produce high art. You will feel no temp-
tation to undervalue this, but you will cer-
tainly place it in its true perspective. Because
Greek nature was glorious, because Greek life
was full, varied, and complete, because Greek
emotion was stirred to strive for the best,
therefore Greek hands could build a Par-
thenon, Greek voices could chant sweetly
Pindar's songs of victory or Sophocles' Ode
to Colonus, or Euripides' Invocation of the
God of Love.

But let us be fair even to the Greeks. Do
not call them a nation of poets and sculptors
and dramatists. Sinners they may have been,
but do not brand them as aesthetic. Plutarch
says of Pericles that he alone left a sting in
their ear when he addressed an Athenian
audience. But Pericles did more than make
speeches to the mob of Athens.

Before concluding I have still a suggestion
to make; and here I will address myself not
so much to those who, as members of a Classical
Association, are interested in preserving the
ancient culture, but rather to those who are
eager to drive Greek studies away as some-
thing antiquated and useless to the citizens of
a modern state.

Now, what is the discipline which the
enemies of Classical training propose to offer
us as its substitute ? It is generally what is
known as scientific education. It is, of course,
taken for granted that the advocates of Latin
and Greek studies are opposed to the teaching

Its Meaning, Aim, and Method 25

of science. This, however, would be (at least
I speak for myself) a most untrue allegation.
Our Renaissance, if it means anything, means
the revival of Humanism, and Science properly
understood is in a high sense a very important
part of Humanism.

It is quite true that we do not always ap-
prove of modern scientists ; but we by no
means disapprove of the teaching of science in
its proper way and in its proper place. And
this is a point to be greatly insisted upon.

We should be very poor Hellenists if we did
not glory in the fact that modern science,
quite as much as philosophy, poetry, and art
was a gift from Greece to humanity. It is
only one of their gifts — many Hellenists con-
sider it is the greatest — but it is unnecessary
for us to discuss that question. What I want
to do is to give you an outline (and it must
be very imperfect in the short space that
remains at my command) of the debt which
the world is under in this respect to the in-
tellect, the perseverance, and the practical
wisdom of the Greeks. I shall touch upon
Mathematics and Astronomy as representing
theoretic science, and Medicine as representing
practical or applied science in one of its most
necessary aspects.

And what is very important for us to
observe in this connection is not merely the
marvellous degree of scientific knowledge at-
tained to by the Greeks ; but the much more
important fact that at the time when modern

26 Our Renaissance:

science took its rise at the Revival of Learning
it was owing to the recovery of Roman and
Greek scientific writings, and the recovery of
the threads of ancient research which had been
lost sight of during medieval times, that the
great pioneers of modern discovery were enabled
to do their work. Nay more, we shall not
understand the very essence of the humanistic
movement if we do not realize that the Revival
of Letters was viewed by many of its pro-
moters much more as a means than as an end.
That is, while many were engaged in the quest
of literature for its own sake, many others were
seeking above all to disinter the scientific
treatises of Roman but much more of Greek
authors. Professor John Burnet has written
excellently on this subject, and as instances of
the demand for scientific books he has pointed
out that as early as 1482 Euclid's Geometry
was printed in Latin, and in Greek in 1533,
whereas the works of Hippocrates on medical
science appeared in 1525 in Latin, and in the
Greek original in the year following.

In modern astronomical research the epoch-
making event was, of course, the announce-
ment by Copernicus of the system which
bears his name, which regards the sun not
the earth as the centre of the planatary
orbits. Now Copernicus tells us in his own
writing that he derived this idea directly from
the Greeks ; it was in fact known to them as
the Pythagorean theory, and, though not
commonly believed in ancient times, it had

Its Meaning, Aim, and Method 27

been distinctly upheld by several Greek philo-
sophers. It is true that the ancients had not
strictly proved this theory, but then Copernicus
did not either, though no doubt he argued in
favour of it. Proctor says it may be greatly
doubted whether Copernicus rendered services
to astronomy which were commensurate with
his great fame. He left it to his successors, and
in particular to Kepler and Galileo, to finally
dispose of the geocentric theory, which every-
one knows had held its ground unquestioned
throughout medieval times. What Copernicus
himself had done was to bring before the
minds of men and to familiarize them with a
theory which the Greeks really originated,
and for which we ought to give them credit.
In like manner the Greeks were great
anatomists, though perhaps Aristotle, in spite
of his clear insight into many physical as
well as philosophical problems, may have set
back Greek medical science by his peculiar
views regarding the relative importance of the
brain and heart. In general, the Greek know-
ledge of surgery and medicine long before the
day of Aristotle, was really very advanced.
Hippocrates, who lived in the Periclean era,
was eminently practical and certainly knew
something of the circulation of the blood.
What Harvey did was merely to make this
certain by completing the proof of it. More-
over, it is no exaggeration to say that Hippo-
crates gave a form and substance to medical
science which it has never lost. Many of his

28 Our Renaissance :

views were, of course, wrong and have been
since rejected ; but that is the common fate
of all human speculation ; and after all the
Greeks were but human.*

I cannot pursue this subject in detail, but
I would warmly commend the history of
Greek scientific discovery to the members of
this Association and to all who are desirous
of reconstituting modern Greek study on a
satisfactory basis, and securing that it shall
duly appeal to the practical thought of our
own generation.

About mathematical science I will say one
word. Its very name tells us a good deal.
Mathema means properly learning, and the
word reminds us that this was par excellence
the Greek study. Plato was quite eminent
as a mathematician ; he had written over

his Academy, p^Sels ayea/jLerpijTos elcrirm, and

there can be little doubt that his capacity
for this study had been quickened by his
intercourse with the Pythagorean philosophers,
to whom he owed, in part, also his theory of
ideas. Pythagoras had seen in the proportions
of beauty and in the arithmetic relations of
musical tones reasons to suspect that all
things could be explained by numbers ; and
Plato found this theory congenial. The ex-
traordinary advances made by Greek thinkers
in Geometry and Astronomy constitute most

* The scientific spirit of Hippocrates is treated with great
insight and eloquence by R. W. Livingstone in his recent work
A Defence of Classical Education, an excellent and very telling
book. (P. llSff.)

Its Meaning, Aim, and Method 29

interesting history ; besides their mathe-
matical science has stood the test of time
to a far greater extent than their merely
physical theories of the universe. It follows
from these few facts, that the Greeks were as
great in science as they were in all other
departments of human endeavour, including
their achievements in art and literature. And
how can we account for the desire of modern
scientific men to rid themselves and all future
generations of what they think are the shackles
of Classical, and especially of Greek, educa-
tion ? Are we really to believe that they are
wholly indifferent to the early history of
Science, to its relation to other kinds of
human achievement, to the wondrous way in
which the human spirit has triumphed over
space and time and all the obstacles pre-
sented to it by the inert matter of this
universe ?

This is what I meant when I drew atten-
tion to the humanistic aspect of science. No
true educator can be wholly indifferent to
anything human ; human science, if not the
highest thing in human life, yet certainly
cannot be left out of the count as unim-
portant. The real truth, perhaps, is that
these modern scientists who show such a
lofty contempt for the achievements of their
Greek forbears, whether in art, literature,
philosophy, or science, are under the im-
pression that our Classical discipline is
unpractical and out of date.

30 Our Renaissance :

It is not for me now to argue this question
further. I will even exhort the members of
this Association not at all to argue the ques-
tion whether Classics are out of date. It is
the business of a Classical Association not to
argue about our faith, but to see how we can
prove it to our pupils, prove it to their parents,
prove it to the world at large. I hope you
will not think I have wasted a glorious oppor-
tunity to-night because I have said little that
is directly practical or methodical in regard
to Classical education. I have already said
that I came to America not to teach so much
as to learn from you the best methods of
vitalizing our subject and proving to our
critics, whether friendly or the reverse, that
we are not unpractical and we are not out
of date.

If, however, I would say anything on the
present occasion as to method, it would be
to suggest that we should not be too proud
to learn either from the humanists of former
days or from the best scientists of to-day.
From both we can learn many other things,
but especially the lesson of enthusiasm for
our studies and enthusiasm for our task of
imparting it. We shall use all lawful means
to make our subject attractive, practical,
popular, and efficient for producing char-
acter.

1. We shall not shirk difficulties, and we
shall not attempt to hide them. Let it be
boldly stated that our discipline consists not

Its Meaning, Aim, and Method 31

in the acquisition of truth merely, but also
in the effort to attain to it. When we impart
new information with certainty we are edu-
cating our class. When we tell them that
the information cannot be certainly obtained
we are educating them also. The good classic
knows what he knows — he also knows what
he does not know, what he can never know.
This view of education is not peculiar to our
faculty — but as far as I can see there is no
discipline which produces mental precision
combined with mental humility so certainly
as a large and true humanism. From this
point of view not even the hunt for various
readings and textual emendations is to be
wholly despised, though, of course, it has
to be sanely regulated like everything else.

Socrates, in the end, came to believe that
he was the wisest man, not because he was
wiser but because he was less foolish than
other men. We have our follies and our
faults, but at least we shall never presume
to emulate those explorers who tell their pupils
all about the canals, and something about the
inhabitants, of Mars.

2. There is some opposition between the
method of research and the method of teach-
ing. Research, to be successful, must be
limited in its scope ; the more limited it is, the
more likely it is to succeed. Hence we see
how enormous is the specialization prevailing
in modern research — whether in science, his-
tory, or archaeology. Division of labour is the

32 Our Renaissance :

very soul of research (though even here there
must be a higher co-ordination of many dis-
tinct lines of lower investigation). But in
education, specialization is at least a danger.
We must train our own minds and the minds
of our students to regard matters of study in
their true and vital relationship to the his-
tory of the human spirit. I hope I shall not
be misunderstood in calling this spirit a psy-
chological attitude of mind. I mean that we
must value history, literature, poetry, drama,
art, refinement of taste, and all humanism,
chiefly as a function of that spiritual totality
which we call mankind. Viewed in this light
everything is of importance — even grammar
and prosody become instinct with vital in-
terest— whereas, apart from human psychology,
everything becomes tame and insipid, all is
bitterness and affliction of spirit.

3. If our aim is to be thus psychological our
methods must be equally so. Hence we shall
recognize the enormous importance of appeal-
ing to the senses of our students. We shall
exhaust ourselves in the effort to bring home
to them, by the sight of their eyes and by
the appeal to their tactile sense, the facts of
ancient life. We shall bring them immedi-
ately into the atmosphere of reality and we
shall make an impression upon their mind
by bringing before them real and tangible
evidence of the true facts concerning ancient
life. This is the appeal to archaeology. I
have already been told by an authority in

Its Meaning, Aim, and Method 33

Classical education in this country that there
is, if anything, a tendency in America to
over-emphasize the use of archaeological aids
to teaching. There can be no such over-
emphasis if archaeology is utilized in the
right way and in the true spirit of enlightened
humanism. The use of archaeology in Classical
teaching is always subordinate to the psycho-
logical aim i.e., it is never regarded as an
end in itself but always strictly as a means
to that end. Of all the false notions which I
have observed in discussions on Classical teach-
ing none of them is so ridiculous as the idea
that we, the reforming school, desire to sub-
stitute a smattering of archaeology for a more
solid kind of Classical training. I do not, of
course, refer to the vagaries of exceptional
individuals, who may chance to be weak-
minded and under-instructed enthusiasts. But
I speak for the movement toward reform in
its saner aspects, as it is promoted by our
Classical Associations. We reformers con-
sider that it is a crime as well as a blunder
on the part of Classical teachers to neglect
the opportunities provided by modern arch-
aeological research for illuminating our subject
and bringing it home to the minds and senses
of our students. It is all very well to sneer
at the kinematograph as something unspeak-
ably degrading to modern society. But I
know very well that if I wanted to learn how
some action was really carried on I should
rather see a kinematograph record than read

34 Our Renaissance

an account of it by the most vivid of chroni-
clers. We cannot, I suppose, in our branch
of study utilize the kinematograph, though I,
for one, should not hesitate to do so were it
in any way feasible. But to show our students
good photographs of the countries, the build-
ings, the art, and the antiquities of the
ancients ; to place at their disposal originals
or facsimiles of the coins, of the pottery, and
the other art-products of the ancients as they
are being unearthed by the modern excavator ;
to give them a clear vision of the great pre-
historic fortresses and palaces of Gnossos,
Troy, Tiryns, Mycenae, and Pylos, with the
art and architecture of Greece and Rome, as pre-
served at Olympia, Delphi, Paestum, Pompeii,
and, above all, on the Acropolis of Athens and
in the Roman Forum ; in a word, to familiarize
them with the realities of ancient life instead
of confining their attention to mere ideas or mere
names of things — this is not a council of per-
fection, but to neglect it is to leave out of our
work something of real and vital importance ;
it is to be guilty of a sin of omission for which
no efforts in other directions could wholly atone,
I know we must attend to method, but there
is something deeper than method, something
more far-reaching. My word to the Classical
Association of the Middle West and South is
this : Take care of your ideals and the methods
will take care of themselves. The Greeks were
great because they had great ideals. And we
may well leave our critics to themselves.

PART THE FIRST

THE VOICE OF HELLAS

CHAPTER II

THE PURSUIT OF BEAUTY *

That Hellas speaks to us to-day, and speaks
with a loud compelling voice, is a proposition
which, I think, may well be taken for granted
on this occasion. My endeavour will be to
interpret that voice, or rather to ask you
specially to attend to one of its tones which
is not always listened to or clearly appre-
hended. Many times indeed do we hear dis-
cussions about the influence of Hellas, but
too often as though it could be summed up
in its attainment of formal beauty.

Precious indeed is the legacy of beauty be-
queathed to us by the Greeks. Nor is it less
apparent that their nature was finely attuned
to the love of beauty in whatever form they
found it or created it. In their art and letters
they left to the world the choicest examples
of pure forms and established for us laws of
aesthetic judgment which will endure for ever.
But is this only one side of their greatness, or
is it a full statement of our indebtedness to
them ? I would maintain that Hellas had
other ideals than those of art, and that her
voice speaks to us other lessons than those
of aestheticism.

I shall not attempt to define beauty — no
definition can really explain to us its meaning.

* Presidential Address to the Classical Association of Ireland,
January, 1913.

35

36 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

When we seek it we are often mocked, and
yet it is all around us and in us. It is in
the murmur of falling waters as in the in-
nocent laugh of childhood. At once complex
and simple, it is then perhaps quickest found
when least looked for. Hence it is that while
the love of beauty in nature or in art is a
precious gift, the conscious straining after it
is a dubious process fraught with peril to the
soul.

The problem we have to consider is this :
The great achievement of the Greek genius
consisted in stamping itself on the mind and
heart of humanity. It has proved itself to be
a mighty spiritual force, to which nothing else
in human history can be compared, Chris-
tianity always being excepted. Now, I do
not intend to discuss at length the relations
of Hellenism to the faith of Christians — I
know that they present strong points of
contrast — but I would only remark that since
Christianity was cradled in Hellenic lands,
since its most active propagandist was trained
in a Hellenistic university, since intellectual
Christianity has again and again reverted to
Greek literature and philosophy as to a
fountain-head of power and influence — it is,
I say, impossible to treat of these twin streams
of human civilization as being fundamentally
opposed.

Is it not, I would ask, a very superficial
view of Hellenism as a great humanizing force
to assume that it consists wholly or even

The Pursuit of Beauty 37

mainly in its artistic triumphs ? Immense
as these triumphs were, they simply are
unable to account for the world-wide influence
of Hellas in the intellectual and moral order.
The voice of Hellas speaks truth, and it is
quite untrue to say that the bulk of mankind
are moved deeply and decisively by aesthetic
considerations. Many are the half-truths — we
might also call them untruths — which are im-
plicitly taken for granted until they are coldly
and nakedly stated, when their absurdity at
once becomes apparent.

I will ask you to listen to what I would
call the deeper tones of the voice of Hellas.
For I take it, that the true secret of their
achievement and influence in the world lay,
for the Greeks, not on the surface of their
nature, but in the depths of their souls.
They had high ideals, and in the prosecution
of those ideals, whether in the world of
thought or of action, they were thoroughly
in earnest. They did things fitly because
they did them whole-heartedly. It is quite
true that the Greeks as a nation were not
strenuous, in the sense in which Rome and
some other empires have been strenuous. In
the department of politics, Greece was de-
cidedly wanting in that singleness of aim
which alone can produce great and lasting
results. Hence the Greeks failed in self-
organization on a large scale, and neither in
military science nor in statecraft did they
do anything really big before the days of

38 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

Dionysius and Philip, of Alexander, Pyrrhus,
and Demetrius — and these were not their
great days.* But if their imperialism was
puerile, because they were not in earnest
about it, the same cannot be said about their
democracy. Here they had high aims and
well did they live up to them. Here they
were thoroughly in earnest — as they were in
regard to everything that really appealed to
them. Even when their methods were bad
they took them seriously, in their philosophy
as well as their poetry, in their athletics as
well as their art.

It is impossible that an un virile, sickly love of
beauty could account for anything really great
in the world. I do not deny to the artistic side
of Greek nature that it lent a charm and a
relish to Greek influence — but the force and
the expansiveness of the Greek mind was due
to something different : it was due to its
essential truth, sanity, and wisdom.

I would not be guilty of paradox, but I
must go further and maintain that so far
from her aestheticism being the strength of
Hellas it was to her a source of weakness,
and in the end became at least a contributory
cause of rapid degeneracy and ruin.

Before subjecting this view to detailed
analysis there is a preliminary difficulty. By
what standard are we to judge of Greek
achievement ? Are we to take it at its

*I let this stand as I wrote it, but in the Introductory
Chapter, written some years later, the facts are stated somewhat
differently, and I hope more accurately.

The Pursuit of Beauty 39

highest, or are we to include in our purview
all its mediocrities ? This is a crucial point
because, although the Greek nation lasted
through long periods of time, I have already
hinted that its true " floruit " was remarkably
brief. And I find a tendency among writers,
and especially very recent writers, to deal
with the subject by what appears to me an
inverted method. They first decide in their
minds what ought to be the true ethos of
the Greek mind, and then any man of letters
who does not seem to conform to that stand-
ard (no matter how eminent the position he
held in the Greek world) is promptly ruled
out of court as being defective. If I am told
that uEschylus, for instance, or Plato, or even
Sophocles, was not a true Greek, I do not
know exactly where I stand. We could not
discuss the character of the Roman Senate
with one who denied that Sulla and Julius
Caesar were Senators, or Romans ; any more
than we should accept the invitation of a lion-
tamer who assured us that lions and tigers
are not carnivorous animals.

Take, for instance, the view we get of the
Greeks in Roman literature. After all, what
could Romans know of the real character of a
people of whom, during their best periods, the
Romans were hardly aware of their very
existence ? What sympathy could these
imperialist statesmen and warriors have for
a conquered race whom they found now to be a
decadent crowd of sophists and school-masters,

40 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

second-rate artists and poetasters, slaves
and sycophants, and worse ? All this is
too obvious almost to be mentioned ; but
yet there is a warning for ourselves. We are
still in danger of thinking of the Greeks from
a wholly modern, and therefore a wrong,
standpoint. We are too prone ourselves to
that very rhetorical and aesthetic spirit which
undoubtedly infected the Greek mind in its
later phases and which perhaps we are predis-
posed to exaggerate. And so it comes about
that Demosthenes and Euripides, or it may
be Theocritus, are taken as the truest repre-
sentatives of Greek literature, just as the
Hermes of Praxiteles is spoken of as the great
achievement of Greek plastic art. Now, I am
by no means concerned to deny that the later
products of Greek genius have a real beauty
— though it is a beauty which appeals most
strongly to emotional minds. Nor would I
call fourth, or even third, century work de-
cadent : it was rather a genuine aftermath, a
glorious sunset. Its only fault is that it was
atrociously modern, and thus makes an unfair
appeal to minds which are already steeped in
a sort of atmosphere of aestheticism. But if we
want realism and emotion why do we go to the
Greeks to look for it ? Surely it is at our doors.
I assert that it is manifestly unfair to take
what is certainly second-rate from a Greek
standpoint for judging of the genius and in-
tellect of Hellas ; yet, perhaps, this is something
to feel rather than to argue about. What

The Pursuit of Beauty 41

is the use of talking about the rainbow or
the rose to the colour-blind ? You tell me
you love the Hermes — well, I agree it has a
handsome and pleasant face. You tell me
the Doryphoros of Polycleitus — of which it
is true, unfortunately, we do not possess any-
thing better than a copy — is stiff marble, not
yet fully subdued to the chisel, and that he
has hardly a trace of emotion. I agree
again, and there is scarcely a trace of a smile
on the lips, but what pathos broods over
them. I find the very same expression in the
Delphic charioteer. He is listening for the
music of the spheres, and meanwhile is catch-
ing within him the tones of a softly com-
plaining voice. When I compare the art of
the Hermes, which is indeed a most noble
one, with that of these earlier masterpieces,
it is not with a view to putting them into
competition, nor do I pretend that I could
decide between them on the ground of art-
istic merit. But, all the same, I know very
well which of these two arts is modern and
which Hellenic — which is striving after beauty
and which is inspired by the love of worth.

In like manner I do not complain of those
scholars who find Euripides absorbing and
who praise his lyrics for their exceeding
beauty. I know, moreover, that J. A.
Symmonds warns us not to compare Euripides
with the earlier dramatists, but I think few
persons who read these authors can avoid so
comparing them. Anyhow, I have neither

42 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

time nor inclination to contrast their literary
merits in the narrower sense. But I will say
this in passing. With one brilliant exception,
Euripides never treats his dramas as though
he were wholly in earnest about them. It
was impossible for him to treat them even
seriously, since he made them a vehicle for
attacking the myths which it was his duty as
a poet to interpret. And in proportion as he
fell away from the inspired earnestness of
^Eschylus and Sophocles I believe he ceased
to be a true exponent of the Greek spirit con-
sidered in its totality. He preferred the way
of realism to the way of reality, and so
became thoroughly modern.

It is better that we should at once turn
our attention to the true fountain-head of
Greek poetry and learn from it what was the
inwardness of the Hellenic mind. The spell
cast by Homer over subsequent Greek litera-
ture can be easily realized by our minds, for
we know how the authorized version of the
Hebrew sacred books has dominated the best
English writers. But Homer was regarded by
the Greeks as the final authority, not merely
in matters of religion, but in all that apper-
tained to national lore and the national
honour. The best of the poets and even the
prose authors of Greece are simply saturated
with the thought and often with the language
of their great epics.

It therefore appears to me that this branch
of my subject is of supreme importance : if

The Pursuit of Beauty 43

we go wrong in our view of Homer it will
matter comparatively little what we think
about the rest of the Greeks. But, on the
other hand, it is not so easy to discuss Homer
satisfactorily or to come to definite conclusions
about his art. It is accepted, and will be for
all time, as the most perfect art — yet it is
something much more than mere poetry. It
is a live record of real people — I am not going
to discuss the actual historicity of the Hom-
eric heroes and heroines — but Homeric life is
real life, and it shows us, if you like, in an
undeveloped, embryonic form, all the great
and permanent characteristics of the Greek
race.

I am aware that this very point contains a
difficulty for my argument, for it may be
objected to me, if I deny that we detect
sestheticism in the poems, that this also could
not be expected in such an early age of
culture, and that it is quite enough to find
it in the embryonic form, as a promise of
what will be found in later types of Hellenic
character.

Let me, then, commence by admitting that
the Homeric poetry already displays the most
acute sensibility to every kind of beauty in
nature and in man, that the Homeric poets
delighted in their art, and for that very
reason they left a perfect standard of epic
beauty for all future poets.

But a man is not an aesthete because he
enjoys beautiful things any more than he is

44 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

a glutton who enjoys his dinner. To be
aesthetic is to acknowledge no other standard
of life than the deadly pursuit of the beautiful.
To the aesthete his emotions are sacred, or
rather he acknowledges nothing as sacred
except his emotions. His method of finding
aesthetic emotion is to pursue it with avidity
— and herein lies his fatal mistake. A man
never finds his bodily health by pursuing it
relentlessly. Such a man may become an
authority on hygiene, he may become a
prince of valetudinarians, but he will never
become a sound, healthy man. So, a man who
is always intent on analysing his own motives
may be a good casuist, but he will not be
ranked among the efficient forces of human life.

The question we must try to decide is this :
Were the Iliad and Odyssey composed by
men who aimed at producing poetic emotion,
or who were impelled by poetic emotion ? —
which is a very different thing.

To be able to throw any light on the secret
of the Homeric epos, it will be necessary for
us to recall the circumstances under which
it was composed. In taking this line I think
I may claim at least the merit of courage,
for anyone daring to refer to the eternal
Homeric question must expect all his critics,
whether they be friends or foes of one another,
to join hands in falling upon him and rending
him to pieces.

Being, then, calmly resigned to my coming
fate, I approach the question : Who were the

The Pursuit of Beauty 45

Achaeans to whom these poems in their en-
tirety relate ? Let us agree at least that
they were a rude and semi-barbarous tribe of
Northerners who had somehow cut their way
into the heart of a decaying but still magnifi-
cent civilization, which they found in Central
and Southern Greece. Led by the hand of
destiny into this heritage, they had accom-
modated themselves to it, making friends of
their less warlike neighbours, learning to fuse
with them by intermarriage and other modes
of alliance. According to the Saga, Aga-
memnon, their chief, was a stranger in
Mycenae, where he had wedded a native
princess, who later proved to be in every
sense his match. After this fusion of new
blood with old institutions a war of conquest
supervened. The eastward movement, of
which the Trojan war was an incident, was
certainly strengthened by the Dorian con-
quest, which was completer than the Achaean,
but we have no proof that the early Greek
people would not in any case have crossed
the uEgean in quest of new conquests or new
trade-routes.

Dr. Leaf, in his recent fascinating work on
Troy and Homeric Geography, has offered a
most attractive explanation of the length of
the Trojan War, and its apparent want of
success. I do not, however, propose to discuss
this, as it would not materially affect my
argument. But the importance of this whole
eastward migration cannot be overstated,

46 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

inasmuch as it was upon the Asiatic side of the
-33gean that the Greeks began really to thrive
and to lay the foundation of future national
greatness. That the Homeric poems them-
selves first came into notice here is also a
point worth mentioning, and indeed is one of
the deep mysteries connected with their origin.

But what I wish to insist on is this. The
first impulse which led to the creation of the
poetry was a patriotic one — the desire to
glorify the first great achievement of a united
people. Note there is no reference to the first
descent of the Achaeans upon Greece. Why
so ? Because epic poetry can deal very well
with fighting, but it must be civilized fighting
— and when the Achaeans swooped down from
the Balkan Mountains they were relatively
barbarian. Not, of course, that they were
absolutely devoid of all sort of culture — but it
was so rude, in comparison with what they found
among the Mycenean people that before long
it hardly counted in their eyes as civilization.

Sir Arthur Evans, in a recent address to
the Hellenic Society, of which he is President,
has suggested that " a considerable element in
the Homeric poems represents the materials
of an earlier Minoan epic taken over by the
Greek." Among other things he argued from
the necessity of postulating a somewhat pro-
longed bilingual period before the final tri-
umph of the Greek over the Mycenean tongue.
This will seem to many a strange hypothesis,
though it undoubtedly proceeds from a source

The Pursuit of Beauty 47

which will ensure it the most favourable con-
sideration. But suppose we do not like to go
so far : is there any improbability in assuming
that the fighting of the Achaeans, though
poetically all localized at Troy, yet reflects
also those earlier struggles of the same
Achaeans to obtain a foothold on Greek soil
itself ? This hypothesis, I submit, would go
some way towards explaining Evans' diffi-
culty that the poems appear to " describe
the incidents and life of the great days at
Mycenae and have been handed down instinct
with the peculiar genius of Mycenean art,"
although the epoch of the Trojan war must
be a considerably later one.

However difficult we might find the theory
of translating and borrowing from the war-
saga of a conquered people, I cannot see much
difficulty in supposing that the Achaeans began
to compose their own epic at a period far
prior to the dramatic date of the poems when
they reached their final form. If these con-
querors had already begun to fuse with the
conquered into a single nation it seems a
slight and easy process to transfer to the
wars which they waged against a common
foe ballads which had originally served to
commemorate the earlier conquest. I feel less
difficulty in making this suggestion because
the view has been already accepted by many
scholars that the scene of Agamemnon's rule
has been transferred in process of time from
Northern to Southern Greece.

48 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

To prosecute this subject further would
take us too far from our immediate topic,
which is the true ethos of the poems. I
repeat that what I wish most to insist on is
their patriotic character — that they are prim-
arily poems of war and of national achieve*
ment and national expansion, and not merely
artificial products of imagination.

Now, all the great epics of the world have
been cradled in movements of great national
importance. Vergil, who followed Homer's
lead, sang of the glory of Rome that was to
come, but in reality Rome's great achievements
were already done — she had but to organize,
delimit, and perhaps slightly extend an ex-
isting empire. Homer commences with the
real commencement of the Greek nation, for
he sings of the war which laid the foundation
of all Greek history.

This, I take it, is the first great impulse of
the Greek epic — which certainly is not an
aesthetic one — and this was so strong that it
dominated the whole corpus of the Homeric
poetry, and even of the cycle which is not
contained in our canon, since it is lost.

In criticizing the spirit of Homer I cannot
get away from my belief that the poetry does
not belong wholly to a single epoch, and that
accordingly it contains varieties of treatment
which are by no means superficial. I could
believe it just possible that the bard who
wrote the Doloneia was also the author of
the Embassy to Achilks, though I should

The Pursuit of Beauty 49

think it extremely improbable that in a primi-
tive age poets would have so wide a range of
style. But what I cannot conceive as within
the bounds of credibility is that the author
who depicted the meeting of Odysseus with
Nausicaa also wrote that unpleasant piece of
reading, the " Lay of Demodocus," as also
that the man who makes Achilles say to his

chief otVo/3a/365 KVVOS opfjLar' e^cov KpaSlrjv S'e\a<£oto,

also composed those long-winded and other-
wise admirable speeches of the Embassy,
one of which, by the way, is put into the
mouth of Achilles. I may be told that this
subjective criticism is of little worth. Well,
I am afraid that much of Homeric criticism
does contain a strong subjective element.
Anyhow, I do not offer this for more than it
is worth ; nor really would I lay very great
stress upon it, except as a piece of strong
personal conviction. This is not the place to
argue out fully complicated lines of argument,
but I hope I shall succeed in making my
position plain. I would admit that the poems
of Homer contain here and there evidence of
self-conscious artistic effort, of laboured rhe-
torical display, and therefore of tendencies
which might be expected to develop into
literary aestheticism. As in regard to Greek
literature proper I pointed out that there is
a genuine creative epoch in which its proper
ethos is displayed, and also a later period
of brilliant aftermath which is always tend-
ing towards aestheticism — so in the Homeric

50 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

literature we must distinguish between the
original impulse which gives us strong patriotic
and objective poetry, and the aftermath which
gives us imitative work, brilliant, rhetorical,
and subjective. In passing, I would say that to
distinguish between the Iliad and Odyssey is
futile. Much of the best work is in the
Odyssey ; much of the inferior work in the
Iliad. And when we call any of the lays
inferior, when we admit that they are invaded
by the aesthetic virus, it will be understood
that these concessions are merely relative. All
Homer is wonderful : all is precious — but one
star surpasseth another in glory. Or, to put
it otherwise, there are spots even in the sun,
but the sun's orb is glorious.

If we take Homer as the truest touchstone
of the Hellenic spirit because he was undoubt-
edly the true founder of the Hellenic nation,
surely Homer himself is to be tried rather
by his primitive utterances, when his tones
were his own, and not by the voice of later
singers, who imitated his voice as best they
knew how after the first genuine impulse had
abated and when later movements, national
and literary, were afoot. That the aesthetic
spirit at long last invaded the Homeric epos
need not surprise us. That it is congenial to
Hellenism cannot be proved from Homer.

Of the poets who come after Homer I need
here only speak of two. JSschylus I pass over.
He has been already mentioned and his case
requires no comment. Those who disagree

The Pursuit of Beauty 51

with the view I am maintaining would never
dare to deny intensity to the author of the
Prometheus and the Oresteia. They merely
fall back on the paradox that JSschylus is no
true representative of the genius of Hellas.
I must decline to argue this point further
than to put a single question : Has JSschylus
any title to be considered a true child and dis-
ciple of Homer, and if not he what other poet
has?

But when we come to regard Pindar and
Aristophanes the position is not quite so clear.
Pindar's poetry deals mainly with the prowess
of victorious athletes, a theme which naturally
lends itself to the glorification of human
beauty ; while Aristophanes, as a writer of the
older Attic comedy, was bound to criticize
passing events and to utter satirical comments
on the personalities of his day. It is evident
that these subjects are not so promising for my
doctrine as tragedy, which, dealing as it does
with the sadder and more serious aspects of
life, lends itself naturally to earnestness. But
in criticizing art surely we must look far more
to the treatment than to the subject ; and if
in fact we find that, in spite of having a less
congenial subject, a writer so deals with it
as to confirm a given theory, his support will
be the more valuable on that very account.
Now, I do not expect that my claim to rank
Pindar and Aristophanes as earnest poets will
cause any surprise to those who are best fitted
to judge of their spirit. Pindar's style is

52 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

purposely allusive, often enigmatical, generally
changeful, like the surface of the sea. But
underneath the artfully woven web of his
imagery we can discern the essential aim of
the man. His Theban heart pulsated with
passionate conviction. His ideals, limited as
they were, certainly gripped him — pride in
human achievement, hatred of meanness, scorn
of inferior natures, sublime, colossal confidence
in the strength of his own utterance. Those
who accuse Pindar of aestheticism have not
read him — or, reading, did not understand.

The art of Aristophanes, on the other hand,
required him to make his meaning clear. That
sweetest of idylls, the "Birds," and many
another tuneful, tender utterance, leave us no
doubt that he was a true Athenian, and that his
soul was most exquisitely attuned to the love of
the beautiful. Moreover, his very versatility,
his love of paradox, his boisterous, reckless,
shameless spirit, his fun, which we call Aristo-
phanic, and can call by no other name, might
easily distract us from observing the earnest-
ness of purpose which really gives point and
substance to his absurdities. I know that he
has critics, not wanting in earnestness them-
selves, who throw doubt for instance on the
sincerity of his politics, and to discuss this
question would take us on too long a journey
to-day. All I can say is, though nothing should
surprise one in regard to literary criticism, I
am really bewildered how scholars can feel
doubt on this subject. In spite of the exigen-

The Pursuit of Beauty 53

cies of a whimsical art, in every line of his
dramas I think the fundamental truth of the
man is apparent. We need not like him, and
certainly we need not like his opinions, but to
see in him only the superficiality of the
litterateur is to me a thing utterly incompre-
hensible. If aesthetic means Aristophanic then
the sooner we give up using adjectives the better.

Leaving for a moment Greek poets and
writers of comedy, we may turn our ears to a
not less resonant utterance of the voice of
Hellas. What of the mighty tones of Thucy-
dides and of Plato ?

The fascination which Thucydides has always
exercised over his readers is really inconsistent
with the too common belief that (apart from
the speeches, which certainly are coloured by
his sympathies) the history is a cold narrative
of facts, embodying no aim beyond that of
setting out a true series of external events.
The work as a whole produces vital impressions,
such as might be called philosophical in the
highest sense. To read it attentively, and
with the sympathy of the ordinary reader, is
to form definite mental conclusions as to
Athenian policy and Athenian parties, none
the less definite because they may be only
half-conscious. Whether the book is a formal
drama, in Mr. Cornford's * sense, is another
question, but a book that infallibly produces
in the reader a feeling of dire tragedy is
certainly instinct with the dramatic spirit.

* See Thucydides Mythistoricus. E. Arnold, 1907.

54 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

Now, it might be urged against me, is not
this to admit that fundamentally Thucydides
was an fond a great artist ? For can any art
excel that of the historian who, while apparently
maintaining a most judicial attitude, while
telling his story with scrupulous exactitude
and unruffled calm, with scarce a reference to
himself and certainly no allusion to his own
views or sympathies, yet carries his readers
along with him so that inevitably they will take
the mould of his own unexpressed conclusions ?
" Summa ars est celare artem." The power
of such a writer might be called almost super-
human, suggesting as it does the action of
Providence, which has a way of not speaking
a word to us while its lessons are being enforced
upon us by the remorseless logic of facts.

Yes — and in bewilderment I would ask, also,
is such an unearthly power in a writer to be
termed aesthetic ? Is this forceful logic of
Thucydides to be confused with the devices of
the literary artist ? This sort of persuasion, does
it belong to the rhetorician, whose soul is intent
on his own production and the beauty of it, or
to one whose soul is intent on an effort outside
himself, whose teeth are set in grim determina-
tion to do some work, to effect some influence,
in human things ? The history when written
shall be indeed a K-rr^ia e? ae*, for it shall
for ever proclaim to men certain truths which
have gnawed their way into the writer's heart.
Macaulay, referring to the description of the
Battle of the Syracusan harbour, speaks of its

The Pursuit of Beauty 55

author as the most brilliant of all the prose
writers of the world. This may be true, but
if Macaulay thought to reckon himself and his
style as akin to Thucydides, he fell into grievous
error. Thucydides is really akin to uEschylus,
who is in point of style much nearer to Isaias
than Macaulay is to St. Paul.

I shall omit to speak of Herodotus, the Father
of history, who has recently been claimed as
perhaps the most representative of all Greek
writers. I do not wholly accept that view ; but
I feel he is an author I could not criticize with
great confidence.

At long last I turn to Plato. His name,
which is really a nickname, nxaVwi/, signifies
the Broad-shouldered, and I verily believe,
had I no other supports, his shoulders would
be broad enough to bear the weight of my
argument. Who was ever more typically a
Greek than Plato ? — yet who more intense in
pursuit of truth and of holiness, aye, and (if
you will) of beauty, too ? He is marked out
as thoroughly Greek by all his rich endowments,
the play of his fancy, his humour, his sensibility,
his deep affectionateness, his stern logic, his
roving life, his philosophical subtleties, his
ironical power of enforcing them.

Among students of philosophy the difficulty
of understanding Plato is a commonplace, but
no one can misunderstand him so badly as he
misunderstood himself. What on earth would
he say of his interpreters if he could only come
back to this world and hear what they had said

56 Part I—The Voice of Hellas

of him ! Aristotle called him immoral, St.
Augustine treated him as an orthodox Chris-
tian, the Hegelians claim him as their true
founder. Yet all these misconceptions count
as nothing beside Plato himself, who thought
he was a teacher of philosophy ! Not quite
that. Everything that man can do Plato
could have done, barring one thing only, and
that was to construct a logical system of
philosophy. Mind, I do not say he could not
inspire philosophers, for beyond yea or nay he
inspired the greatest of all philosophers, who
was Aristotle, and the greatest of modern
philosophers, who was Hegel.

What, then, was Plato ? He was a voice
crying — not in the wilderness. His was the
voice of Hellas, the voice of humanity. Plato
was a seer of visions and a dreamer of dreams,
but he had also a gift which is denied to many
dreamers — the supreme gift of utterance. In
this he differed from his father, Socrates, who
was also a Greek to the marrow of his bones.
The master wielded his magnetic influence
over an inner circle, but the disciple's voice
alone could bring the message to posterity's
ear. Who shall describe the fascination of
Plato and his message ? His style does not
readily lend itself to quotation ; nor can one
realize the beauty and the significance of the
dialogues till his mind has been saturated with
them through and through. Fortunately my
scope does not require that I should bring home
to you all that Plato is ; I have only to persuade

The Pursuit of Beauty 57

you of one thing he was not — that is, a believer
in art for art's sake. That he was sensitive
to human beauty almost to a fault is apparent
from every second page of his writings. More-
over, they literally reek with the imagery of
art — not merely because he is professing to
expound Socrates, who had begun life as a
sculptor, but much more because Plato himself
was an Athenian and breathed in his nostrils
the atmosphere of Athens. Often does he speak
as though he were intoxicated with the sense
of physical beauty — but never as though he
sought such impressions as the end of his being
or the goal of his work. Such a view of life
would have been to him monstrously repellent.
All the other flights of his eloquence are sur-
passed in his effort to interpret the external
beauty of the world and of humanity as the
symbol of divine beauty and the vehicle of
supreme intellectual truth. That this philo-
sophy of his could have been mistaken for the
vicious sentimentality of modern aesthetics would
certainly have caused him aversion and horror
amounting almost to physical pain. When
he speaks as an Athenian man to Athenian
men he does not conceal the natural heat that
is in him, but his real theme everywhere and
always is precisely the victory of the human
spirit as it mounts painfully but surely over
those obstacles for which the beauty of earthly
things is chiefly responsible. That other
Hellene who wrote five centuries later, " I see
another law in my members fighting against the

58 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

law of my mind," recalled the very essence of
Platonism. If Plato at times uses language
which, to a superficial or unsympathetic reader,
looks like sestheticism, it is just because he
never thought of guarding against a heresy
which is especially un-Platonic because it is
also un-Greek. These people had their vices.
Let us not gloze over the facts — they prosti-
tuted many things, including their pagan re-
ligion. But one thing they kept pure and
sacred — remember I speak of the days of their
highest vitality — and that was their intellect.
They neither called wrong right, nor aesthetic
hedonism the Love of Wisdom.

By a fortunate accident, however, Plato has
left us a perfectly clear proof of his attitude
towards art. Of all the forms of art there is
one that is specially congenial to his tempera-
ment, the greatest of all the arts, poetry.
Towards this his attitude is simply that of a
Puritan. I say it not in praise or blame, but
merely as a certain fact, most convenient for
our investigation. For all his flamboyant
idealism Plato was most practical in his aims,
even when his methods were wrong ; and in
this also he was a thorough Greek. His teach-
ing culminates in his theory of education, and
keenly as he loved his Homer, deeply as he
felt himself to be indebted to the study of him,
he decides without ruth to exclude Homer,
along with the tragedians from the ideal school.
So rigidly must the scholars be defended from
every breath that could tarnish their spirit.

The Pursuit of Beauty 59

Yet Homer and the poets had ever been to
Athenian children what the three R's re-
present in a more commercial age. It is as
though Plato has asked himself what was the
surest test he could give of his sincerity, what
was the highest price he could pay to preserve
society from its most deadly peril, the aesthetic
spirit.

As a single exponent of Hellenism, there
can be no rival to Plato. He alone is complex
enough to sum up within a single personality
all the manifold aspects and activities of the
Hellenic soul. But we must promptly with-
stand the error of the chronologers who have
unpardonably placed Plato in the fourth
century. By nature he was twin brother of
-ZEschylus, the vivid and austere, and he burns
with the vital fire of Pindar, and he combines
the mockery of Aristophanes with the awful
intuitions of Thucydides.

But if, as a Hellene, in the widest sense, Plato
has no rival, as a master of the Greek tongue
he has one, and one only, the " sweet singer
of Colonus and its child."

Sophocles is the only Greek writer (Homer,
of course, excepted) for whose person all
Greeks expressed a reverence nearly amounting
to worship. In his calm, classical spirit they
saw something that approached the super-
natural, and they recognized that he had been
born under the special favour of heaven —
whose life had commenced when, as leader of
a boy chorus, he had hymned the victory of

60 Part I — The Voice of Hellas

Salamis, and closed before he could witness
the death-blow of Athens, dealt her by Ly-
sander's hand at JSgispotami. He was there-
fore born into and practically lived through
that fifth century of which Plato was only the
adopted child. Athens loved him as he loved
Colonus ; the people who had jeered at
Pericles, driven Thucydides into exile, wholly
neglected Euripides, and murdered Socrates as
a corrupter of boy nature, were awed into
silence by the calm reserve, the unearthly
dignity, of Sophocles.

Yet was he no cold ascetic — many-tongued
rumour gave him not that character — in his
poetry too passion lurks, though hidden beneath
a marvellously refined, somewhat austere, style.
He has, perhaps, beyond all other writers the
subtle undefinable quality which we call
distinction. Vergil has it too, but — to speak
in Baconian fashion — though Sophocles might
have written Vergil, Vergil could not have
written the lyrical part of Sophocles. There
is all the difference between the rhythm of a
sounding stream and the rhythm of wavelets
kissed by the sunshine. The rhythm of the
Sophoclean lyric is ever freshening in the
breeze, while, in technical perfection, it scarcely
falls below the difficult standard set by
Pindar. In style, therefore, Sophocles differs
from Plato the Poet, who, strictly speaking,
has no style. He merely pours out the cornu-
copia of his thoughts, like molten metal from
a bucket, till his pages are covered with the

The Pursuit of Beauty 61

glowing mass. What modern would dare to
construct sentences as Plato often does ? His
language, lofty though it be and eloquent from
the heart, yet can be not seldom tiresome,
then hurried to the point of slovenliness and
even obscure. Yet no one who really cared a
straw for Plato ever thought of his verbal
defects, and it were as cruel to Sophocles as to
Plato to try him by any standard that
aestheticism can devise.

In Greek drama there is a literary artist,
and a consummate one at that, " Euripides
the human, with his droppings of warm tears."
Yes, the pathos and the charm of Euripides
has blinded many readers to the fact that he
is really a sophist (of course I use the word in
the Greek sense), masquerading as a tragic
poet. His ideas may have been excellent, I
have no doubt many of them were — nor do I
care — my instinct tells me they are out of place
in Greek drama. Not so Sophocles — his
emotions are not those of an artist in ethical
novelties, but those of a sound Greek poet.
He, too, has his philosophy of life — what Greek
had not ? — although there is something dim
and mystical in his enunciation of it, for he
has not the certainty of the Rationalist. The
main point which differentiates him from his
younger rival is that, although his philosophy
is the very web and woof of his drama, he never
allows it to run counter to the exigencies of
his art. An instance will make this clearer.
Compare the Antigone, which is not quite his

62 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

masterpiece, with perhaps the finest of Euri-
pides' plays, the Hippolytus. Both may be
called problem plays in a wide sense — though
they would hardly satisfy Mr. Chesterton's
definition of a problem play. The themes of
both are equally terrifying. Yet I find a
difference. The play of Sophocles has the true
tragic atmosphere ; it keeps throughout to the
grand manner — while it terrifies it also soothes
and reassures. The virtue of Hippolytus is
not unlike that of Antigone ; it is even more
heroic, yet the effect is greatly marred by a
controversial element. The crudeness of
Aphrodite's mean jealousy is evidently dragged
in as an unpleasant morsel of bitter polemic,
without any real effect on the tragic situation.
Sophocles can move us quite differently, not
because he was a worse moralist or a better
artist than Euripides. Or rather, we might
say, that he was only the better artist in so
far as he was the better Greek. The creator
of Antigone, the delineator of (Edipus, of Ajax,
of Philoctetes, had something in him of higher
moment than mere poetry or ethics : he had
ideals, and the timely utterance of these gave
his heart relief ! Athens never required of
him the final test of the cup of hemlock, but
I doubt not, like his own heroine, he could
have died for the faith that was in him. I
know not whether, like Socrates, he would
have died with a joke upon his lips.

* CHAPTER III
GREECE, THE CRADLE OF DEMOCRACY *

Great was the wisdom of Greece, but not
for herself. Her achievements in statecraft
were but weak and halting ; yet she bequeathed
to unborn generations of men a political philo-
sophy which is as remarkable for its sanity
as for its subtle thought. And it is also true
that, on the practical side, the Greeks, in
spite of the little solidarity and permanence
of their work, have given great examples to
the world.

Greece and Rome severally represent for us
two great sides of human nature. If Rome
created Empire, Greece undoubtedly created
Democracy, and this is perhaps (I do not speak
positively) her greatest title to the gratitude
of mankind. I propose to consider Greek
Democracy as it existed in fact as well as in
theory. Indeed, the philosophy of Plato and
of Aristotle is of such a concrete substance
that we cannot adequately deal with it except
through a careful study of the facts upon which
it is based and with which it professes to deal.
One result we may expect from a study of this
subject is that we shall gain thereby a some-
what clearer notion of what we mean by
Democracy. For is not this one of the many

* Read before the College Classical Society, T.C.D. (members
of the Classical Association of Ireland being present by special
invitation), November, 1913.

6 63

64 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

terms of political or social reference which are
used in a vague and misty manner ? To a
Greek the import of the word was clear enough.
For there is this difference between a living
language like Greek and a dead or dying
language like our own — that, in the former,
words have a proper value, clear and precise,
often carrying their meaning stamped upon
their face ; whereas, if we so much as pause to
ask ourselves the meaning of words which are
flying loosely around, as they pass glibly from
tongue to tongue, we must needs seek the in-
formation from a language which men, in their
ignorance of the truth, characterise as a
" dead " tongue. To a Greek " Democracy "
meant what it said, i.e., a form of the city-
state in which its Demos, or mass of citizens,
took a direct and personal share in controlling
its destinies.

Yet I shall not attempt for myself a defini-
tion of Democracy. This may, I fear,
sound very illogical, but, then, I do not aspire
to be logical. A pedant might try to define
electricity, a fool would triumphantly define
poetry. Perhaps the greatest things in the
world are not defined — they are believed in.
I will try to tell you what I believe about the
Demos. I believe the Demos is a sound person,
or, if you like it better, a healthful animal.
It is, therefore, a healthy thing to trust the
Demos, and if you trust him you will not be
very far from loving him. That is what I would
call the " credo " of Democracy. There is

The Cradle of Democracy 65

one other article of the " credo " worth men-
tioning, and it is this. The whole is greater
than the part. Therefore the true statesman
will not allow the wishes or the interests of
any class in the community to prevail over the
interest of the whole Demos. In other words,
true Democracy is opposed to tyranny in any
shape or form — even the tyranny of the Mob.

To return to our inquiry. In thinking or
speaking about the Greeks it is almost in-
evitable that we should focus our attention
upon Athens. Not merely because almost all
our knowledge about the inner life of Greece,
as well as her philosophy, comes to us from
Athenian writers. I count Aristotle among
these, because, though he dropped from the
north, he became practically an Athenian
by adoption. But there is a special reason also.
Athens was always regarded among the Greeks,
and was in fact, the champion of Democracy ;
and the history of her State was simply the
growth and development of democratic prin-
ciples and institutions. These things grew up
in Athens, not from any intellectual impulse,
but out of the essential grit of her manhood —
just as Imperial Rome was a necessary outcome
of the sturdy virtue of the Roman Plebs.

Yet, if we want to trace back Greek Demo-
cracy to its roots we must go behind the history
of the Athenian Demos to the earliest existing
records of Greek life. In the Homeric State
we can already detect seeds which were bound
to bear fruit in due season. There is a spirit

66 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

of fair play as between man and man, and at
least among the chieftains in the battle-field
and in the council-chamber there is the strongest
evidence of individual responsibility. In
presence of their over-lord the Homeric heroes
were accustomed to use a freedom of speech
which certainly did not err on the side of
reserve. One great lesson of the Iliad is that
the sins of rulers bring trouble on their
followers. Achilles, too, was humbled in the
end, but not till after he had taught a very
salutary lesson to Agamemnon. But when we
turn to the later Homeric period we see even
stronger indications of the same spirit of
independence. When the Odyssey was being
composed the Ionian race was already starting
on its mission. It was beginning to spread
itself in the Mediterranean basin westwards as
well as eastwards. The enterprising and re-
sourceful spirit of Homer's Ionian chieftain only
required a quieter opportunity to assert itself
in the political order and cultivate that sense
which we call democratic. After the Homeric
period and the great break-up of civilization
caused by the Dorian conquest, democratiza-
tion among the Greeks was for a time arrested.
Sparta took the lead, and in her city-state,
owing chiefly to topographical causes, the
strictest military discipline was enforced.
Though she was in many ways typical of Greek
life Sparta never had any tendency towards
the sort of Democracy which flourished at
Athens, nor can we doubt that Spartan jealousy

The Cradle of Democracy 67

of Athenian rule added to her dislike of demo-
cratic institutions. She was always regarded
as the champion of Oligarchy and when her
opportunity came she gave the Greek States a
taste of her fruit which turned to bitterness in
their mouth.

Let us, however, at once turn our attention
to the early history of Attica. Almost at the
beginning of her career her children began to
feel out for that political individualism for
which later they became so distinguished ; but
the Athenian people went through all the
regular stages by which many other city-
states reached their final development. After
Monarchy came Oligarchy, then Tyranny, so-
called, and, lastly, some form of Democracy.
The Greek Tyrant was a peculiar institution,
though he might be fairly compared in certain
respects with the Tribunus Plebis of the
Romans. Anyhow he was a champion of
popular rights, who owed his power to the
revolutionary exercise of physical force ; he
came from the people and was used by them
as a set-off against the intolerable yoke of an
hereditary nobility.

The democratic spirit among the Greeks,
and more especially among the Athenians, was
undoubtedly quickened by the death-struggle
of Greece against the Persian King and by the
glorious victories which terminated it. But
we must guard against believing that the
democratic movement originated solely in the
binding-force of a great national crisis. We

68 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

can trace its development for at least the
hundred years that elapsed between Solon's
legislation and the Battle of Marathon. We
are not really contradicting Aristotle, who
seems to deny this in the twelfth chapter of
his second book. He is there dealing solely
with what he considers the perversion of
Athenian Democracy in its later stages ; and
he points out that in Solon's legislation, which
he thought perfectly legitimate, no flaw, from
his standpoint, could be detected. But that
Solon actually commenced a series of political
changes which eventuated in extreme Demo-
cracy is an undeniable fact.

In the same passage Aristotle emphasizes
the evident truth that the Persian victories
assisted the democratic movement, because
they were won by the oarsmen of the Piraeus,
men who belonged to the lowest class of
citizens. But we must look deeper than this.
It was in and through the Persian Wars that
the Greeks arrived at the full consciousness of
their nationhood. They had been separate
units — now they were an irresistible world-
power. This new conviction need not neces-
sarily have implied a new impulse to Demo-
cracy ; but as a matter of fact it did — because
the war was felt to be a war for freedom. To
the eyes of a Greek, the Persians were Bar-
barians, but also bond-slaves. The struggle had
passed over the JSgean from Ionia to Hellas,
and in Ionia no doubt was felt that Persian
rule spelt national ruin for the Greeks. What

The Cradle of Democracy 69

was the Persian King but an Oriental despot ?
We are inclined, perhaps, to hold that Demo-
cracy was the outcome of the city-state : I
think it is equally true to state that the
city-state was the outcome of Hellenic indi-
vidualism.

We need not, then, be surprised to learn from
the historians, poets, and orators of Greece
in the fifth and early fourth centuries how
deeply the Greek mind was infected, not merely
with a detestation for the tyrannical rule of
Eastern potentates, but with a very active
dread of Monarchy as a political institution.
One of Headland's greatest contributions to
scholarship (which was barely gaining due
recognition at the moment of his regretted and
premature death) was the way he insisted on
the dramatic turning-point in the greatest
masterpiece of ^Eschylus — where Agamemnon
by consenting to walk, even after baring his
feet, upon his wife's oriental carpet showed
how the victory over Asiatic Troy had turned
the head of -the Homeric champion of free-born
Achaeans. Thus his tragic fate falls upon him
at the moment he was claiming for himself,
just as Alexander the Great claimed, a semi-
divine, and therefore un-Hellenic, kingship.
Thus is dramatic justice in so far vindicated.

We must take pains to realize the difference
between the Greek standpoint and our own.
We moderns know full well that the freedom
of the subject and a constitutional government
is possible under any of the great forms of

70 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

administration. In the eyes of the Greek, as
of the Roman, Democracy was always identified
with Republican forms of government. To be
the subject of a monarch was to have lost
something of human grandeur, and even of
human happiness. We must never forget that
whatever else Hellenism stood for, in the eyes
of the Greeks themselves it stood first and fore-
most for the Sovereignty of the People.

And now comes the Great Paradox. Athen-
ian life was full of paradoxes — the Greeks were
not always morbidly logical — but this time it
is something uncommon. Although that
which I have called the democratic spirit was
cradled in Greece and nurtured to maturity in
Athens, although the men of Hellas knew that
it was their highest and most distinctive glory
to be champions of individual and civic free-
dom ; yet if there is one thing in which all the
greatest and most representative writers of
Athens agreed it was in reprobating Democracy
as they knew it. As instances of this mental
attitude I need only cite, among historians,
Thucydides and Xenophon ; among poets,
JEschylus and, by implication, Pindar, Aris-
tophanes— even Sophocles, though not so
zealously ; above all, among philosophers,
Plato and Aristotle. In various ways these
men have brought home to us the state of their
mind, and though we could, no doubt, some-
times find explanations of this feeling in
regard to individuals, yet we are speaking of a
conviction which is too deep-seated as well

The Cradle of Democracy 71

as too widespread to be accounted for by acci-
dental causes. Every student of Greek litera-
ture must have been struck by the unanimous
verdict of all, except, perhaps, one first-class
writer, against Democracy.

The fact is, Democracy at Athens had been
a failure, just as had Monarchy at Sparta, and
Oligarchy at Thebes. We are accustomed to
admire the city-state, and rightly. It pro-
duced great men, it did great things for
humanity. But for the men who constituted
it, the city-state had serious drawbacks. The
flashes of light which it gave were grand
enough, but, flaring up, they soon burned
themselves out. The system wanted stability.
After a single century of true democratic
government Athens was brought low ; and
after less than a second century Greece, as a
nation, had ceased to exist. She was absorbed
first by Macedon (which was never a city-state),
then by Rome (which had ceased to be one) ;
and until quite recently Greek soil has never
since been free from the yoke of the foreigner.

Be it again said, the loss of Hellas was the
gain of the world. In her brief span of freedom
Greece tried many experiments and taught
mankind many priceless lessons. Her thinkers
garnered into a rich store of philosophy the
heritage of wisdom which they bequeathed to
later generations. Plato, a man of pure and
spiritual intuition, who felt too keenly to be
able to reason calmly, left us that picture of
the Ideal State, which for its rare literary

72 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

quality as much as for its startling dogmatism
has gripped the finest minds of Europe — even
of those who shrank in horror from his weird
proposals. Aristotle, on the other hand,
makes no appeal to our emotion. Calmly and
impersonally he has constructed that wondrous
scheme of philosophy which has never had a
real competitor, and will last for all time as
the loftiest pinnacle of human intellectual
achievement. Deeply as his mind had been
scored by his master's magnetism, he never
hesitates to correct his faults or to lop off the
luxuriance of his towering idealism. But in
one thing he fell not short of Plato's ardour,
and that was in his dislike of Athenian Demo-
cracy. In all else cold as a statue of Parian
marble, when referring to the political aber-
ration of Athens he allows himself the delight
of denunciation.

Thus the student of Greek life gains a two-
fold lesson. On the one hand, he admires and
loves the soul of Democracy, as expressed in
the very existence of Greek nationality ; and
again he is led to abjure that same spirit when
it breaks away from sanity and degenerates
into senseless exaggeration. All through Greek
life the Golden Mean is inculcated. This is the
true secret of a Classical spirit, no less in Greek
politics than in Greek art or in Greek letters.
But there is a difference also. In the literary
and aesthetic world we meet great masterpieces,
which have reached us because the sordid and
the commonplace, if it ever existed, has fallen

The Cradle of Democracy 73

away into oblivion. The study of History is
not like that. If we wish to arrive at the
knowledge of what the ancients really were,
if we would " see Greek life steadily and see
it whole," we must not expect to find in it
only what is admirable. These people, after
all, were human, and what nation, what
period, can claim immunity from human
weakness and error ? Nay, rather, the very
intensity of Greek life, the enthusiasm, the
rapidity, the gaiety of Greek nature, the very
spirit of freedom which animated Greek hearts,
should prepare us for some defection from
their own lofty ideals. They may not have
done everything well — but of a truth they did
nothing slackly, and when they went wrong
they had a natural tendency to go very
wrong. We need not wholly regret their
wrong-doings ; for us their faults may be
as useful as their virtues — we may learn as
much from their failures as from their magni-
ficent achievements.

Let us, then, consider briefly the actual
working of Democracy at Athens. This is,
no doubt, a thorny subject and one which,
to the regret of the true student, has too com-
monly raised mountains of controversy. Grote
wrote his great History to extol the Athenian
policy, and it has ever been called, not al-
together unjustly, a political pamphlet in twelve
volumes. In fact, the book represented a
reaction against previous English writers who
had treated the subject from the standpoint

74 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

of extreme conservatism. If we could only
succeed in avoiding the controversial spirit
and confine ourselves to a statement of facts,
we might formulate a doctrine that would be
widely admitted.

I do not see how it can be denied that, at
least after the death of Pericles, the rule of the
democrats was disastrous to Athens. They
got beyond themselves and rode for a fall.
To enforce this statement let us take a con-
crete example. Alcibiades was the child —
Aristophanes hints the spoiled and pampered
child — of the Athenian Democracy. During
the later part of the great century of its ener-
getic life this brilliant young soldier, politician,
and orator of Athens represented only too
faithfully the rising generation of his city. In
beauty, in intellect, in versatility — we might
add in restlessness, irresponsibility, and a
certain lack of stable principle — he was the
very mirror of the Young Athens which
frequented the schools of the Sophists and
took there the mould of their mental training.
And with what result ? No external enemy of
Athens, not even Brasidas or Gylippus, con-
tributed so effectually as did Alcibiades to the
ruin of the imperial city. It was his know-
ledge and ability, to say nothing of his wealth
and influence, that enabled him to strike the
blow which in the event proved fatal. It is
useless to discuss now the nature of the
provocation which he received, or again to
recall the magnificent services which at a later

The Cradle of Democracy 75

date he rendered to his country. My point
merely is, that democratic Athens reared
Alcibiades, made him what he was, and that
it was his restless, reckless individualism which
ruined her. He first brought about the Great
Expedition, and then worked its destruction.
If space permitted we could discuss the case
of Cleon, or of Nicias — who, though in every
way the direct antithesis of his younger rival,
helped him, unwillingly no doubt, in his work
of devastation. And Nicias was implicitly
trusted in a crisis by the purblind democracy.

The fact is, the Athenian State was organized
on the basis of mob-rule. That the mob was
comparatively enlightened and even, in a sense,
highly cultured, does not matter. However
well it might do for carrying on the ordinary
business of a city-state which, after all, was
but a municipality, at any rate a cultured
mob is no fit agent for governing a Federal
Empire. The real cause for surprise is not
that Athens failed in the end, but that for a
time she managed the Confederation of Ionian
Greeks with very fair success. Even the
Roman Senate could not govern the Roman
Empire, and the two cases are not perhaps so
dissimilar as they might at first sight appear.

There are two things to bear in mind when
discussing Athenian policy. One is that Attica
was not a topographical unity ; the other, that
she was an industrial State with a large slave
population. We need not make out that the
preponderance of slaves was as great as used

76 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

to be believed — a recent estimate would make
them about forty per cent, of a population of
over a quarter of a million. In addition
there were numerous Metics, or foreigners
domiciled in the city. These had to pay heavy
taxation, but lacked the rights of citizenship
in a full sense.

The existence of large classes of men in the
city who were not citizens will, no doubt,
raise a question in the minds of many as to
whether we can rightly even apply the name
of a Democracy to Athens. Here, it seems,
we must make a careful distinction. If we are
going to consider the question purely from the
standpoint of present-day politics — I mean
the extreme humanitarian view of Democracy
— it is quite evident that no city-state, however
democratically governed according to ancient
ideas, could be regarded otherwise than in the
light of a somewhat inflated oligarchy. But,
of course, when we are dealing with the institu-
tions of the ancient world we have to divest
our minds of modern preconceptions, en-
deavouring to view questions according to
standards of thought and practice prevalent
in earlier times. Now, no Greek or Roman
(generally speaking) ever thought of questioning
either the justice or the necessity of slavery.
It was a universally recognized fact, and even
Aristotle, with all his power of analysis, took it
for granted that it sprang essentially out of the
very roots of human nature. So that to contend
that because slavery existed at Athens there

The Cradle of Democracy 77

could be no real Democracy there, seems to
betray a lamentable confusion of thought.
The Greeks did not invent slavery, but they
invented Democracy, and when they gave it
a name in their own tongue they knew what
they were talking about better, perhaps, than
many modern dogmatisers.

But, even keeping to the Greek point of view,
we must admit that the presence of a large
number of slaves in a democratic State really
did influence the political situation very pro-
foundly ; for it meant that the members of the
Demos, who were also members of the govern-
ment, were not obliged to labour. They did
not eat their bread out of the sweat of their
brow, and they could, accordingly, find plenty
of leisure to attend to affairs of State, whether
legislative or administrative and judicial.
Whenever they wanted to interfere they could
do so directly, and they did so more than was
healthy for themselves or for Athens. It is a
very different sort of Democracy where the
common people merely reserve to themselves
the final say in great questions of State policy,
from where they undertake, no matter how
unqualified by education or experience, to
settle in detail, by the light of nature, all the
complicated affairs of an empire. ^

We cannot escape from the fact, to which I
have already alluded, that the Athenian Demo-
cracy was held in scornful and bitter hatred,
not merely by extreme Oligarchs (nothing
to surprise us in that), but by moderate

78 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

conservatives, patriotic and thoughtful men,
like Thucydides and Plato. It is no answer to
say that these men had smarted, Thucydides in
his own person and Plato in the person of his
beloved master. I can believe that they had
suffered — but that they had spiteful minds I
refuse to believe, or that a conviction like theirs,
so deep, so lasting, that the Athenian Democracy
was inherently weak and foolish, was caused by
mere personal pique. Plato's views were ex-
treme on this subject. If he did not believe
in his soul that Athenian policy was rotten to
the core, he would never have had recourse
to Sparta, as he certainly did, to find a type
of pure and ideal government. We may say,
of course, omne ignotum pro magnifico, but
that will hardly explain the whole phenomenon.
I do not, however, wish to discuss the views
of Plato further, but would now ask to turn
your attention to the attitude of the younger
philosopher, as expressed in his immortal
treatise on Politics. I would say at once that,
in spite of his apparent reprobation of it, there
is in Aristotle a deep and reasoned sympathy
with many of the higher aspects of Democracy.
It is true that he does not yield to Plato in his
dislike of the Athenian manifestations of the
principle, and among the Greeks the name of
Democracy had by this time become thor-
oughly identified with Athenian institutions,
so that the philosopher always treats it as a
Perversion rather than a True Form of
government. It shall be our task, however, to

The Cradle of Democracy 79

investigate his doctrines, and we shall find, as
I have said, that they connote a very sound
belief in many essential principles of Democracy
apart from a dislike of the name.

But not wholly. Of course Aristotle defends
slavery, but he goes much farther. He clings
to the pagan view that manual labour, as such,
has a degrading effect, or at least unfits a man
for taking his share in public life. Accordingly,
he excludes the mechanic from citizenship in
his ideal city-state. On this score, so far from
admitting the democratic position, he finds
fault with extreme Democracy because under
it the claims of the working-man to citizenship
would possibly be recognized. But he is per-
fectly impartial, for he includes Oligarchy in
the same condemnation. He fears in a State
ruled by Oligarchs the manual labourer who
had amassed wealth (the very thing that com-
monly happened at Athens) would also be
very probably admitted to the franchise.

However much we moderns may deplore
Aristotle's failure to recognize the dignity of
labour, we need not resent it. We must not
expect that in virtue of his originality and
insight he could entirely divest himself of
prejudices which were practically universal in
the ancient world. No doubt this high con-
tempt for hard work was the result of a
flourishing system of slavery, as it also reacted
in favour of the maintenance of it.

The doctrine current among us that nothing
is more manly or finer than work, that a man

7

80 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

is not less respectable because he works with
hand as well as brain, is the direct outcome of
Christian faith, and has never been held except
among professors of Christianity or such as are
strongly influenced by it. It is, of course, the
very charter of modern Democracy ; and for
my part I certainly resent a fashion that is
prevalent among numerous modern thinkers
to paint Christianity as the enemy of demo-
cratic development. Churchmen, of course,
have many sins to their account, and I am
sure sins against the principles of human
liberty ; but to assert that Christianity on the
whole, whether viewed historically or doctrin-
ally, has been anti-democratic seems to me
nothing short of gross calumny.

So far the negative side of Aristotle's doctrine
about Democracy has been chiefly considered.
Let us try to give a more positive outline of
his philosophy of the State. I must, however,
premise that the task is not altogether easy.
Both in the Ethics and the Politics we find
there is a region where, in spite of his enormous
gift of insight and of analysis, the author has
to proceed tentatively. Perhaps he is to be
more implicitly trusted on this very account.
Is there not a point in all sciences, a point where
the widest generalizations are aimed at, but
where the greatest thinkers find themselves
enveloped by a very atmosphere of haze, — a
point where dogmatism may be easily mis-
taken for science ? When the Philosopher is
dealing with details, grouping them, deducing

The Cradle of Democracy 81

from them principles of theory or practice, he
is supreme alike in his knowledge of the realities
of life and in the marvellous instinctive reason-
ing power which he brings to bear on them.
But when he formulates schematic principles
of statecraft he is not always absolutely clear.
His attitude towards essential Democracy is
necessarily involved in the very crowning
point of his political philosophy, which is the
definition of the ideal constitution ; and in this
all commentators have, I think, detected an
element of uncertainty. As to what he calls
by the name of Democracy, I have already said
there is practically no room for doubt. He
always means the excesses of the Athenian
multitude, which he utterly reprobates as
perverted. But this is not our inquiry — we
want to know what he recommends as perfect
government, and how far his Ideal Polity is
in the deeper sense Democratic ? Now, it so
happens that he can find no name except that
of Constitution for his Perfect State ; and as
every form of government is in a sense a
constitution, there is already an element of
confusion which tends to mar his treatment
of the subject.

Let us, however, seek to trace, step by step,
the principles by which the Ideal Polity is to
be animated. In the first place, the science
of Politics is regarded as a branch of General
Philosophy whose character is consistently
teleological. The end of all human life is
happiness : the end of the State is TO e£ tfiv,

82 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

which we may paraphrase the Higher Life.*
It is one of our paradoxes that whereas Plato,
the idealist, laid the foundations of the State
upon a material base, Aristotle, the practical
man, the rebel aganst his master's idealism,
rejects Plato's materialistic view of the State
as contemptible. Plato has postulated the
existence of a State as a means to supply man^
kind with the necessities of life. Aristotle
replies, without rejecting the statement, that
this matters not to him. The State exists
because man requires the society of his fellow-
men to enable him to prosecute the Higher
Life. The formula is a very simple one :
" Man without his fellows is */ %>tW *? Beos
— either a Beast or a God." We need not ask
which of these conceptions of the State is the
higher one — it appears certain that Aristotle's
is more philosophical, if only because it dips
down deeper into human nature. In other
words, Plato's State at best would be a con-
venience ; Aristotle shows that it is essential
for human life as such. And to grasp this truth
clearly is to have a key to all philosophy of
the State, not because the doctrine is in some
sense ethical, but because it is universal.
And it is almost superfluous to add that in deal-
ing generally with political problems Plato is far
more ethical than his disciple, in spite of the
fact that he hit upon a non-ethical solution of
the most fundamental question of statecraft.

* Not, of course, in any religious or narrow sense, but including
all that we call Humanism "in the widest meaning of the term.

The Cradle of Democracy 83

There is a second principle, only less funda-
mental, and none the less true, than the one
described. It is the dividing line between
good and bad governments, according to
which all possible systems are classed as
Normal forms or Perverted. Normal rule
exists for the good of the governed — Perverted
rule for that of the government. All varieties
of form, which may be indefinitely multiplied,
are subordinate to this great distinction.
Thus Monarchy will be normal if the king seeks
the good of his people ; if he does not, you get
the Perversion of Monarchy, which is Tyranny.
In like manner the State may be governed by
a few rulers, and it will then be a real Aristo-
cracy if Normal, or an Oligarchy if Perverted.
If the many rule, the State may still be ruled
normally, i.e., constitutionally (Aristotle can
devise no other name). If perverted, such a
State will be democratic in the degraded sense,
i.e., the Demos will rule to suit their own ends
and not for the benefit of the whole community.
This parallelism between Oligarchy and Demo-
cracy, as understood in the treatise, frequently
recurs and seems to throw a strong light on
the mind of the author. For Oligarchy had
a bad name at Athens. The party had been
unfortunate ; they had, indeed, played the
game with execrable folly. In reality, after
the performances of the four hundred in 411
B.C., and of the thirty in 404-3 B.C., the
ordinary Athenian looked upon the Oligarchical
party as men who had turned traitors, and

84 Part I— The Voice of Hello*

having tried to do their worst had failed in the
attempt. Hence when Aristotle brackets
Democracy with Oligarchy (we may take it
he is thinking of Athenian history) he implies
that one and the other constitute a very cor-
rupt and degrading element in politics.

In our effort to discover his real attitude
towards the Democratic principle, as we under-
stand it, it is very necessary to bear in mind the
strength of that prejudice against Democracy
as it existed in Athens which he had inherited
from Plato, and which his own mature ex-
perience had strengthened.

The great practical problem of politics which
evidently exercised the mind of the Philosopher
was how to discover a method by which different
elements in the State can best be harmoniously
co-ordinated ; and it is not too much to say
that the presence of this question in his mind
gives a colour to all his speculations. In a
well-known passage of the Sixth Book, after
enumerating the more important classes of
citizens, as mechanics, farmers, men of busi-
ness, labouring men, soldiers, and the class of
State-officials, he goes on to say that there is
one ineradicable distinction more fundamental
than the rest, namely, that between rich and
poor men. So strongly does he feel the force of
this view that he purposes (in spite of obvious
etymology) to revise our use of the common
political nomenclature. He dissents from the
popular view that Oligarchy properly signifies
the rule of the Few and Democracy the rule

The Cradle of Democracy 85

of the Many — declaring that Oligarchy properly
is the rule of the Rich (who merely happen to
be few) and Democracy of the Poor (who
merely happen to be many). And in the im-
possible supposition of the Rich being many,
and the Poor few, he would still maintain that
the rule of the former would be Oligarchs and
of the latter Democrats. This distinction is
not a mere matter of words, and it seems
to throw a good deal of light on Aristotle's
theory of the best polity.

Having stated this problem of co-ordination
we may now consider his treatment of the
Middle Class, that is, the class which is neither
rich nor poor, but of moderate substance. His
doctrine here is very clear and will undoubtedly
commend itself to the minds of most of us.
The best polity will be that in which the Middle
Class is relatively strong — if possible stronger
than both the extremes of rich and poor taken
collectively, but anyhow stronger than either
of them taken separately. This it is which
will impart stability to a State, a view which
is defended partly from reason and partly
from experience. We are reminded in Book
VI. that, according to Aristotelian doctrines,
virtue is to be always regarded as a mean lying
between two extremes; and, by analogy, that
condition which is intermediate in regard to
the gifts of fortune is best for the citizens and
safest for the State. For such a class obedience
to law is relatively easy, whereas the very rich
and the very poor are tempted alike, the one

86 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

to insolence, the other to degradation, which
may be the result of extreme poverty. The
writer then quotes a lyric poet of whom we
possess several fragments, Phocylides of Mile-
tus, who said, 7ro\\a /jLecroia-iv apiara, fjueaov #eX&> ev

TToXet elvat,. Then, with his usual practical in-
sight, Aristotle adds that to this Middle Class
belonged many of the most successful states-
men of Greece, citing, among others, the case
of Solon, who undoubtedly founded democratic
rule at Athens.

Here Aristotle has proved not only his deep
political insight but his true Hellenic tempera-
ment. And this praise of the Middle Class as
a stable and conservative, though by no means
un-democratic, element in politics suggests
again the thought of Athens. If that city
had been more in the hands of the cottier-
farmers of the uplands of Attica, and less in
those of the idlers who used to hang around
the quays of Piraeus when they were not wrang-
ling in the Agora or voting down better men
in the Heliaea and the Ecclesia, historians
might have had to tell a different tale from
that of Syracuse, ^Egispotami, and Chaeronea.

And, for ourselves, we do not perhaps picture
our farmers and shopkeepers as endowed with
brilliant talent or with a thirst for heroic self-
sacrifice — but what we do look for in them is
some supply of that rarest article which is
strangely called by the name of Common Sense.
This is a precious thing in the eyes of the
modern statesman, as in those of Aristotle,

The Cradle of Democracy 87

who might perhaps be best described as the in-
carnation of Common Sense. I think we might
safely address all the publishers of the world,
and defy all their historians, essayists, meta-
physicians, and economists to produce in the
compass of this short and fragmentary Politics
a volume which would contain one tithe of its
homely wisdom and sane speculation.

If the problem of the best State could be
solved statically, here would be, on paper any-
how, an excellent constitution. The power in
the State is to be taken out of the hands of
extremists, whether Oligarchs or Democrats,
and entrusted to men of moderate opinions
because they possess moderate means.

But, of course, Aristotle knew better. We
know better. The problem is not a statical
one. The real statesman must be prepared
to deal with the interplay of dynamical and
antagonistic forces in the State, or else he must
remain content, as Plato did to a large extent,
with merely speculative schemes of government.
This is the great lesson of the Politics. The
author has made it plain that in a community
of human beings we must expect to find that
element which we call Egoism and which he called
Oligarchy and Democracy indifferently. And he
scornfully rejects the view that these interests
are irreconcilable, or, in other words, that no
kind of polity can be devised which is not either
frankly Oligarchic or, in his sense, a Democracy.

But when the Philosopher seeks for a formula
by which to reconcile the opposing forces of

88 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

extreme wealth and poverty, he knows that
he is treading on dangerous ground. What
he sees clearly is that a sane or Normal polity
must, in some sense, be a fusion of those
extremes ; and he suggests, evidently in a
tentative spirit, three methods which we need
not describe, by which such fusion has been
or could be effected ; and naively enough adds
that no such fusion is complete unless it can
be described indifferently both as an Oligarchy
and a Democracy.

I will only cite one passage from the Third
Book* which seems to reveal a strong sympathy
with democratic principle. He is maintaining
the theory that, on the whole, it is good for the
Multitude to be supreme rather than the Few,
even though the latter may be a superior class
of men, and remarks that though the individual
wisdom of the Many may be less, yet, taken
collectively, they may have a higher degree of
merit. "As the multitude has many hands
and feet and many senses, so perhaps they
may prevail in point of intellect and morals."
And he adds, very significantly, "the Many
are better judges than the Few of works of
music and of poetry."

It is clear that Aristotle was still groping
on the way to certainty in matters of State-
policy. And I doubt whether we moderns can
yet boast that we know all about it.

* Chap. ii.

CHAPTER IV

THE RELIGIOUS SENSE

It is of little moment to describe the Greeks
as a serious-minded, strenuous and democratic
people, if we have to admit that as a race they
were deficient in religious feeling. Yet this
opinion is undoubtedly prevalent among many
who, being interested in the lighter side of
Greek culture, refuse to believe that beneath
it were waters running deep.

One thing is quite clear. The Greeks showed
great reverence towards their dead. It is not
what Antigone does for her brother, but the
reason she gives to Creon that brings her so
near to this most beloved trait of Christianity.
When Creon taunts her for honouring one
brother at the expense of the other, whom he
had parricidally slain, and that the bad should
not receive the same sisterly affection as the
good, she makes answer : " Who knows that
in the world beneath us these estrangements
hold good ? My nature prompts me to join
in loving but not to share in hatred." This is
woman at her highest, woman inspired by true
religious feeling.

Sophocles is not an extreme type of religion
among the Greeks — others could be named who
are more noted for that character — but it is
difficult to think of him as a poet of a non-
religious race.

89

90 Part I— The Voice of Hello*

Anyhow I feel that it will fit in with my
plan to offer a few reflections, not perhaps very
original or otherwise remarkable, in criticism
of a view which is commonly taken for granted
among modern writers and which recently
found expression, perhaps a little gratuitously,
in a widely-read treatise on a phase of Roman
art. Frequently modern rationalists write as
though they disapprove of all forms of religion,
which they regard as another name for de-
graded superstition. On the other hand
Christians have been frequently vehement in
their intolerance of pagan religions, in which
they can detect very little that is good.
Personally I consider that to brand the Greek
nation as irreligious is derogatory to Religion
itself as well as to the Greeks. Therefore my
arguments will take frankly the form of a
defence against what I hold as a false or ex-
aggerated allegation, and to this extent will
necessarily constitute an ' ex parte ' statement.
But being aware that the strongest case may
be injured by excessive zeal, I trust that I shall
not attempt to heighten my own by adducing
dubious or over-strained arguments. And I
hope I shall not traverse again the ethical
ground already covered. We may, I suppose,
take for granted the clear connexion between
ethical standards and religious sentiment.

It may also serve to make this essay clearer
if I begin by stating what it does not aim at
accomplishing. It is not going to attempt a
description of Greek religion as a whole, any

'_. JThe Religious Sense 91

more than to discuss its ethical content ; still
less will it plunge into that maelstrom of
controversy which has been agitating the
learned world for more than two decades
regarding the origins of Greek religion. Dr.
Farnell, than whom no greater authority
exists on this subject, in his Hibbert Lectures
for 1911,* has warned us that years of study
are required for its comprehension as a whole ;
and I cannot pretend to be an expert on this
branch of Greek studies.

My method will be therefore quite different
from that of the anthropologists who investi-
gate the multifarious Greek cults and compare
them with those of other, generally ruder,
nations. We shall merely take Religion in the
widest sense as one of the elements of Human-
ism, and ask how the Greeks were upon the
whole affected towards this principle no matter
where they found it or how they came by it.
Even so, we shall find our inquiry involving a
somewhat vast and complicated problem, one
that perhaps will not become easier as we
proceed. Religion is a very elastic term, and I
would hardly venture to enter on a definition of
it. Again, if one starts on such a quest with a
prejudiced mind, one will be likely to reach wrong
conclusions — and who will dare to assert that he
is free from prejudices on this of all subjects ?

Yet I will venture to lay down a few
principles for our inquiry which ought to
guard it against prejudice and fallacy.

* Lecture 1, p. 2.

92 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

1. We might easily start with too high a
note — we might require a standard which is
really impossible. A people will not, any
more than a man, necessarily live up to the
religion which they hold. It is true we have
the warranty of an apostle that faith without
works is dead, and so it is. But he never said
that it is not faith. This is certainly a fallacy
to guard against.

2. Again, our standard might be a just one
in itself, and yet be wrong relatively. When
criticizing pagan peoples it is very easy to
forget or obscure the evident fact that any
polytheistic system of religion will be essen-
tially different in its effects from our own —
or even from a non-Christian faith which is
monotheistic. In paganism there will be in-
consistency at best — and at worst it will tend
to become chaotic, as was certainly the case
with the religion of the Hellenes. Anyhow, let
us not attempt to be logical.

3. Then a good standard may be wrongly
applied. For instance, if we are dealing with
the commonalty we must not criticize them
as we should scientific men and philosophers,
and vice versa. Religious faith is no doubt one
thing fundamentally, yet it may have very
various manifestations. As a nation the Greeks
were philosophic, that is, they created the
philosophy of the West. Therefore it is not
enough to show that they were wanting in
religion to state that they took to philosophy.
To explain what I mean I will give an instance.

The Religious Sense 93

Suppose it were argued that as a race the
English are cultivators of physical science, and
therefore they will have an irreligious tendency,
I think we should demur. We might agree
that scientists are very often rationalists —
but, before arriving at any conclusion about
English scientists, we might fairly ask are
they remarkable for their irreligion as a class ?
That is, taking into account the fact that
they are scientists, how do they compare with
the scientists of other nationalities ? This is
what I should call a fair application of a
standard. When we come to the Greek
philosophers, we must deal with them as such,
remembering that philosophy does not of itself
induce a religious spirit, though of course it
is not wholly incompatible with it.

4. But all these errors are as nothing com-
pared to that other source of confusion which
I alluded to in a former paper, but which it is
absolutely necessary to touch upon here. I
mean the common practice, when speaking of
the Greek character, of arguing from the periods
of its decadence. The flower of Greek genius
was specially prone to decay and when it turned
rotten the world was filled with its stench.
Corruptio optimi pessima. The first thing the
Greeks lost was their religion ; when that went
mental and spiritual decadence supervened.
If, then, our critics restricted their statement,
and alleged merely that the Greek mind was
ever in danger of irreligion, and that finally it
succumbed to the danger, this would be fairly

94 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

near the mark. But it is a very different
thing to maintain that through and through
the Greeks were nationally deficient in the
religious sense.

On the other hand it must be admitted that
grounds exist for forming such a view if we
consider the matter in its exterior aspects and
do not take the trouble to penetrate to the
heart of Hellenism. For at first sight there is
a very strong contrast between the Greeks
and other, even pagan, peoples.

When we consider the greater and more
prominent nations in the early history of the
world we note that they were usually inspired
and moved by ardent, often fanatical, enthu-
siasm for their national faith. Among Semitic
peoples, the Jews, the Assyrians, the Phoe-
nicians, probably the Hittites,* were all fiercely
religious. Among other nations, the Persians
and the Egyptians were marked and moulded by
strong devotion to a fixed belief in the super-
natural. It is hardly necessary to add that in
later times the wars and national development
of Christians and Mohammedans alike were
governed by their intensely religious ideals.
At the present day, in the Far East, we find
faith in Buddha, in Confucius, as also Shinto-
ism, giving their special character to forms
of Oriental organization. The Romans were, as
a nation, intensely religious, although in the
long course of their national development

* This is not intended to decide the controversy as to the origin
of the Hittite people.

The Religious Sense 95

they, like the Persians, changed their religious
standpoint, and at one time were remarkable
for importing new objects of national cult.
Even where their devotion was centred in the
worship of the goddess Roma or the person of
the living Emperor, it is commonly claimed
that religion both entered into and profoundly
modified the national life.

Now what do we find in Greece ? Simply
no national faith of any relative importance,
but quite a bewildering multiplicity of local
cults, especially amongst the poor and ignorant.
The educated classes, add the critics, were
remarkable for their indifference towards these
cults (except in so far as they were officially
recognized), for their hilarity at the expense of
the official gods, and sometimes for their few
and poor attempts to discover a symbolic in-
terpretation of them. Their philosophy was
ever attempting to explain away the popular
religion, or, at most, to substitute for it a cold
intellectual faith, which is in the plainest con-
trast to the fervid devotion of other pagan
races.

Now, it is our business to consider how far
these allegations are true. Some of them may
be quite true, but in the whole case we have
to proceed with caution. First we may, at
the very outset, admit that the Greeks can
hardly be said to have possessed a definite
national belief or even a national god in the
strict sense. Zeus was, it is true, always re-
garded as the official head of the Hellenic

96 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

hierarchy, such as it was. But then, when he
was more than a symbolic name, we shall find
that practically he was regarded as a local god,
such as were Athena, Apollo, Aphrodite. If
there was any national cult in the sixth and
fifth centuries in the sense of being universally
observed on Greek soil, it was that of Dionysus.
And his worship may be best considered as a
distinct religion, with only the least possible
relation to the Olympianism of the Established
Church. On the other hand, popular as were
the revels and the legends of the Wine-god, he
could never have made a serious claim to dom-
inate and inspire the Greek mind, as Rome
was at one time inspired by Mavors, and at
another by Jupiter or Roma ; the Persian
race by Auramazda and by Mithra ; the
Carthaginians by Moloch, and the Egyptians
by Osiris. It would be useless to pretend that
the Greeks recognized any commanding object
of their faith and reverence. They had any
number of popular gods and national heroes,
but no outstanding personality who could
inspire a national religion in any true sense.
Thus far it is agreed. And the reason is clear.
The Greeks never had a national faith because
they never could have one. A national faith
presupposes national solidarity. The city-
state, as the Greeks invented and held to it,
was not compatible with political nationality.
They had what they did require, local tutelary
divinities in whom they, in some sense, put
their faith. Their patriotic aspirations were

The Religious Sense 97

abundantly satisfied by the worship of Apollo
at Delphi and Miletus and Sparta ; of Athena
at Athens ; of Aphrodite at Corinth and
Paphos ; of Hera at Argos, and Zeus at Olympia
and Cyrene ; even of Arethusa at Syracuse and
Taras at Tarentum. And there was more.
These special city-cults not merely expressed
in each case a special character of the people,
but marked them off as something separately
sacred, and independent of all external power
and influence. These hieratic distinctions are
well illustrated in numismatic study. Without
inclining to the theory that coin-types origin-
ated in religious devotion, we must note the
enormous preponderance among them of the
representations of divinities and of their easily
recognized symbols.

At once, therefore, the conclusion becomes
manifest. We are dealing with a special case.
The real inwardness of the Hellenic spirit
cannot be reached by that method of in-
vestigation which suffices for ordinary nations,
namely, to inquire into their national faith,
as evidenced by their warfare and political
record. In the case of Greece, before branding
her people as an irreligious crowd we must
dig a little deeper— we must weigh in the bal-
ance her art, her poetry, her drama, her
philosophy and, above all, the daily life that
was lived upon her soil and the care and honour
she bestowed upon her departed children.

My case depends on one great central prin-
ciple. This I shall enunciate at once, with the

98 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

full knowledge that many a reader may sum-
marily reject it. Religious faith, I submit,
is not merely an emotion, it belongs to the
heart, but not exclusively : it implies also
an act of the intellect. Faith which consists
wholly in feeling is not faith at all : it is a
sentiment, but not a conviction. Notice I do
not confuse religion with theology, for the
latter excludes emotion from its sphere except
as a thing to be analysed and argued about ;
whereas in religion it is felt — because religious
conviction, to be worth the name, is so intense
that it implies some feeling of its very nature.

Thus I would submit there is in all religion
a double element, the rational and the emo-
tional. Either element may be developed at the
expense of the other and religion will be in so
far injured — but if either element is suppressed,
something remains that is not truly religion.

Now I am quite ready to admit that among
the Greeks the rational side of religion may
sometimes have tended to over-development
at the expense of the emotional. The real
characteristic quality of the Greeks as a race
was not, as is usually stated, their aesthetic
sense — but their intelligence. In all depart-
ments of life, in their art and eloquence as well
as in their science and philosophy, we trace
this controlling guidance of reason. This is
what we mean by Classical Art or Oratory or
Poetry. The name precisely suggests balance,
reserve, justness of expression (artistic or liter-
ary, things which make Hellenism a supreme

The Religious Sense 99

standard of excellence for all the generations
yet born. The intellect is the controlling, though
not always the creative, force in Hellenic
achievement. Hence, if we are not allowed to
include the activity of reasoning power in
the orbit of religion, we need not expect to
find it a prominent factor in Greek life.

Let us then admit that Greek nature was
temperamentally predisposed, not necessarily
to be irreligious, but if religious to be so in a
one-sided manner. And as to be one-sided is a
defect, let us therefore admit that the Greek,
as compared with other, even pagan, religions,
was defective in this sense. But that is very
different from making it out to be non-existent.
It may, moreover, be fairly maintained that a
deficiency on the emotional side is far less fatal
than the opposite modern error which treats
religion as being an entirely irrational concern
— an error which, as we can see only too clearly,
leads to every form of blind credulity, and
finally to blank and naked scepticism.

Elsewhere I have referred to the vexed
question of the relation of Hellenic art to
religion, and there is no temptation to repeat
myself, or to discuss the matter at greater
length here. The short essay of Prof. E. A.
Gardner, entitled Religion and Art in Ancient
Greece* is excellent, and, though dealing with
the subject on technical lines, might be consulted
with advantage by those who are interested in
this branch of our subject.

* Harper and Brothers, 1910.

100 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

I must, however, briefly refer to that char-
acteristic of Greek religion which was directly
connected with art, and that is its anthropo-
morphism. There are of course departments
of the Greek faith to which this much abused
term cannot be applied — in fact, recent in-
vestigations have tended to stress the fact that
many of the earlier an-iconic cults survived at
least in the popular as distinct from the official
system of Greek religion. There is, perhaps,
a tendency to exaggerate the distinction be-
tween these two aspects of Greek religion.
To read some treatises one would almost con-
clude that there was a sort of constant warfare
carried on between them — something like the
quarrel between Church and Dissent in English
history — for which view there is little enough
warrant in Greek literature.

We ought constantly to remember what
an imaginative mind was the Hellenic. Much
that is commonly attributed to religious belief
is merely the imaginative way of expressing
beliefs which were often deeper and sounder
than their presentation implies. Thus it seems
to me the whole question of Greek anthropo*
morphism demands a very careful treatment.
Are we to assume because the Olympian deities
are represented as human both in art and in
legend that therefore their creators conceived
of their gods as in reality somewhat sub-
limated human beings ? Certainly it was the
net result of art and poetry to strengthen the
anthropomorphic tendency. No sane person

The Religious Sense 101

would deny that ; neither that the process was
always going on nor that it went very far.
But the view I plead for is that the process
did not in fact go quite so far as we are inclined
to think and as is generally assumed. At
different times and among different classes
the conceptions of divinity of course varied.
We know that under all conditions the human
aspect of divinity was specially prominent.
But all the same, even considering ordinary
persons as distinct from philosophers, it seems
to me we ought to bear in mind that the
Greeks (like ourselves in quite another degree)
had their famous de parler and their artistic
conventions about the Divinity, and that they
were conscious that they had.

I do not hold that the Egyptians really
believed their divinities were brutish because
they chose to depict them under animal forms ;
and in spite of all human apparitions and
human actions of the Greek gods from the
Iliad and Odyssey onwards, I think we are
entitled to remember Myth and Art are one
thing — they belong to the imagination — Belief
is another, it is the act of the reasoning
faculty.

We may go more straight into the heart of
our subject and begin by asking what the
Greeks said about themselves or rather about
one another ?

WTien it comes to a question of individuals
on this subject the Greek populace was sadly
astray. Socrates and Euripides were both

102 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

accused of atheism. So was Anaxagoras, and
by implication his friend and patron, Pericles.
Could anything be more absurd ? Socrates
an atheist ? Humanity's greatest witness
(always excepting one) to God's eternal truth !
Euripides is not such a simple case as the son of
Sophroniscus. His rationalism can be at times
very tiresome ; but this was the foulest of all
calumnies levelled by his Athenian contem-
poraries at their own poet-philosopher. It
is enough to remember that he too was disciple
of the Martyr. He wrote of " the All-seeing
who is Himself unseen." His views were
unorthodox and he obtruded them — voila tout.

One word about Anaxagoras. So far from
his doctrine being atheistic he was the first
of a long line of Greek thinkers who boldly
enunciated the principle which all theists regard
as their crucial truth, namely, the origin of the
universe from an Intelligent Cause. It is true
that Plato, speaking in the mouth of Socrates,
complains that Anaxagoras failed in applying
this key-stone doctrine of Intellect, but that
hardly diminishes the importance of his dis-
covery. The bigots of religion have often
erred regarding men of science — they rarely
made a greater mistake than did the accusers
of Anaxagoras.

A more difficult problem faces us if, turning
away from the professed philosophers (among
whom I count Euripides), we ask what was
Pindar's attitude to the religion of his day ?
Undoubtedly such faith as he had in the unseen

The Religious Sense 103

world was in great measure merged in his fierce
patriotism, his love of the beautiful in nature,
his proud adoration of human splendour and
dignity. This is to admit that in his mind
and heart he was a thorough pagan. Pindar
must be read with sympathy, with even humil-
ity, before we can fathom his soul. Material
things dazzle him it is certain, but does he
give us any ground for surmising that he was
in the least like certain post-Christian critics
of paganism ? Would he have dared to brand
all religion as fundamentally one with the
crassest superstition ? Or did he not hold that
religion was in some sense a veritable human
necessity ? His description of the future life
in the abode of the Blessed may be compared
to the parallel description of the beauty of
heaven given by Plato in the latter part of the
Phaedo. His treatment of the myths is some-
what unusual, for he holds himself free
sometimes to explain and sometimes to reject ;
but after all there is no trace of irreverence
or fundamental irreligion in the extant odes
and fragments.

Much of course can be alleged on the opposite
side of the count. Plenty of ridicule is poured
out on the gods by the Comedians — Euripides
fiercely denounces, and (if we read between
the lines) despises, those who defend the
legendary beliefs. Even Homer was flippant
in some of his allusions to the national deities.
But we must pause before drawing very
sweeping conclusions. Laughter is one thing,

104 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

unbelief is another. We have Chesterton's
authority (and he ought to know) for saying
that men joke about the things they have most
at heart, and treat seriously the things that
do not matter.

I have already said we must bear in mind
that pagan religion is a complicated affair
— we must allow for different periods, shift-
ing fashions, many varieties of intelligence
or of temperament. In the Greek literature
and art which has come down to us we are
admitted to a very close view of Greek life.
No man is a hero to his valet : it is hardly fair
to the actors on the stage of life to turn down
the light and bring them into the cold glare of
the sun's rays before they get a chance to dis-
card their gaudiness and paint.

The trouble with the Greeks (who were in
most things exuberant) is they appear to the
modern to have had too much of religion —
or rather so many religions that they could
hardly be religious. So the English Protestant
visiting Naples and seeing a Madonna at every
street-corner — knowing the Neapolitan is a
hard nut to crack, at once concludes that all
this is humbug and tawdriness. Perhaps he
may be wrong — at least it would do him no
harm to inquire a little more closely into the
facts. Like the Neapolitans, who are their
descendants, the Greeks of Pindar's day were
a light-hearted race; like them they owed it to
their climate. And if religion consists mainly
in pulling a long face, it was not for them.

The Religious Sense 105

But we have other tests. Go to Acragas,
see the line of temples along the south side of
the city's edge, facing the sea ; even to-day a
glorious sign of the faith and fervour of the
Sicilian Greeks. One of them — the Concordia
— happens to be among the very best-preserved
and most beautiful samples of Greek archi-
tecture. That of Hera comes next, also an
imposing sight ; then the Zeus, telling only in
its foundation-stones or a few fragments of its
colossal splendour ; and there are others, too —
all structures erected at the best period, and
serving to illustrate the saying of Thucydides,
that while the private houses of the Greeks
were humble and unadorned, those of their gods
lacked no attraction nor magnificence which
wealth and human skill could lavish on them.

The same tale is told, but in heightened terms,
by the excavations of the Germans at Olympia
and of the French at Delphi and Delos. It
is even pathetic to realize how the exiles from
Hellas had erected those lines of so-called
Treasury Houses (really miniature temples —
gems of art) in the enclosures of the gods, in
order that on the sacred soil they could regard
at least one spot as their very own. If actions
speak louder than words, these silent stones,
recovered in our days by the labour of the
spade, bear eloquent witness to the faith of
Hellas. It had its deficiences. Yes, but it was
all these men knew, and they loved it well.

It will be fitting here to refer to certain
main features in Greek life which bear so

106 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

directly on this discussion that they can
hardly be left out of it. Of these I will confine
myself to three which strike me as being
specially important. They are :

1. The Dionysiac aspect of Greek Drama.

2. The influence of Delphi upon Greek

life.

3. The religious import of the Eleusinian

Mysteries.

The first of these topics, the religious char-
acter of the Greek Drama, is a very trite as
well as thorny one, and if with hesitation I
allude to it, it is not so much because it tells
in favour of my view as that I feel it calls for
mention. It is of common knowledge that the
plays were produced under the aegis of religion
and with many marks of the cult of Dionysus.
Yet those who are best acquainted with the
real conditions of the Greek Theatre and its
literature would lay the least stress on the
religious character of the performances. If
the High Priest of the god presided it was
more of a pictorial ceremony, like the presence
of a Lord Mayor at a Thanksgiving Service,
than a mark of real devotion. The people
wanted a good show — they also wanted good
literature, — and we know the greater Dionysia
was purposely timed to allow of the presence
of foreigners who would see within the
Great Theatre unmistakable proof of the
dazzling genius and imperial grandeur of the

The Religious Sense 107

violet-crowned city. Nor is it only the tragic
performances which have to be taken into
account. In the winter, when there would be
fewer strangers present, the Comedians got
their chance and well they used it. Probably
nothing has been more responsible for a wide-
spread belief that the Athenians were a godless
rabble than the reckless pen of Aristophanes.

Yes, at these Dionysiac festivals there was
pride and pomp, and boisterous fun galore ;
at first sight piety towards the higher powers
is rather far to seek. Yet our conclusion
might be wide of the mark. First impressions
are not in all cases the best, and if we go deeper
into the matter we may judge more correctly
of the Athenian ethos. We are so accustomed
in our modern life to make a distinction be-
tween Church and Theatre, between Theatre
and School, between School and Public Meet-
ing, that it is difficult to understand how these
could be all combined together in a single
institution. From the certain fact that
they were we may indeed conclude that
Athenian civilization was not yet fully-fledged
in our sense ; but we cannot prove that it was
essentially irreligious. Children are funny
creatures, but hardly monsters of impiety.
And it is one way to take your pleasure sadly
(a thing we do understand) and another to
take your religion gaily.

But that is not all, or I should have omitted
to allude to the Greek Theatre. It may be
that in the later fifth century, as far as the

108 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

outward forms of tragedy and comedy are con-
cerned, the Dionysiac element was but a
pictorial survival of an earlier faith, but — we
have the plays themselves to consider. Care-
fully weigh the choruses of JSschylus and
Sophocles ; read with discernment the pages of
Euripides and even Aristophanes — and gradu-
ally you will become aware that, whatever is
to be decided about the outward forms, in the
spirit of the Greek Theatre we can still discern
a lingering, brooding sense of the eternal
verities — a consciousness that "behind the
scenes" of that greater theatre where is played
the drama of human existence an unseen
Power is making itself felt.

Our second topic was to be the influence of
Delphi upon Greek life — and it is scarcely less
difficult than the preceding. This was the very
seat and centre of official Greek religion — nor
was its influence restricted to public affairs. In
a sense it may be said to have held in the
ancient world a position analogous to that of
Rome in medieval Europe. But it has been
remarked that the influence of Delphi was
always purely in the spiritual order, whereas
there were periods when the Roman See leaned
upon the arm of secular power.

It is of course easy to sum up the Delphic
oracle as an instance of fraud practised on a
gigantic scale, and to assume that its success
can be accounted for by hypnotism, intrigue,
and bribery. But there is something to be said
contrariwise. Considering the long history of

The Religious Sense 109

the oracle, the known instances of venality and
gross deceit, or even of tortuous ambiguity,
in responses given are comparatively few.
Some of the commonly quoted instances, even
of those found in the pages of Herodotus, can
be fairly doubted or disproved. But these
questions are of quite secondary importance,
for no scholar, however desirous of championing
the Delphic priests, would think of denying
that as they were human they at least occa-
sionally abased their great opportunities for
deceit. The fact that chiefly concerns us is
that Delphi undoubtedly exercised great power
over the Greek world and even beyond it. For
we know that foreign peoples frequently con-
sulted the oracle. Deputations came from the
Roman Senate — there was even a tradition
that the last of the Roman kings had sent to
consult it. Again, the political influence of
Delphi is written large over every page of Greek
history, and upon the whole, historians have
passed a favourable verdict upon the oracle
as a political power. Along with the Great
Games, in which of course Delphi had a con-
siderable share, the Apolline oracle was the
sole tangible link between the isolated and
scattered Greek city-states, so that we may
truly assert that if it had never existed the
weltering confusion of Greek politics would
have been worse than we realize it was. It
kept up a truly Pan-hellenic attitude, though
there were special ties binding it to the Dorian
states.

110 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

To assume that such an enlightened and
humane statesmanship combined with an
appeal to supernatural sanction, was but the
outcome of cold and calculating charlatanism
would be poor psychology. Self-deception in
some degree is of coarse most probable ; we
may easily concede that religious enthusiasm
is liable to be self -deceived. But before these
ministers of Apollo could persuade the world
that it belonged to them to manifest to it the
will of heaven, is it not at the very least
probable that they were themselves convinced,
sometimes more and sometimes less certainly,
that they had a genuine god and a genuine
method of communing with him ?

Undoubtedly the history of priestcraft forms
a sad chapter in the annals of humanity, but
if we compare the record of Delphi with that
of similar spiritual dominations we shall find
scant reason there for throwing stones at
official Greek religion. Throughout Greek
literature there is an astonishing reverence
shown for Apollo and his shrine. Even in the
age of the Sophists we find Sophocles and Plato
manifesting what looks like deep inward awe
when referring to Delphi. They were both
frank and fearless in their utterances ; some-
times we find a distinction between the god and
his interpreters. There is an interesting case
in the GEdipus Rex, when the chorus appears
to be face to face with the utter break-down
of an important oracle. " Zeus knows," they
sing, "Apollo knows the affairs of mortals —

The Religious Sense 111

but who has any means of proving that their
prophet is wiser than I am, although one man
may surpass another in subtlety (<ro<Ju'a)?" i.e.,
the instruments whom the gods use are human
and fallible; but let us never doubt that
behind the priests a real divinity is hidden.

Lastly, there is the question of the Eleusinian
Mysteries, which can be discussed only briefly.
This subject has been always fiercely debated,
and its literature is immense. Few would
now subscribe to the opinion of Gibbon and
De Quincey that equally with the oracles, the
Mysteries of Demeter at Eleusis were only a
gigantic hoax. I will be satisfied to quote a
well-known passage of the Panegyricus of
Isocrates, in which he estimates their value
without describing them in any way. It is
true that this rhetorician must not be relied
on for a very serious judgment — that his
oration, a fine one in its way, is a sort of
academic exercise in praise of Athens, but
intended chiefly to illustrate his style of
oratory. None the less we can argue from his
words, for his was a highly-cultivated mind
with wholesome instincts, peculiarly adapted
to represent the opinions about Eleusis held
firmly by the average Athenian gentleman.
46 Demeter," he says, " has granted to the Greek
world through Athens very important boons
— the gift of corn, and the Mysteries." (This
could be so far taken as a conventional state-
ment.) He proceeds : " Corn raises our life
above that of brute beasts ; and the Mysteries

9

112 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

give to those participating in them better
hopes about the end of their life, and existence
for ever" (rov av^Travros al&vos). Here there
seems to be a ring of conviction. He pro-
ceeds to say that Athens may rightly pride
herself for having communicated both these
boons to the whole Greek world. It is certain
that there was a connexion between death
and the rites of the goddess Demeter. The
very phrase reXer*;, by which the Mystery
was called, has been thought to imply such
connexion. There appears to have been quite
a wide-spread conviction that a real purification
of the soul was granted to those who were
in a duly pious spirit initiated.

In a general sketch like the present it is
hardly possible to make all the distinctions
which a more complete treatise would contain.
It would hardly be accurate to speak of a transi-
tional period between the religion of the myths
and the religion of philosophy — because in truth
there was no period which was not transitional.
The Greeks were too quickwitted and restless
ever to endure a stage of stagnation such as
other races have experienced. Yet, in the
growth of rationalism we may perhaps detect
a moment when it had rendered the disin-
tegration of the old faith inevitable. This
moment is the crucial one for our inquiry : it
is the moment of Plato.

In his day among the rising generation there
were many who proclaimed that there were no
gods, no higher truths, no touch-stone of life

The Religious Sense 113

but expediency. There was also the party of
reaction to whom the Sophists and their
teaching were anathema. It is not my intention
here to discuss the attitude of the supreme
representative of Hellenism towards such
controversies, considered as problems of philo-
sophy. But with regard to Plato's personal
attitude towards traditional religion I may be
allowed to quote from a former lecture* of my
own. We find ourselves face to face with the
most patent and almost crass contradictions.
We can be quite certain that neither Socrates
nor Plato nor any of their contemporaries,
except perhaps children and the most ignorant
persons, believed in the literal truth of the
orthodox mythology. Socrates, it is true
(who was much disliked by the Athenian ultra-
patriotic party), had been accused of bringing
new gods into the State, and had warmly
denied and resented the accusation as evi-
dently trumped up by enemies. And both
he and Plato speak with reverence of the
national divinities. Towards the cult of Apollo
in particular Plato seems to have felt quite a
devotion. The last recorded words of Socrates,
" Remember, I owe a cock to ^sculapius,"
do not point to entire unfaith in the popular
beliefs. On the other hand, when Plato
comes to speak out his mind on the stories
which were recorded about the pagan divinities
by the poets, and Homer in particular, he leaves
us in no doubt as to his convictions about their

* History of Religions, 1910. Vol. ii., Lecture 4.

114 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

falsity. Homer was regarded by all the Greeks
as their inspired source of knowledge of history,
religion, and politics. Even when it is a ques-
tion of philosophy, Plato can quote Homer as
an infallible court of final appeal. One line
in Homer will establish a momentous theory
of the distinction of faculties in the soul. But
the educator of youth will have none of him.
The Iliad is to be thrown out of the school,
and that on account of its false and deleterious
religious doctrine. Homer is offensive to the
religious sense, and must go.*

Plato, therefore, was quite assured as to the
untruth of the whole corpus of popular
theology taken in its literal sense. We might,
perhaps, have anticipated that he would have
joined his lot with those thinkers who under-
took to explain, or explain away, the symbolism
of paganism so as to bring it into harmony
with right reason, and with the monotheism
which both Socrates and Plato professed.

But it was not so. This method of dealing
with the popular faith was identified with the
names of the extreme rationalizing party,
whom Plato at least thoroughly disliked, all
the more because Socrates had been unjustly
condemned on the ground of belonging to it.
And so far was he from sympathizing with
these theories, which had been first invented
by the Ionian physicists, that it was the aim
of his life to drive them out of the country for

* It is true that Plato also rejects dramatic poetry on other than
purely religious grounds. This has been mentioned elsewhere.

The Religious Sense 115

ever. For he laboured to build up a system
of metaphysic which should contradict the
fundamental presuppositions of the physicists,
many of whom had even attempted to gain
adherents among the more conservative party
by making Greek mythology fit in with their
own theories. Evidently Plato thought that
in the conventional beliefs elements of truth
were contained, though mixed with many
corruptions. Manifest error was not to
be tolerated, but he did not think it lay
within the province of his philosophy, or that
of any other frail human mind, to disentangle
the wheat from the tares. He would hold fast
to what was good, and for the sake of the pearl
he would deal gently with the casket which
enshrined it. He would always speak with
reverence of the Greek divinities, and on
occasion he would worship them — for the sake
of the Unknown God.

The attitude of Aristotle towards religion is
much more difficult to define ; for a treatment
of this subject I may refer the reader to the
lecture from which I have quoted.

Such, then, are the suggestions which I would
offer towards a just estimate of the religious
sense of the Greeks. I have purposely ab-
stained from dealing with the darker aspects of
pagan religion — a matter which is fairly familiar
to most readers. In some respects, perhaps,
the Greeks were better than their neighbours,
but it is by no means part of my thesis that
the Greek religion was all sweetness and light.

116 Part I— The Voice of Hellas

On the contrary, it would be possible without
exceeding the truth to draw a very dismal
picture of many of its features, and at best it
must have failed to satisfy the cravings of the
Greek spirit. What I have kept before my mind
has been, not the ethical content of Greek or
of any pagan system of religion, but, taking it
at its value, to ask whether the Greeks honestly
tried to turn their religion to good account.
If the reader concludes that I have made out
a weak case, I fear the blame rests with
myself for not putting it in a clearer light.
If, on the other hand, he concludes that the
Hellenic people were not quite so black as they
have been usually painted, he has gone as far
as I could have hoped to carry him. My own
view is that they were neither saints nor
sinners but a little of both.

PART THE SECOND
THE CLASSICAL REVIVAL

CHAPTER V

THE GOSPEL OF WORK *

The doctrine that work is a thing to be
proud of and to love for its own sake has,
of course, a distinct fascination for a demo-
cratic age ; it is, moreover, one that Christians,
as such, have good grounds for claiming as
their very own. To live up to a doctrine is
the most emphatic way of insisting upon it ;
and no one ever did this more than the
Founder of our faith, from His earliest years.

Here, however, we shall consider the gospel
of work, not as it affects religion, but educa-
tion, that is from a professional standpoint.
Our occupation as teachers entails constant
work of a wearing and wearying kind, and we
are particularly proud of that work as being
most noble in itself, as well as of immense
importance to human society. Our work is,
therefore, a labour of love, and it by no means
ends with the hours spent in the class-hall,
for we regard our work as something more
than the imparting of knowledge to those
under our charge. If this were all, we should
be about on the level of shopkeepers, not
necessarily haunted by a sense of responsi-
bility and a constant dread of unpreparedness.

The function of the trainer of youth is
more like that of the benevolent physician at

* Portions of this and of the following chapter appeared in
the Irish Educational Review, in Studies, and in the Journal of
the A.R.L.T.

117

118 Part II— The Classical Revival

a patient's bedside, except that the doctor
deals chiefly with pathological conditions,
whereas our part, like the care of a good
parent, is to watch and, if we can, to control
the normal growth of the youthful faculties.
And we have to watch ourselves narrowly to
be sure that our methods are succeeding, that
we are adapting our knowledge to the minds
and even to the temperaments of our learners.
Is their progress more apparent than real ?
Or are they gaining from us not mere know-
ledge, but discrimination, appreciation, in a
word, that sort of culture which is a thing
of the heart as well as of the intellect ?

One great motive for unflagging devotion to
our work is the knowledge that we have to
lead on our students to work for themselves,
and this we must do by example rather than
by mere precept. School life is (and we realize
it only too well) the beginning of the larger
life, which we know is full of drudgery — we
need not ask why, it is enough to register the
fact. Do we not hear moderns constantly
talking about the Eternal Grind, as though
they had discovered something new in human
experience ? Whereas perhaps the most they
have succeeded in acquiring is the art of taking
their pleasures sadly, and thus providing for
themselves a new experience of misery un-
dreamt of by their ancestors.

We cannot stand still-our destiny is calling
us on — and there never was a time when the
gospel of work was more opportune than it

The Gospel of Work 119

is for us. At the present moment there is
much unrest and discontent combined with
so many schemes for reform, some of them
good, others at best doubtful — the net result
upon education being that the true line of
progress may be totally obscured. I mean
that, in spite of all the newspapers, and meet-
ings, and commissions, and what not, in many
a school and college quiet and unobtrusive
work is going on, and where that is so, pro-
gress is being made, although the world hears
very little about it. We do hear about it
sometimes though, we get a sudden flash of
revelation, coming like a bolt from the blue.

I am not going to defend the system of
competitive school examinations. Heaven
forbid ! But if it is to be allowed any merits,
one of them is, I think, that it tells us, some-
times with dramatic suddenness, of good and
solid work going on where we could have had
no reason to suspect it. Written examinations
carried on under abnormal conditions are, as
a rule, but a poor test of real teaching. But
no one would maintain that exceptionally high
marks can be obtained, at least in Classical
examinations, apart from genuine training
superadded to genuine ability. Successes of
this kind must give encouragement where they
are gained, and a healthy stimulus in many
other quarters.

In considering the gospel of work for work's
sake I shall not travel beyond the domain of
Classical training, about which alone I have

120 Part II— The Classical Revival

any ideas to communicate. My remarks, how-
ever, will be generally applicable to all grades
of Latin and Greek education, not more to
the University grade than to lower ones,
especially when viewed as preparatory to a
University course.

My main concern is with our conception of
work — in what sense it is beneficial or neces-
sary, in what sense we must undertake it,
and in what sense we are justified in im-
posing it on our charges. Although I admit
that all work which is worth anything must
contain a certain element of pain and drudgery,
I would contend that we have no right to
inflict unnecessary and useless drudgery on
others. And the evident reason is that, by so
doing, we should not be training our pupils
to useful and rational work, but rather the
opposite. We should be stultifying their
minds and preparing them to relinquish study
at the earliest possible moment, to break
away from it as a hateful and degrading kind
of mental slavery.

This is a big subject, and it is not a moment
too soon for us, the professed teachers of
Latin and Greek, to look into it carefully.
We have now come to the parting of the
ways, and are being put on our defence as
we never have been at any previous time in
the history of education. No one is more
anxious than I am to defend Classical educa-
tion, but 1 cannot see any way of defending
it except by proving that it gives something

The Gospel of Work 121

which cannot be gained at a lower cost. We
may deplore the change that is coming over
the minds of men, but that will not prevent
it. They ask, not are Classics of any advantage
in education, but are they worth the time and
trouble that is demanded in learning them ?
As the French put it, Is the game worth the
candle ?

This is a very serious question, and before
we try to answer it, we had better be sure
that we are looking at it honestly, and with
all self-deception cleared away. For my part
I am perfectly clear that under modern con-
ditions, unless we mend our ways, the game
is by no means worth the candle. I do not
mean that we must merely improve our
methods in a superficial way, but that we
must have a fundamental reform in our whole
attitude. We must no longer assume that
what did very well in our fathers' and grand-
fathers' time should do very well for us. Even
in our own younger days these things were
only beginning to be in question, and we went
on pretty much in the old groove, with,
perhaps, a little criticism, which nobody
attended to in practice.

The question is not whether the methods of
the old school, long lessons by heart of
grammar, of prosody, or of extracts ; the
Greek grammar written in the Latin tongue ;
long compositions and impositions backed up
by the ferula and the birch-rod — whether, I
say, these things produced a result which was

122 Part II — The Classical Revival

good in its way and for its day, but will
they do now ? Now we have reforms in
teaching French and other spoken tongues,
in teaching natural science, in teaching geo-
metry, in teaching modern history. Why are
we classicists so slow in admitting that the
new science of pedagogy has anything to say
to us ? But lay this to heart, if we are not
mended we shall certainly be ended !

Hence I assert that our first great line of
defence must include renewed energy and
enthusiasm for our work as teachers ; nothing
less than that high conception of hard labour,
which, we take it, is meant by a gospel of work,
will suffice to meet our new requirements. It
will not take long to prove this to educationists,
for they know well that nothing less will be
demanded of them than shifting the main
burden of work from their pupils' shoulders
on to their own. Nothing in teaching is more
laborious than to make it interesting. The
careful and sustained effort to make any subject
of instruction instinct with reality and with
life is a severe strain on the mental and even
physical powers of the teacher. Even under
the old system of mechanical memory work,*
which is entirely condemned by modern re-
formers as antiquated, there was often felt to
exist in the pedagogue something human. He
called himself a humanist, and that sometimes

* Of course we must allow that memory work is not always
mechanical, and that it is in some degree necessary. But we are
considering the tendency to abuse of memory work which un-
doubtedly existed and exists.

The Gospel of Work 123

meant that he had a love of learning which,
in spite of his defective method, communi-
cated itself by a sort of infection to his class,
and which softened the fall of the ferula and
saved him in our eyes from utter reprobation.
Our danger in these degenerate times is to
keep to the vices of Dominie Sampson after
we have divested ourselves of all his virtues.
What is the first thing to make sure of ?
We must begin by tearing out of our minds a
deeply-rooted heresy, namely, that Classical
education exists simply for the purpose of
strengthening the mechanical powers of the
mind, and of imparting to it clearness and
suppleness in the use of language. Mind, I do
not question that these results may some-
times follow from Classical training, nor that
they would be valuable in their own order.
But I deliberately call this an educational
heresy — and a dangerous one at that, — for it
implies a total misconception of values, and
a confusion of what is accidental with what
is essential. Considering the question of gram-
matical training, it is true that certain bene-
ficial results follow from it. And it might very
plausibly be argued that were there no reasons
against it (ah ! there's the rub) time given
to the acquisition of a single ancient lan-
guage— it need not be Latin or Greek neces-
sarily— would not be wholly thrown away.
But we, defenders of Classical education, go
much further than that. Do we not invite
parents to allow their children to pass a great

124 Part II— The Classical Revival

part of their time in acquiring, not Latin by
itself, nor Greek by itself, but both together ?
Let us see. Never did vocabularies and
prosodies of themselves bring to any human
soul light, warmth, or benediction. What,
then, avails in the discipline we are discussing ?
Nothing about words — but a new meaning, a
new interest in human life, gained through a
real grasp of ancient life. It avails to form
an acquaintance with the people of old, their
ideas as well as their language, their achieve-
ments as well as their laws, their poetry, be-
cause it mirrors their hearts and minds, their
history and their philosophy and their art
because they were different from ours, and
much more vital, more elemental, more
beautiful, more human. Antiquity must be
studied as a whole — just as astronomy or any
other science. If you asked an astronomer
does he study the starry heavens, or applied
mathematics, or optical physics, or spectro-
scopic chemistry, he might stare at you for a
fool. In like manner, if you ask me is the
main point in Classical teaching language, or
literature, or history, or ancient laws and
institutions and philosophies, or religion, or
art, or politics — I simply cannot say. But I
do say without hesitation that any teacher
of Classics who ignores any department of
ancient life as not appertaining to his duty
has only a poor conception of his business.
It is his function as a teacher to train the
mind of his pupil — as a teacher of Classics to

The Gospel of Work 125

train him to understand something of Greek
and Roman life — it may not be very much,
because his opportunities may not be very
great. Nor am I discussing just at present
who ought to receive a Classical education —
and I will assume that it is not equally suit-
able to all — I am merely discussing what
Classical teaching is, or at least what it ought
to aim at being.

But what a vista is opened up for the
preacher of the gospel of work ! If my view
is true, it means that no Classical professor is
doing his duty unless he aims at infusing a
human and living interest into his whole task
and into every part of it. What a different
conception, and how much more difficult for
the teacher, than the other dry and mechan-
ical routine of memory grammar lessons — lists
of genders and irregular forms that never were
used, and other revolting absurdities.

If, I say, we believe that we can and ought
to impart to our class some real knowledge —
very imperfect it may be but precious all the
same — of the ancient peoples of Rome and
Greece, of their words and their thoughts,
and all their human experiences, then we
shall want to learn a good deal about it our-
selves. We must read and we must ruminate,
we must grow into our subject, we must sur-
round ourselves with an atmosphere, not only
to breathe it but to bring our students to
breathe it. Many a votary of science does
this, and many a teacher of history too, and
10

126 Part II— The Classical Revival

of philosophy. Our theme is far vaster than
theirs, but that is all the more reason why we
should not take it less seriously ; and I truly
believe that, apart from divine things, there
is nothing more inspiring, more broadening,
more truly humanizing than a loving and in-
telligent study of Classical, and especially of
Hellenic, life and literature. They undoubtedly
give us a useful term of comparison for our
own surroundings. We may be proud of our-
selves, we may even have an intensely modern
spirit, but what we cannot afford to do is to
leave the ancient peoples out of the count.
Their achievements, their true greatness, their
true nobility and goodness, they gained in
spite of all the drawbacks which we recog-
nize in them — though even from their vices
we could learn something — but they are our
ancestors, of whom we need not be ashamed,
and without reference to whom we can never
expect to understand ourselves.

Therefore the first aim of the teacher of
Classics is to secure that his own mind is
thoroughly saturated with his subject. If he
keeps this aim before his mind, everything
else is of secondary importance and will easily
fall into its own place. To be able to interest
others he must first be interested himself, and
he must have more than he undertakes to give
— or rather he must know an immensity to be
able to impart a little. He must not only read
much and appreciatively, but he must read
with a view to grasp the human side of it all.

The Gospel of Work 127

It is along these lines only that we can have
a chance of rehabilitating Classical education,
I trust that my readers are now impressed
with the conviction that, even before we have
begun to treat of particulars, the gospel of
work is already assuming a serious aspect for
ourselves.

My contention therefore is that, in making
efforts to secure a due place for Classics in a
modern educational system, we teachers have
mainly ourselves to depend upon. Are we
prepared to take the burden of hard drudgery
off the shoulders of our students to fit it to
our own ? I believe we are, and that to a
constantly increasing degree. I have no belief
that the gospel of work falls on deaf ears. On
the contrary, I take it, the attitude of Classical
masters is that they long for reform (and I
mean their own reform, of course), and are
prepared to welcome any practical suggestions
which I or any other gospeller may be pre-
pared to give towards economy of time and
energy on the students' part. They might
even object to me that so far I have been
theoretical rather than practical, and that the
real difficulties of the case are intensely prac-
tical. This I would readily concede, but I may
be allowed to plead that to state principles
which though theoretical have a bearing on
practice is often a useful preliminary to a
discussion about details. Cardinal Newman
laid it down as a necessary rule that we should
never argue about anything unless we are

128 Part II— The Classical Revival

quite clear that we have a mutual agreement
about the principles underlying our discussion.

Let us, however, take the conditions of
modern Classical knowledge and show that in
this regard our position is more favourable
than that of our predecessors from several
points of view. My object, I frankly declare,
will be to guard against that tendency to
pessimism which, deeply-rooted and very
natural just now, would be a serious obstacle to
the upward tendency which I think the gospel
of work should promote. There has been
always, at least since the Revival of Letters, a
continual stream of progress in the world of
learning ; but what concerns us is the won-
derful increase of knowledge gained in our
own and the preceding generation, and still
more the fact that existing knowledge is
turned to so much better account for us than
it was for our forefathers.

We are now, as it were, brought into actual
contact with the men of old ; we do not
depend to the same extent as our forerunners
upon a mere literary tradition, often vague
and always liable to be gravely challenged by
newly-revealed facts. Our knowledge of anti-
quity is brought home to us and made vivid,
sometimes almost exciting, by modern methods.
The advance of learning adds, in this way, to
our labour, because of the obligation to keep
abreast of our times and not to be satisfied
with the information we acquired in earlier
; yet, surely it adds some zest to our

The Gospel of Work 129

toil. If it does not, the sooner we retire from
the school — and, if necessary, betake ourselves
to breaking stones on the roadside — the better
for our pupils.

The advantage we gain, or ought to gain,
from the actual advance of the world's know-
ledge of its own history is as nothing com-
pared to our gain from another cause which
has been already hinted at. I mean the
modern accessibility of all knowledge, old and
new. I suppose I need not labour to prove
this point, it is so very obvious. However,
our literary assets are too important to be
passed over altogether, and I will try to be
brief. The printing presses positively teem
with new books on every branch of
Classical learning, many of which are thor-
oughly new, well-arranged, and interesting. I
am not now referring to the editing of Greek
and Latin authors, nor to grammar and com-
position books, many of which are excellent,
but which open up difficult questions which
we must defer for the present. I refer rather
to the innumerable publications dealing with
history and antiquities, dictionaries and com-
pendiums of various sorts. Books like the
Companions to Greek and Latin Studies con-
stitute a mine of compact information — a
perfect boon to the hard-pressed teacher as
to the more advanced student. Such books
are often written by the best experts in Eng-
land on the various topics, and are crisp and
modern and well printed and with plenty of

130 Part II— The Classical Revival

good illustrations. The annual publication,
the Year's Work in Classical Studies, mod-
elled to some extent on the Companions, is a
happy outcome of the Classical Association.
On a smaller scale books are prepared for the
younger students very different from what we
had to put up with in our early days ; and of
course it is not necessary here to name quan-
tities of modern books which are of the utmost
value in making Classical study real and in-
telligible. It might be objected that such
compendiums of knowledge are liable to abuse,
but I do not care even to consider that ques-
tion, because if answered affirmatively it would
not in the least affect my argument, which
relates to their proper use. I alluded in
passing to text-books of authors, and this I
feel is a question requiring careful treatment.
There is a general feeling abroad (I know
it is very strong at Oxford) that Classical
study has been much injured by the subtlety
and over-erudition of editors, and I am sure
there is much truth in it. Partly the books
are wrong themselves, overloaded, intolerably
rash and entirely wanting in the sense of pro-
portion ; and partly they are put to a wrong
use when they fall into the hands of those
for whom they are utterly unfit and were
never intended. Let us not sweepingly con-
demn all editors alike, good, bad, and in-
different. Who could feel anything but gra-
titude to Gildersleeve for his Pindar, Sidgwick
for his Mschylus, Monro for his Iliad, and

The Gospel of Work 131

Riddell for his Odyssey — to mention a few
•which I know very well ? Jebb's Sophocles is
an honour to British scholarship, but I do not
count it an ideal book for ordinary school or
college purposes. His Bacchylides is very fine-
Perhaps I have said enough to indicate
roughly the sort of advantages which school-
masters in our day enjoy in the matter of
printed books useful for acquiring and im-
parting Classical knowledge, as well as by the
rapid advances which that knowledge has
made and is making. Be it remembered, how-
ever, that our gain is not to be measured by
individual discoveries or by individual im-
provement in our literatures. Our gain, it
seems to me, lies in this — that owing to the
rapid diffusion of science, as well as to the
division of labour, the different branches of
knowledge are co-ordinated in modern times
after a new and previously impossible way.
In particular the advances made by archae-
ology (in the widest sense), by comparative
philology, and above all, in spite of all the
excesses of its votaries, by the growth of
anthropology, enable us to form our minds to
some realization of what antiquity was really
like. In earlier days, when learning was the
property of the few, it got into a groove and
remained there. In our times it is brought
by cheap literature within reach of a larger
mass of human minds, and is in turn re-acted
upon by them, is humanized in the true sense*
so that it is made to throb with life and with

132 Part II— The Classical Revival

actuality. From this point of view our task
becomes easier than it may have appeared
when stated in abstract language.

From the standpoint I have tried to main-
tain, the best Classical professor will not be
the best grammarian, or the most facile trans-
lator, or the most widely-stocked walking
encyclopaedia of heathen mythology, but the
man with the warmest sympathy for his
younger contemporaries, the man who best
understands them and is most anxious to
equip them for their life-work. He is not like
a cynical book-worm who sourly studies anti-
quity to solace himself with the conviction
that all moderns are going to the dogs with
a fearful rapidity. But he sees the weak
points of modern civilization, whether shown
in our literature or politics, and he believes
that in the rush and hurry of modern life
there is need for a spell that will steady the
imagination and fix the mind on high ideals
bravely realized. He thinks that Athens in
the days of Pericles and Plato, and Rome in
the days of Cicero and Augustus, can supply
us with lessons which we, of all the ages, can
least afford to dispense with. He marvels,
when he studies the agrarian history of the
Italian peoples, how modern they were ; and
when he scans the Politics he humbly admits
that we have not added so very much to
Aristotle's knowledge of the elemental forces
that mould society. He will surely have
acquired some little particle of Greek reserve

The Gospel of Work 133

which will save him from that fatal vice of the
schoolmaster — the desire at every turn to be
" pointing a moral." He recognizes that his
duty is to teach, not to preach sermons. But
if his knowledge of humanity grows hand in
hand with his knowledge of books, he is aware
that the deepest and most permanent lessons
are those which are imparted in silence and
are received by those who are often all un-
conscious of their gain.

I now come to a complicated question,
namely, the best method of teaching Greek
and Latin authors. Here we have to steer
our course between the Scylla of superficiality
and the Charybdis of excessive refinement.
What makes it difficult to keep to the via
media is that at present we are in the middle
of a re-action against the tyranny of editors,
which may easily carry us too far. Good
editors are a great boon to the student, who
cannot and must not be left entirely to his own
guidance and his own understanding of the
text. Even critical notes, with some <6 ap-
paratus " of readings, are necessary in studying
Greek and Latin authors, just as they are in
studying the Bible or Shakespeare. You may
say the ordinary reader can get on very com-
fortably with his "Song of Solomon" or his
'* Hamlet " without troubling his head about
various readings or even commentators. Yes —
but this is just to miss the point. The differ-
ence between the scholar and the ordinary
reader precisely consists, not in what he reads,

134 Part II— The Classical Revival

but in the way he reads. It is quite good that
the mass of mankind should read their literature
somewhat superficially, should gain a fair and
general impression of its meaning by glancing
over the obscurer passages without concern and
then passing on. The reader who wants to be
learned must not be satisfied with ignoring
difficulties ; on the contrary, he keeps his mind
on the alert for them, and rather suspects
himself if he does not find any.

It is commonly objected that ordinary
classical students must not be treated as
technical scholars, as their work in life will
not be necessarily to lecture on textual cri-
ticism. Quite true, yet there may be a fallacy
underlying this sort of statement, because it
may imply something which loses sight of the
very end of education. I take it that end is
not mere knowledge as such, but a training
of the faculties and of the whole character.
For fear of being misunderstood, I must repeat
that Classical education does not consist
mainly in linguistic training as such, that is,
in the acquisition of foreign tongues or even
in facility and accuracy in the use of our
own. But to be thorough in one's knowledge,
to probe, to be circumspect, to be dissatisfied
with half-knowledge and slovenly methods of
thought, to recognize the importance of de-
tails in all the relations of life, and to learn
how to balance one's judgment in the pre-
sence of conflicting probabilities, this appears
to me to be of the very essence of all education

The Gospel of Work 135

rightly so termed. So that — although we
may readily admit the danger of going too
far, nay, that we often go too far in cri-
ticism, so that sometimes our scholars " could
not see the wood because of the trees " — we
must keep our face fixed against the idea that
in the Classical schools of the future, editors are
to be done away with, and instead of prolego-
mena and critical notes and excursuses we
are to have a new millennium of authors in
sweet simplicity unadorned. I fear it is still
true that " There is no royal road to learning."
Hence I cannot unreservedly subscribe to
a view, seemingly prevalent, that in prescribing
a programme of Classical study the wider and
vaguer it is the better. An interesting ex-
periment in this direction has been made in
the Secondary schools of Ireland, representing
the swinging of the pendulum in one direction,
which has probably been on the whole bene-
ficial, but which yet has to descend in the
opposite direction before the centre of equi-
librium can be finally reached. You cannot
have an ideal programme by excluding de-
tailed study any more than you can by unduly
insisting on it to the exclusion of wider and
more general reading. It is not satisfactory
to tell your students they are expected to
translate, say, Greek of the standard difficulty
of Euripides or Thucydides. For one reason,
there is no comparison between the more
difficult and the easier passages of Thucydides,
and the same of many other authors. It is, I

136 Part II— The Classical Revival

admit, worse to tie the learner down to a very
minute study of one or two books and to
leave him without that range of reading
which could alone form his taste and impart
to him a knowledge of the thought, language,
and achievements of antiquity. The only
solution of this difficulty, so far as I can
see, is to adopt a sort of dual arrangement,
and to prescribe certain authors or parts of
authors for more general reading, at the same
time that we exact a more minute acquaint-
ance with the text and the exegesis of certain
limited books or portions of books. I should
like, for instance, to see a programme with
items like the following : —

The Story oj Achilles (specifying certain
books of the Iliad), with a minuter and more
critical knowledge of Book I. and Book XI.
Or again, ^schylus (or merely the Oresteia),
with special attention to the Agamemnon or
the Eumenides, and so on.

With regard to examinations (a distasteful
subject which I decline to dwell upon), I would
have it understood that they are not to be
immoderately exacting, even in those portions
of the work which are to be carefully read
from the textual standpoint. I imagine this
is really the sort of thing that is done in the
case of English literature ; and it is time that
Classical teaching should recognize that it
might borrow many good suggestions from
the so-called modern side of education.

By this kind of combination of width and

The Gospel of Work 137

depth of reading we should, I believe, arrive
at the only working compromise, and, speak-
ing from a fairly long experience, I am strongly
of opinion that until some such divided list
of prescribed authors is attempted, we cannot
expect even moderately good results from any
sort of mechanical programme — a thing which
at best we could merely tolerate as a sort of
necessary evil. The highest kind of teaching
would leave students and their professors per-
fectly free to range at will through their
material according to their several tastes and
capacities. As, however, it must be long
before we are ripe for such a happy use of
ancient or even modern literature, and
these essays are intended to have close refer-
ence to the actual conditions of Classical
teaching, I must assume that examinations,
with set programmes appertaining to them,
must, for the present, continue to exercise an
influence (baneful in many respects) upon the
fortunes of Classical study. No doubt a
healthier public opinion is being rapidly formed
when the tyranny of the examiner will not be
absolute as it has been in the past ; and I
have very little doubt that, besides reducing
the cruelty of his sway, the limits in which
he exercises it will be also curtailed con-
siderably. There is a movement on foot to
reduce the number of examinations for which
the average undergraduate has to prepare
during his college career. And the next ques-
tion will be : " What about the schoolboy ? "

138 Part II— The Classical Revival

All this has been a very disagreeable di-
gression from my theme, which is the proper
method of teaching Classics. Before passing
on I, perhaps, should explicitly state (what
must have been fairly evident) that I have
been all along referring to the better and
more literary class of students.

In the following remarks, however, I shall
have to deal with a branch of my subject
which closely affects not merely the higher
and more advanced classes, but especially
junior students and those who study Latin
and Greek, either from compulsion or at
least without a strong attraction for the
subject. I mean the very thorny question of
lessons in grammar and composition, as dis-
tinct from the study of the authors.

Ought we to abolish grammar and com-
position as special departments of teaching
Classics ? I think not, but I am sure we
ought to regard them reasonably, that is, not
as ends to be followed for their own sake. I
would not go quite so far as some reformers,
who say these things should be taught ex-
clusively in relation to the translation of
authors or passages of authors. Here, again,
it seems to me, the pendulum is swinging
rather violently. I remember only about
twenty or twenty-five years back, in most
Classical schools in this country, the advent of
elaborate teaching of Greek and Latin gram-
mar was hailed as the one thing necessary for
efficient study. In the Royal University the

The Gospel of Work 139

same idea prevailed, and even to the present
day candidates are warned that they cannot
pas~» the language examination unless they
show competent knowledge of grammar and
composition — which may easily be thought
to imply that they must get a certain pro-
portion of marks in the separate questions
set in those branches of this subject. The
idea was originally to prevent a sham appear-
ance of knowledge by learning translation out
of a crib, and reproducing it in a written
examination.

This is still a controversial subject, and is
likely to be one for some time. The only
contribution I can offer towards a solution is
this. While I do not think that lessons in
grammar can be entirely dispensed with, I
think they ought to be to a considerable
extent deferred. I would begin with trans-
lation from an author (or of simple sentences),
and would allow inklings of grammar to
spring out of the matter for translation rather
than regard it as a necessary preliminary.
Then, as the student progresses in his trans-
lation, and retranslation (at first purely me-
chanical), I would also increase his doses of
grammar, though gently and with due regard
to proportion. I would never make the
students indiscriminately learn long lists of
forms (as genders and various inflexions, dia-
lectical and otherwise) which will never be
required in practice. But as advance is made
in other directions, so opportunity at least

140 Part II— The Classical Revival

should be given for advanced knowledge,
chiefly of the principles of grammar, but
also for the hard facts — often unpalatable
they must be, but yet not quite so disastrously
repugnant to the mind and the will as we
have, I fear, succeeded in making them in
the past. When we think of it, the wonder
is that Classical education was not long ago
hooted out of existence. Yet it survived —
and, I ask, could we seek a stronger proof of
its intrinsic vitality ?

It has been often pointed out,* but I mention
it here, that a great deal of the overloading
of Greek and Latin grammar in the past was
due to the absence of proper grammar teach-
ing elsewhere. If our scholars were taught a
sufficient and reasonable amount of English
grammar and grammatical analysis — if they
knew all about subjects and predicates, pos-
sessives, conjunctions and prepositions and
their proper functions, condition, purpose and
result, and all the rest which is good enough
in its way — they would not then be getting
initiated into these mysteries at the time
when we ought to be preparing to introduce
them to the important characteristics of Hel-
lenic or Roman letters and civilization.

Perhaps the measure of reform here advo-
cated will appear inadequate to those who
have adopted or are adopting more heroic
expedients. I refer especially to the extension

* Especially by my friend Professor Sonnenschein at the last
General Meeting of the Classical Association (see Proceedings, 1917,
p. 68).

The Gospel of Work 141

to the Classical languages of the direct or
conversational method now recognized almost
universally as the proper way for teaching
modern Continental languages. Why, it is
argued, should any artificial distinction be
made between living and dead languages ?
We want Greek and Latin, not because they
are dead, but because once they were alive.
Latin has been frequently taught as a spoken
language on the Continent, especially from the
time of Erasmus, but indeed from earlier times.
The Association for the Reform of Latin
Teaching under the presidency of Dr. Rouse,
of Cambridge, exists for the purpose of ad-
vocating Direct Teaching of Latin and, in a
subordinate degree, of Greek. The Society
has given most invaluable aid to visual in-
struction in England by instituting what
was first called, perhaps unfortunately, a
Realien Committee.* This Committee, whose
Secretary and moving spirit is Mr. S. E.
Winbolt of Christ's Hospital, did me the
undeserved honour of making me chairman,
in spite of the fact that my residence in
Ireland makes it difficult for me to attend
its meetings. I will not discuss its action
here, more than to state, what perhaps hardly
requires stating, that its activities have been
almost suspended for the last three years.
The Committee, equally with the parent asso-
ciation, had to deplore the fall in Gallipoli

* Now called the Archaeological Aids Committee.
11

142 Part II— The Classical Revival

of Mr. W. L. Paine, whose loss must be for
ever irreparable.

It will be understood that if I do not here
discuss minutely the reform known as the
Direct Method, it is not from any want of
sympathy with it or understanding of its
vital importance, but simply because I have
not sufficient acquaintance with it in detail
to enable me to discuss it with authority. At
the Conference of the Association, held at
Cambridge, which I attended, my time was
so much taken up with an exhibition of
Classical Archaeological Aids that I was pre-
vented from learning as much as I wished
about the actual results obtained by Direct
Teaching. However, what I did hear and
see was enough to impress my mind very
favourably regarding the method, and as
opportunity has since occurred, I have
strongly advocated this great and inspiring
movement. I believe when it is understood
it will receive the widest recognition, with cor-
responding gratitude to those who initiated it.

But is the present moment an opportune
one for bringing forward schemes of reform
in regard to Classical education ? It is gen-
erally felt, and must we not admit rightly,
at a time of national crisis, that the crying
need in education is the development of
everything that could tend to promote the
prosperity of the nation. Granting all this,
and admitting that the pendulum is at present
swinging in favour of so-called modern educa-

The Gospel of Work 143

tion, it is the object of these papers to show
that it is our own fault if Classical teaching is
identified with antiquated and deadly survivals.

A critic of these views might raise the objec-
tion that it is not Classical education so
much as the supremacy of Classics in education
which has been questioned. This point brings
me face to face with the very essence of the
whole difficulty. As soon as you establish that
Classics are not supreme, of supreme import-
ance, they must necessarily begin to disappear
under present conditions. I do not mean to
deny that, even if our enemies had their way,
Latin would continue to be taught after a
fashion, and, of course, there would be here
and there a few experts who would devote
themselves to Greek as to Hebrew or Arabic
— but all that is outside of the question. For
ordinary school and college work — it will take
time in the Universities, no doubt, before the
conclusion is reached — either the study of
Classics is waste of time or it is not. It is a
thing that involves an enormous output of
energy and even of money, and, although it
can be crowded out of existence, it cannot be
crowded into a corner and live.

There is a sense in which the supremacy of
Classical education can be justly called into
question. No faculty of learning, however im-
portant, can claim any exclusive right to
recognition. However, the modern school of
Reformed Classics has not made, nor will make,
any such claim. So far from seeking to

144 Part II— The Classical Revival

belittle other faculties or to drive them away,
it merely urges that none of them can afford
to dispense with its own services. It not
merely approves of all that is truly progressive
in modern educational systems, but it honestly
desires to be brought into the fullest harmony
with them. For it feels that, while it can, as
it were, gain new life and vigour from contact
with Mother Earth, so in turn it can find the
key to many problems of modern study, and
can kindle a light to illumine many dark
places in the modern mind.

This conviction is by no means confined to
the votaries of the ancient learning. I have
been told again and again by my colleagues of
other faculties, in law, in philosophy, in
modern languages, in English literature, in
Irish studies (to mention a few), that they
are fully conscious of the immense debt which
they owe to Classical history and literature
— that they have frequently to borrow from
Classics the most vital truths which they have
to communicate — and that they view with
concern any tendency to depress Greek and
Roman studies in our common University.
I am behind no one in stating that in the
traditional groove into which it had gradually
been fixing itself the thing had become abso-
lutely intolerable to the men and women of
to-day. The question before us is this : Are
we prepared to bring Classics into line with
all that is best in modern education, and all
that is sane and progressive in modern life ?

CHAPTER VI

" NEW WINE IN OLD BOTTLES "

Hard work will be required before we
prevail. But there is more. In the past,
Classical education depended largely on class
interests, and has been not unjustly identified
with a spirit of narrow and even exclusive
conservatism. It has certainly been the case
that those who worked hardest for the spread
of liberal education, and have been most eager
for the opening of the great centres of learn-
ing to the democracy, have also been most
urgent in demanding that we should cease to
consider Classics as the " one thing needful."
Thus, at both the older Universities, a very
determined effort has been made by the
advanced party to get the rule relaxed which
closed their portals to those who had not
acquired some knowledge of Latin and Greek.
And whether it be true or not, the impression
prevails that the opposition to the proposed
change comes chiefly from a class which is
naturally timid and instinctively dislikes all
radical changes, especially in education. Again,
as it was humorously said at Birmingham
University,* the distinction between the
ancient learning and the modern is pressed " as

* By the Headmaster of King Edward's High School on the
occasion of founding a branch of the Classical Association for the
•Midlands.

145

146 Part II— The Classical Revival

though the modern side prepares boys and
girls for modern life, and the Classical side
for ancient life."

First of all, what is meant by the " mod-
ernity " of history, science, and modern
languages ? Not merely that they depend on
contemporary research for their very exist-
ence, but that, quite apart from their educa-
tional value, they meet us at every moment
of our lives. It is little short of a libel to
assume, as is often done, that the votaries of
the so-called modern education are attracted
merely by the industrial or commercial aspects
of the subjects in question. These are not
excluded, of course, but they are not the
only objects kept in view. Let us make no
mistake. The people now feel that education
is a department of modern life, and is not
to be viewed as a separate thing. So far, I,
for one, am in agreement with the " moderns."

But when we find, what is startingly novel,
namely, that a defence of Classics is being
organized by thoroughly sincere reformers —
men and women who are second to none in
their keen desire to bring education into line
with modern life and progress, who are de-
fending Classics, not on the ground that they
were useful in the past, but that they will be
necessary in the future, who are straining
every nerve to apply their subject to the need
of the new democracy which is springing up,
and whose character is being rapidly fashioned
— it becomes surely an interesting question to

"New Wine in Old Bottles" 147

ask what success may be reasonably hoped
from such pretensions and such efforts.

It is only those that are behind the scenes
who know how much of this old conservative
spirit still lingers on amongst us. It is still
necessary to utter words of caution, to im-
plore teachers of Classics not to go on, in
spite of Gospel prohibition, pouring " new
wine into old bottles." The essays in this
volume are addressed mainly to those who
still hesitate, who may be lost, because they
will not take a very necessary plunge. Let
them once recognize the salient facts of our
existing situation and all will yet be well.

May I quote from a writer in the Times,
who put the case for the reform in Classical
teaching in much more lucid and striking
language than I can command. In a review
of Mr. Livingstone's Dejence of Classical Edu-
cation,* he said : —

The worst enemies of the Classics have in the past
been those of their own household. A hundred years
ago, and even much later, Classical study was the
jealously guarded preserve of a privileged class. The
idea of an educated nation was to that class, in its
blind and narrow prejudice, either unintelligible or
abhorrent. With the confused belief — a belief that
was a matter of habit more than of reasoned con-
viction— that a Classical education was a thing of
real value went the belief, not at all confused though
but seldom openly expressed, that it was a thing too
valuable to be shared, a thing that would lose its
value if it were thrown open instead of being hoarded.
Nor, on their side, did the enfranchised middle

* Literary Supplement, Jan. 18th, 1917.

148 Part II— The Classical Revival

classes demand it. They also regarded it as some-
thing belonging to the privileged class. Themselves,
they looked on it with an indulgent contempt. They
did not wish to share it, even if a share in it were
offered them. For themselves, they only wanted
what they called a practical education — that is to
say, the minimum of education which was necessary
in order that they might live comfortably the sort of
life to which they were accustomed. In the Victorian
Age the position of the Classics in education was
secure, because beyond the three R's the bulk of
people did not want any education at all. They
were perfectly content to be without it, and per-
fectly content that those who did want it, the upper
or governing class, should have it of any sort they
choose.

Matthew Arnold turned from the middle class as
hopeless, and called on the working class to realize
and enter into their inheritance. He was a prophet
who lived before his time. Another generation had
passed before the democracy became conscious of a
need, and on the need founded a claim.

Meanwhile the old Classical education, no longer
the education of a governing caste, but of the pro-
fessional classes and the new plutocracy, had become
largely sterilized ; it had got out of touch with its
environment. When it was thrown open widely to
the well-to-do, timidly and grudgingly to a few
picked individuals here and there in the mass of the
nation, it was regarded by the lower middle class
with open contempt, by the working class with deep
suspicion. It needed time, patience, and at last some
great shock, to impress on the former the fact that
education mattered, and to disabuse the latter of
their belief that any education beyond that given
at the elementary school was a diabolical contrivance
of the enemy, a device to entangle them more and
more irretrievably in the net of capitalism.

That time is over, or at least is rapidly passing
away. There is no terror now of an educated pro-
letariate, even among the proletariate themselves.
They are demanding, more and more clearly, a share

" New Wine in Old Bottles " 149

in the best education as a right ; they are even begin-
ning to see, which is much more important, that to
secure the best education, if not for themselves, at
least for their children, is a duty. And the question
comes to be, with them as with all other sections of
the commonwealth : What, then, is the best educa-
tion ? As to this, certain conclusions, negative and
positive, may be taken as commanding general assent.
It is not the education aiming at the development
of technical or commercial aptitude. It is not one
directed to immediate enhancement of the value of
its product in the market. It is not one limited to
acquisition of facts about Nature and her physical
processes, or of theories about man as an economic
organism. It has a larger aim, the development of
the human being as a whole, in the whole range of
function of which it is capable. And if this be so, by
the admixture of what elements may it best attain
this end ? And what place has the study of Latin
and Greek, the so-called " dead languages," in the
education by which the desired result will be
produced ?

That is just the problem to the solution of
which I am trying to offer a small contribution.

What, then, do we mean by the modern-
ization of Classical study ? It requires the
adjustment of our mental focus, not to
traditional and worn-out shibboleths of peda-
gogues, but to the elemental issues of human
existence. Modern life has many complexities,
in politics, social intercourse, education, art,
literature, religion — to mention a few not un-
important things. What we maintain is that
in none of the problems, none of the interests
of life, can men afford to lose sight of the
storehouse bequeathed to them by the
ancients. Not in philosophy and history

150 Part II— The Classical Revival

alone, not in language and literature alone,
not in art and religion alone — but in the
complexus of everything which differentiates
man from the brute creation, the voice of
antiquity must be heard, and by antiquity
we mean chiefly our own mental and moral
forbears, the Greeks and Romans. And
here let me say a passing word about Scien-
tific education, and define our attitude to-
wards it, since it is so frequently discussed
at the present time as though it would be a
substitute for Classics. We certainly have
no objection to Science, but merely to the
view that young persons can be trained for
life by imparting to them any number of
scientific facts. If scientific truth is handled
so as really to stir the learner's imagination,
to strengthen his powers of observation, and
to ennoble his respect for law controlling the
universe — then scientific training has a real,
it may be a very high, value. The smallest
objects, and most trivial facts of nature, when
studied in their proper context — the bursting
of a bubble, the sheen on a beetle's wing,
equally with the configuration of a mountain,
or the poise and flight of an aeroplane — may
become suffused with a " light that never
was on sea or land." But the mere storing of
the memory to repletion with so-called scien-
tific facts, and doing this with a view to the
reaping of material benefits, can be regarded
by the true educationist as at best a necessary
evil.

" New Wine in Old Bottles " 151

Our concern just now is with our own
labour in the teaching of Classics, and what
has just been said is to be regarded merely as
an illustration of the view that the main
utility of Classical education is the appeal it
makes to the imagination, and the success of
our methods ought to be tried by this test
only. The first thing we have to exert our-
selves to do is to get rid of the deadening
atmosphere of unreality which did undoubt-
edly hang around Classical schools under the
older system. Here I speak of what I know,
because I speak from the sad and bitter
experience of my own school life. Our class
were not taught badly ; on the contrary, I
happened to fall under the rod of a Senior
Classic, who was renowned both as scholar,
disciplinarian, and, above all, as teacher. His
success may be, to some extent, estimated by
the after careers of his pupils. From my own
class there came one of the foremost Latinists
of the day ; a Vice-Chancellor of a University ;
a notable political organizer, who was also a
Fellow of his College ; an Editor of Euripides,
and one of the most trusted Inspectors of
Classical Schools in England (I could mention
others, too) ; the late Professor Churton
Collins was only just ahead of us. We learned
huge quantities of Classics. In those days I
detested Thucydides and Aristophanes, be-
cause I found them so difficult. I think I began
to like Vergil and Sophocles. Cicero I appre-
ciated both for his Latinity and sometimes

152 Part II— The Classical Revival

for the matter, and Homer had a fascination,
but of a very unreal sort. I am sure I
tried to persuade myself that the Greeks did
exist, but I never could realize it. There was
a sort of shadowy idea, something like what
children have of fairyland or of China. Now-
a-days, of course, we can realize the objective
existence of China because we are in the
twentieth century — but a little later than the
middle of the nineteenth century, which is the
furthest that my recollections can go, I cer-
tainly believed that the Chinese existed in
some whimsical sort of place, but, to my
imagination, they were no more than the
people depicted on their willow-pattern plates
— and as for the Greeks, they were less. I
cannot say how it came about that this " won-
derland " feeling did not extend to the
Romans also, but, as a matter of fact, they
always seemed real and sensible, and near
enough to be in some way imaginable. When
I heard about Aristides " the Just," and
Epaminondas, and, above all, Pericles, I
seemed to be dealing with a sort of algebraical
formulae which fitted into one another when
they were correct, but had no further relation
to stern realities. TUTTTW, however, did mean
business in every sense, and also those hosts
of aorists which we took on faith, and it
matters little now that we took them wrong.
Nor did I guess, then, that in the Museum in
Athens there existed a potsherd with the name
of Aristides rudely inscribed on it for pur-

" New Wine in Old Bottles " 153

poses of ostracism — any more than that in the
same room one can see bones of warriors from
the graves of Chseronea, with their strigils,
swords and helmets ; and black-figured lekythi
from the tumulus of Marathon.

I am far from finding fault with all this.
It was very wrong, but wrongs will exist in
the world until they are righted. What was
wrong was not Classical education — but educa-
tion as such. I cannot help thinking — hor-
rible as it may sound to modern ears — that our
forefathers thought of education what they
thought of their physic, namely, that it was
bound to be appalling ; if it was not disagree-
able, it was no good. The modern schoolmaster
or mistress tries in every way to make the
children happy and at home. This is now
regarded as the very A B C of school work.
Not so with them of the old time. School
was admittedly a miserable place ; it was
good for children to be miserable, perhaps
that they might get inured to life, perhaps that
they might appreciate the slightly milder dis-
cipline of home. In any case, the fact was not
to be questioned — it was just one of those
elementary truths that no sensible person
ever bothers about.

There can be very little doubt that a great
deal of the criticism and abuse poured out on
traditional Classical education rests on the
entire forgetfulness that it was wrong, not
because it was classical, but because it was
the main element in a system of training which

Part II — The Classical Revival

has either passed or is rapidly passing away.
It is very like condemning the Catholic Church
for not holding the Copernican astronomy at
a time when nobody, or almost nobody,
believed in it. She may have clung to the
older view too long. I daresay she did, for
Churches are apt to be conservative, but
that is very different from pretending or im-
plying that the error was the creation of the
Catholic Church. The same with teachers of
Classics. They represent a faculty which is
conservative, for it has long held a dominant
position. They think their position is a dig-
nified one, and that it does not beseem superior
persons to make terms, as it were, with mere
modern notions. Their methods have been
long tried, and the education they imparted
produced great men as well as great scholars.
They would like to persuade themselves that
the world is at a standstill, e pur si muove.

The reformers, I repeat, do not believe in
sitting still and doing nothing except wring
their hands impotently. They are willing to
brace themselves to a hard task. If Classical
teaching is not played out, it will certainly be
able to adapt itself, at whatever cost, to
modern methods and modern ideas — or rather,
I should say, will take all that is really health-
ful and helpful in the educational apparatus of
to-day, and adapt it to the needs of its own
pupils. The Classical Faculty has won for
itself the grand title of " humanistic," and
who has, therefore, a better right to employ

" New Wine in Old Bottles " 155

those arts and crafts of teaching which are
humane and human in the highest sense ? For
is there anything in the whole range of civiliza-
tion better and more evidently beneficial to
man than the improvements the world is
making in the training of youthful minds ?

The curious part of educational reform is
that the energy required to push it forward
seems to come always from below. It requires
very little insight to see that our primary
system is far ahead of our secondary, and,
I might add, our secondary of University
teaching. Kindergarten took a long time
to win its way into the infant schools of this
country, and it will take longer to get into
our seats of higher learning. But the principle
of teaching by the eye and the sense of touch
is, in reality, quite as good for the full-grown
man or woman as for the infant. I suppose
our geometricians will admit this — they would
relegate to the nearest lunatic asylum anyone
asserting that diagrams may be used by
beginners, but must be discarded by profi-
cients. Why, I actually knew a Mathematical
Professor in an Irish University who so far
forgot the proprieties as to familiarize his class
with certain conical curves by means of old
cardboard boxes and sewing-thread ! There is
hardly any subject where so many varieties
of eye-teaching come in as in Classics, when
treated according to modern, rational methods.
But, before describing these, we must discuss
the traditional ideas about Classical education.

156 Part II— The Classical Revival

The chief fault we have complained of in the
unreformed is that they give an exaggerated
prominence to linguistic study as a very
sublime kind of mental discipline — gymnastic
they call it, I believe. This ideal appears to
be still prevalent in Ireland, where, on the
whole, we do not display such desperate
tenacity in holding to exploded superstitions.
In one way, all educative work aims at mental
development, and, therefore, may be called
discipline. And linguistic study, as such, is
certainly of high, but it can never be of the
highest, importance for the training of minds.
The defenders of the superstition are loud in
proclaiming the importance, for instance, of
composition, or of translation from Greek or
Roman authors, as compared with other similar
exercises — and they think they have said
enough. What is the use of flogging a dead
horse ? All they reiterate is so true, but,
unfortunately, it is also excessively trite.
They thus discuss everything except the
essential question, which is that of relative
values. Not whether Classical education is
useful — who ever among our most fanatical
enemies thought of denying that? — but
whether its utility is so great that we can,
under no circumstances, afford to renounce
it ? Is it not rather late in the day to try to
prove to a man of ordinary intelligence that
by no possibility could any " mental dis-
cipline " be discovered which would compen-
sate his children for the loss they would incur

" New Wine in Old Bottles " 157

by not writing Ciceronian prose, or by not
translating Plato and Thucydides elegantly ?
It is mere waste of words to compare, for
instance, Latin with German, or Greek with
Irish, as affording mental gymnastics — for
the real difficulty is whether such mental
gymnastics could not be bought at too high a
price.

Therefore, let it be understood that, in
claiming for Classical education a wider horizon
than that of belated tradition, we raise no
question as to the utility of linguistic studies,
nor do we propose to substitute any other than
a linguistic basis for a reformed scheme of
Classical education. I have already said that
we view the study of language, and especially
the practice of composition, not as an end in
itself, or certainly not as our principal end.
We view the benefits derived from the study
of language merely as a part of a far larger
scheme. And what is that scheme ? It is
the communication to students of something
which is to affect their whole being, and not
some particular part of it. We do not believe
that the study of mere words,* no matter
whether they be thousands of years out of
date, can ever be taken as the preparation for
human life in its entirety. The true sense of
proportion here is entirely lost, and if there

* I heard a very interesting Presidential Address at Newcastle, in
1916, by Rev. W. Temple in defence of Classical education, in which
he proposed to omit both Demosthenes and Cicero from school teach-
ing. I do not quite agree with this view, but think there is a distinct
danger of over-emphasizing the rhetorical element in Classical
literature.

12 *

158 Part II— The Classical Revival

is any single reason above another why
Hellenic studies are important, it is because
they strengthen in our minds this precious
sense of proportion. Not merely because the
Greeks always aimed consciously at the Mean,
and indeed had a temperamental distaste for
whatever is in excess. Far more because of the
many-sidedness of Greek life, which embraced
and unified so many interests that it was
almost impossible for unbalanced views to
prevail. Matthew Arnold says of Sophocles :—

Who saw life steadily and saw it whole.

To grasp the truth about ancient life, and to
bring that truth home to his students is the
real function of a good teacher of the Classics.
He cannot do this if he does not know the lan-
guage and appreciate the literature of Greece
and Rome, but a knowledge of grammatical
rules or even a good style in translation will
not of itself make him breathe the Classical
atmosphere — still less diffuse it among his
disciples.

As the study of grammar has been elevated
beyond its function of helping to grasp a
language, and language beyond its necessity
as an approach to literature, so there is that
other fallacy in regard to what is often (in-
accurately, as I think) termed literary educa-
tion. In a perfectly balanced system, litera-
ture will not be considered as an end, or cer-
tainly not the end in education. No one
would say that the main differentia of an

" New Wine in Old Bottles " 159

educated, though it might be of an accom-
plished, man is that he can speak French or
German with a good accent, or that he can
write Latin or Greek verse with fluency. In
like manner, one is not really educated in any
complete sense because he has read many
speeches and poems and plays, or because he
can learnedly descant about dramatic unities,
systems of metre, and schools and periods of
literature. The fact is, the study of litera-
ture must be, in its turn, subordinated to
something higher than itself. For this we
must now search.

Is it the study of history ? That depends
on how you understand history. It may be
made as uneducative as any other subject
under the sun, for it may be a dry and life-
less chronicle of dead persons and things.
But if you take it in its highest and most
humanistic sense — the history of nations, the
history of mankind — then I would put history
above every other study for its formative
virtues. It includes, of course, the history
not merely of wars and dynasties and legal
codes (though these are by no means to be
overlooked), but the history of art, of philo-
sophy, of religion, and, above all, of litera-
ture. Literature may be viewed as the very
best sort of history, the most vital history.
" Let me choose a nation's ballads, and who-
ever will may make its laws." What I object to
in the narrow view of literature is a tendency,
due to a slothful careless treatment of books,

160 Part II — The Classical Revival

to exalt unduly the mere expression of feeling
as distinct from elemental feeling itself. There-
fore it attends to mere graces of style or the
rules of rhetoric or the metres of poetry, as if
these were the things that really matter in
life. Surely, the periods of the Verrine Ora-
tions are less important for us than the
tyranny of Verres, the state of the people
in Sicily, and the rule of its provinces by the
Roman Senate. Yet, mark it well ! the
student who is taught the real context of the
Verrine Orations will be also the one best
fitted for entering into and admiring the
oratory of them. Or take again JSschylus —
such plays as the Per see and the Eumenides
throw the most powerful light on the inner
history of Athens, and can only be read with
real sympathy by those interested in that
subject. So with Pindar. Who can read him
aright without also drinking deep draughts of
the Hellenic mind and spirit ?

It will be found that the view of Classical
education which treats literature as a part,
and not the whole, so far from depreciating
the latter, adds enormously to its prestige
and importance. It is exactly the same with
the study of ancient art. We do not want
to substitute this for letters, but to restore
it to its due place in a full and rounded scheme
of Classical education. Neither art for art's
sake, nor letters for letters' sake, nor even
history for history's sake (in the narrow
sense), but all these, and more, for education's

" New Wine in Old Bottles " 161

sake — which is the training of a man, not of
an artist, or rhetorician, or historian.

To come to details. If we insist on giving
a special place in our curriculum to ancient
history, with its several branches, such as
antiquities, archaeology, art, and, above all,
literature, regarded not as a merely textual
study, but as a most important element in
the real history of a people, this is in order
to secure that all these subjects get a due
amount of time and attention bestowed on
them, and in nowise because we wish to
divorce the study of history from that of
letters. Surely history is one of the great
branches of literature, and, consequently, such
a divorce between them (at least in the case
of Classics) would be more than unnatural —
it would be unthinkable.

There is, of course, frequently misunder-
standing of the reforms we advocate, no
doubt promoted by that vis inertice which
schoolmasters, like other persons, are liable
to. It is, however, a little too bad. Did
the good doubters ever really meet a Classical
master, at least any responsible person, who
tried to substitute scraps of archaeology for
the regular teaching of Latin and Greek ? It
would be almost impossible to thi k of a
subject less fitted to be the vehicle of ordinary
education than the very complex and subtle
and often tentative processes of scientific
archaeology. Ignorance of all modern educa-
tion could alone account for a comparison

162 Part II— The Classical Revival

between training scholars in the methods of
a science and imparting to then certain in-
formation gained through those methods.
Surely there is no feature more characteristic
of progressive educational method than the
way in which it correlates different branches
of learning, bringing them into mutual play
for purposes of illustrating and driving home
conclusions. Take, for instance, history, geo-
graphy, and sociology on one side — and on
the other geology, with its kindred physical
sciences. Why is every other branch of
learning to use all the wealth of apparatus
which modern education provides, and the
largest and nost difficult and most remote
of our disciplines is to be rigidly isolated from
all intellectual progress ? And so, if we
Classical men do get kicked about, and finally
kicked out, whom have we got to thank for it
except ourselves ?

We reformers believe that it is almost im-
possible to overrate the beneficial influence
which archaeological aids to teaching may have
upon the Classical education of the future.
To illustrate this point from history, let me
record what Cicero says of his and his brother's
conversation with friends in the groves of the
Academy at Athens in 79 B.C. Quintus had
related how he had diverged on his way to
visit Colonus, " whose inhabitant Sophocles
had ever possessed the spot before his eyes,"
and the thought of CEdipus coming thither
and asking in his gentle strains what place

44 New Wine in Old Bottles ': 163

it was <c touched my memory with a strong
emotion, imaginary no doubt, but yet it
moved me." Then Cicero himself says, that
formerly having journeyed to Metapontum,
even before going to his entertainer's house,
he had hastened to view the spot where
Pythagoras had breathed his last. Piso, re-
ferring to the spirit of Plato, which still lived
in the Academy, had asked the two brothers :
4 'How is it when we view the places where
celebrated men have lived, we are more moved
by these than by hearing of their deeds, or by
reading their writings?"*

Now, it is not always possible for modern
students of the Classics to do what the two
Ciceros had done, to visit the great centres
of ancient life, such as Rome, Athens, Corinth,
Capua, or Syracuse. But the fact that in our
time foreign travel is so common, and the
use of the camera and the lantern so wide-
spread, has made it comparatively easy to
bring the scenes of ancient life vividly before
our classes, and familiarize them with many
of the actual results, though not necessarily
the mental processes, of recent discovery.
Along with views of excavations which are
not often of themselves fully significant, we
can, if we like, show splendid restorations of
plan and elevation which will give clear and
striking impressions of many ancient sites. The
lantern is, of course, by far the most satis-
factory method to use : but it is not in every

*Cic., De Finibus, Bk. v., ch. 1.

164 Part II — The Classical Revival

case possible or convenient to have the lan-
tern apparatus ready for ordinary class work,
and in such case first-class photographic prints,
properly mounted and enclosed in boxes, make
a very fair and practicable substitute for the
more excellent way. The supply of numis-
matic aids to teaching, that is, of Greek and
Roman silver and copper coins (with electro-
types or other facsimiles of the more valuable
specimens) specially fitted into small trays,
suitable for passing round in class, has also
been attempted in England and Ireland, with
happy results as far as the experiment has
yet extended. Our students were already
habituated to a sort of representation of coins
as illustrating Greek and Roman history; for
in the more recent handbooks, Gow's Com-
panion to School Classics, Bury's Histories of
Greece, including the small one for Beginners,
the Student's Rome, and Heitland's new Short
History of the Roman Republic, various repre-
sentations of coins are given ; and indeed the
last-named book, which is also one of the
best, eschews every other kind of illustration.
Some of these attempts are poor enough.
Heitland does, indeed, give adequate photo-
graphic plates, but Bury only marginal wood-
cuts, which are really of very little use. At
best, this plan of picturing coins, though
taking us a certain distance, does not go
far enough. Good facsimiles, to say nothing
of originals, are, of course, infinitely more to
the point. Surely, if it is taken for granted

" New Wine in Old Bottles " 165

that some numismatic aids to history are
needed by our students, there is nothing like
giving them the real thing. Teaching by the
eye is good, but to appeal also to the sense
of touch is better. It imports reality, and
appeals to the imagination.

It is "the first step that counts," and in the
use of archaeological aids to teaching it is more
than ever true to say "a thing well begun is
half done." Let the average master once be
persuaded that he is doing an injustice to
his students as well as to his own best interests
by neglecting the opportunities of improved
teaching which are ready to his hand ; it is
impossible to say how far he will be gently
carried along the road to new life and new
energy.

It has very recently become evident that a
new educational era is about to be opened
in Great Britain and Ireland. Mr. Fisher's
scheme for widening and deepening education
all along the line has grown out of a simple
demand for improved scientific instruction in
schools — but has now acquired a much larger
importance than any mere reforms in matters
of detail. It is a national revolution in edu-
cation that is implied, and this fact and the
proportions of the scheme seem to warrant
us in assuming that at least many of the
benefits contained in it wrill be before long
extended even to this country, where
assuredly they are needed not less than in
England.

166 Part II— The Classical Revival

I have not, however, the intention of discuss-
ing the general bearings of Mr. Fisher's policy,
nor indeed is it a matter regarding which I
claim to possess special knowledge. But it so
happens that a rather unexpected development
has grown out of the scheme which may be
of enormous significance for that reform of
Classical teaching.

To make this clear it will be necessary to
revert for a moment to the situation before
the war. Already for many years contro-
versy had been raging regarding the position
of Classics in the scheme of national educa-
tion ; but it was chiefly regarding the older
Universities, and higher examinations for the
Indian and Home Civil Services. At this
stage, however, the defenders of the old
learning were divided, as nearly all the
younger and more progressive men were in
opposition to those who maintained a policy
which savoured of compulsion and undue
privilege. But, like so many other things, all
this was changed by the war. With the war
came a feeling that the nation had been
asleep and that drastic reforms of all sorts
were urgently needed. Blame was meted
out pretty impartially to all State depart-
ments except one (which is now beginning to
catch it), and the hammering hit hardest the
heads of the educationists. Here was, in any
case, a chance for the militant scientists which
they were not going to miss.

I refer, of course, to extreme and fanatical

" New Wine in Old Bottles " 167

promoters of scientific education. The moderate
people not merely have the blessing of the
advocates of humanism, but many of the latter
claim to be foremost in any demand for sane
reform and even extension of scientific teaching
in all kinds of schools. Many who are engaged
in Classical teaching could re-echo the words
of Mr. Gary Gilson, the Headmaster of a great
Classical school (and one who, as Chairman of
the Headmasters' Conference, proved himself
a stalwart and very efficient defender of
Classics), when he declared at a conference,
held in Birmingham last May, that "his own
main personal interest is in physical science."
On the same occasion Sir Oliver Lodge
remarked that " physical science alone would
develop an illiterate specialist, and would be
an absurdity."

But the extreme agitators for reform, who
have been clamouring at our doors, put forward
a very simple programme indeed. At least
they make their views intelligible. There is
only one cry, there is only one thing needful
— new scientific teaching, narrow, of course,
but plenty of it. This great panacea for all
our national woes is to be applied impartially
all round, but especially in the schools. The
Universities of late have not been so much
worried because the attack has been moved
to the most vulnerable quarter. Still we are
all in the same condemnation, and fast and
furious fell the blows on all our poor devoted
heads.

168 Part II— The Classical Revival

Newspaper articles, articles in reviews,
pamphlets, committees, petitions to Parlia-
ment— nothing was omitted which could stir
up public opinion against the wretched votaries
of a study that is long dead, and ought to have
been long buried out of sight. What was
wanted instead was not in every case so very
clear ; but what had to go was unquestionable
—Classical teaching chiefly, but also every
kind of literary and humanistic instruction
which could or seemed to interfere with the
approach of the scientific millennium.

And what has been the real result of this
extreme form of propaganda, addressed as it
was to a nation which was smarting under the
inevitable strain of perhaps the severest
struggle in history ? I propose to show that
the result has been extremely favourable to
the Classical cause. Personally, I consider
that our whole outlook is entirely changed
for the better — I might add, we are going to
be put on a completely new level. In fact,
the situation is not merely changed, it is to be
revolutionized. For the first time in the his-
tory of the Classical controversy, all the de-
fending forces are standing together — and
what is more, they are newly committed to
the only reasonable policy, the only policy
which ever had the slightest chance of success,
that of appealing directly to the people and
claiming for our mental discipline that it
exists for the people and is not the special
property or privilege of any favoured class.

" New Wine in Old Bottles " 169

I may pass over lightly the arguments
advanced with great force to prove that the
lessons of the war are quite as strong for as
against Classical education. Especially Prof.
R. S. Conway, in an article in the Contempo-
rary, entitled " Education and Freedom,"
pointed out that if the war is really a war of
ideals, it is not going to be won by purely
mechanical and chemical devices, however
necessary these may be in the hands of the
fighting men who will really decide the issue.
Many of us believe that already the war has
had some regenerative effect ; and if our new
national education is to carry on the process
it will not be by relegating all moral and
humanistic training of our youth to the scrap
heap, or by supplanting it with scientific and
technological instruction — even though it be
of the most approved continental type. This
view was enforced very ably in a book already
referred to, A Defence of Classical Education,
by R. W. Livingstone. In certain respects
this work is of the utmost persuasiveness ;
its chief merit being that it deals with the
actual living issues of the moment rather
than merely with dry and abstract estimates
of relative educational values. Lord Bryce's
Presidential Address at the Classical Associa-
tion Meeting, held at Leeds, in January of
this year, pressed home the same lessons from
the standpoint of the statesman and diploma-
tist who had studied great educational prob-
lems on both sides of the Atlantic.

170 Part II— The Classical Revival

It was the action taken by this Association
at the same meeting which seems to me to
augur favourably. During the year previous
to the meeting, conferences had been held
with other societies which represent various
aspects of humanistic teaching : English,
Modern Languages, History, and even Geo-
graphy, that most ancient of sciences and
most modern exponent of wise humanism.
These sister associations had formulated prin-
ciples held by them in common, as a common
defence against the attacks of their narrow
and bigoted scientific enemies, one of whom
had declared that the teaching of Latin and
Greek was like a cancer in our educational
system, which " must be cut out with the
knife."

But the Classical Association did not stop
at the point of enunciating and re-affirming
the principle that education must retain a
literary and historical side in some shape or
form. It had a message of its own, which took
the form of a resolution, proposed by Mr.
Livingstone himself, to the effect that " In
every local area provision for the teaching of
Latin and Greek should be made such as will
place these studies everywhere within the reach
of pupils from every class of the nation."

This proposal was fully debated, in the
largest and by far the most representative
meeting of the Classical Faculty ever held in
England; it was unanimously adopted, and
directions were given to the Council to bring it

"•New Wine in Old Bottles" 171

before the educational authorities of the
country. Subsequently we read in the Times
that the resolution was received by Mr. Fisher
from a deputation of the Association very
favourably, and that he has pledged the
Board of Education to strive to carry it into
practice as soon and as far as it is possible.

This result is, of course, most gratifying, in
so far as it excludes any sort of suspicion that
the resolution which Mr. Livingstone got
carried by the whole Association was in itself
either absurd or wholly impracticable. But
the real point gained is not the carrying out
of the demand — that may or may not imme-
diately follow — but the making of it. At last
the claims of Classical learning have been
properly formulated. At last the natural
representatives of that learning have put
themselves right before the nation — they have
taken the offensive. They were told to go
into a corner, and, behold, they have come
out of their corner ! Assuredly — where were
they, those pre- Victorian champions of the
good old school, with their antiquated ideas
and methods and line of defence ? They were
off the track already, they were contented to
be in a corner, contented that the world
should wag on — provided only that they were
left in peace. Let the truth be told, the
Classical Association had been losing the con-
fidence of the party of reform and of action.
Now they have (thanks to Mr. H. G. Wells
and others like him) been stung into action.

172 Part II — The Classical Revival

They have at last taken a line which is certainly
bold, and have taken it with dignity and with
apparently already a remarkable measure of
success — for which we may offer them our
humble but most sincere congratulations.

Henceforth Classical education claims,
according to the highest and most representa-
tive authority, to be an essentially demo-
cratic method of mental training. It is suited
for all classes of the nation. It demands to be
recognized as such and to be brought within
reach of every pupil under charge of the Board
of Education. Classical learning cannot make
this towering claim for itself without doing
something to live up to it. If our Classical
authorities really believe that they have a
popular appeal, it is quite time that they do
something to put that appeal to a practical
test.

They must come out of their corner. They
must come out of their shell. Before we can
honestly say that Classical teaching is really
efficient, really practical, really attractive in
its human appeal, really on a par with other
kinds of teaching, which have been progressing
enormously while we have been folding our
hands or at most patting one another on the
back, there is something to be done. Mr.
Fisher may try to do something for us. But
there is a great deal to be done for us which
cannot be done by Mr. Fisher. We might
sometimes try to remember the true saying :
" God helps those that help themselves."

" New Wine in Old Bottles " 173

When the reckoning comes, the lessons of
this war are not going to be all on one side.
"Out of the Eater came forth Meat." We
take it for granted that others have to learn
very salutary lessons about the difference
between right and wrong, and even about
superiority of true nationality over mere
organization in the military sense. But what
we are going to learn is that Inefficiency
does not pay, and this is most true in regard
to education. We have been inefficient, and
what is more we have been content to know
that we were inefficient. For many reasons
this attitude will have to be, and we are cer-
tain will be, modified in the near future.

The real value of reform in education is
that it means probing ourselves and our
methods — going to the bottom of our diffi-
culties. We are not to be deterred by the
bother. We are not too proud to acknow-
ledge our past sins.

The Archaeological Aids Committee, referred to
in a former chapter, has unfortunately learned
only too well another lesson from the state of
war. Almost all the paraphernalia we have
been striving to introduce has been hitherto
made in Germany, used in Germany, and
supplied from Germany. What British educa-
tionists have to learn is to provide their own
(Classical) apparatus.

A few details will be more informing to the
reader than mere theory, and we propose now
to subjoin a statement of facts to prove how

13

174 Part II — The Classical Revival

entirely dependent on Germany and Austria
we have hitherto been, who sought to intro-
duce into Classical teaching those aids which
can alone make it attractive and fit to com-
pete with other lines of mind-formation.
We may classify them as follows :

(1) Real Antiquities — Chiefly ancient money,
for its multifarious interest, artistic, com-
mercial, historical. Also scraps of pottery,
metal, and many other simple fabrics, such as
can be obtained.

(2) Various kinds of casts, electrotypes, and
other replicas of originals which are not them-
selves obtainable.

(3) a — All classes of photographs, but most
especially lantern slides.

6 — Printed matter, including charts and
diagrams ; albums of prints, collotypes, or half-
tones ; various illustrated books or atlases
relating to topography, excavations, archi-
tecture, art, war, private life, and general
antiquities.

The last class, including a and b, is of course
the largest and most varied department, and,
from our point of view, is of extreme import-
ance. Book illustrations, diagrams and slides
have, however, this restriction, that they make
an appeal only to the eye ; whereas archaeo-
logical and especially numismatic aids can be
handled as well as looked at, and therefore,
psychologically, are on a higher plane even
than the print or photograph. But this
matters not to our argument, for all Classical

" New Wine in Old Bottles " 175

aids, roughly speaking, are alike, they are all
in the same boat. While the war lasts we
shall be simply blocked from the impossibility
of obtaining suitable material of every descrip"
tion.

It is, however, utterly impossible that we
can go back. England, as a whole, is by no
means backward in regard to archaeology.
What continental country has a Classical
Museum to compare with our great one ; or a
society with a better record or roll of names
than the Hellenic Society ; or greater exca-
vators than Evans, Hogarth, and Wace; or
more learned writers than Ridgeway, Myres,
Percy Gardner, Macdonald, to mention only a
few names that occur to me out of a goodly
host of living authorities ? No, we are not
going back just because we shall be obliged
to depend upon Germany less in future for our
educational apparatus. We shall go forward,
but we must travel far, and travel fast, if we
really think to tell our enemy that in future we
shall not, to anything like the same extent as
heretofore, be beholden to his museums, work-
shops, printing presses, and publishing trade.

Let us view the situation calmly. Take the
numismatic question first, as it always deserves
to be taken. Here, it is true, we are not in the
worst plight, for we can turn to the dealers
at home. If they are not very numerous, they
are excellent, for, so far as I can judge after
some little experience, their specimens are
good and their prices not unreasonable. When

176 Part II — The Classical Revival

buying special classes of coins, however, it is
good and sometimes necessary to go outside
the country, and, among continentals, the
German dealers were of the best. Even a
more urgent question relating to our special
wants is the supply of coin-electrotypes, things
of the highest importance for young pupils. It
has been found exceedingly difficult to get an
adequate supply of electrotypes. Had it not
been possible to get some assistance in the first
year from the Classical Association of Ireland,
the initial efforts of the A.R.L.T. Committee
would have been sorely hindered. There are
special difficulties surrounding this question,
which we hope will be surmounted.

When we come to the general series of other
casts and replicas suitable for school purposes,
the contrast between the Teutonic and other
countries is truly wonderful. There is no
supply at home in any organized fashion.
What is worse, there has been practically no
demand.

This is no question of the sort of Classical
casts which, of course, abound in galleries, art
schools, and popular museums. Useful and
illuminating replicas of little things appertain-
ing to ordinary life, to athletic sports, to play-
actors and their masks and costumes, to war-
fare, to industry, to religion and the cult of
the dead, and such other things as naturally
appeal to the youthful mind — these things
can be had in Berlin and Leipsic, in Vienna,
Dresden, Munich, and other centres of German

" New Wine in Old Bottles " 177

education ; but not to any great extent else-
where. It would take too much room to
describe here what has been done by the
Wurtemburg Company alone to make known
the prehistoric civilization and art Unearthed
at Mycenae, Tiryns, and Troy on the mainland,
and at Gnossus and Phaestus in Crete.

And lastly, we come to the worst case of all,
printed stuff and photographs. With regard
to the latter, England is very backward, and
English education is very backward : Italy,
however, is well to the front in Classical photo-
graphy— not but that there is something to
be desired in regard to Italian trade methods.
And why should we depend even on Italy, or
on Athens, or on Paris ? However, it is but
just to say that the British Museum has taken
up this matter : of course, only with regard
to its own exhibits, which are, however, im-
portant and numerous. Too much praise
could not be bestowed upon the series of post-
cards and other photographic reproductions
lately ordered by the Trustees to be prepared
and sold at the main entrance of the Museum.
To reinforce this effort, what is most wanted
is a large universal photographic depot, which
would keep in touch with all continental and
even American sources of supply, keeping its
prices as low as possible, and briskly pushing
its wares by advertisement and other legitimate
methods of diffusion. Such a depot, while
specially devoting itself to Classical subjects
and modern excavations, and while catering

178 Part II — The Classical Revival

properly for our schools and other educational
centres, could also deal in art photography
generally. It may be objected that such
depots exist. Possibly, but not of the sort we
are contemplating, and certainly not doing
the work which is clamouring aloud to be
done. This campaign will never start, it
cannot, as a purely trade concern — it must be
inspired, fostered, and directed by educa-
tional persons or organizations. Would it not
be possible that it might receive direct aid and
encouragement, not necessarily of a monetary
kind, from the Board of Education itself ?

The difficulty about the supply of lantern
slides to schools is one that we may hope to
see overcome by existing organizations. As
a matter of fact, the solution appeared to be
not so far off at the hands of the Materials
Board of the Classical Association; but when
the war broke out, that, like so many under-
takings of the sort, was necessarily for the
time left alone. The question of printed
matter, including, of course, photogravures and
other reproductions of a similar kind, is much
more serious.

The way to approach this subject is simply
to form some acquaintance with what has been
done by the German printing press to produce
manuals, diagrams, albums, series of pictures
for hanging and for class use, and a thousand
other useful apparatus.

We may mention the Bulle series of Greek
and Roman sculpture and painting, a truly

" New Wine in Old Bottles " 179

marvellous collection of art, beautifully turned
out and at a price which would make a British
publisher gasp like a codfish on the sand. The
letterpress of such a work is naturally very
important, and being in German is of course
beyond the ken of the vast majority of our
students and of a very considerable proportion
of our teachers. Occasionally one sees such
works with polyglot or translated reading
matter. What a small amount of business
enterprise would have been required to get
this done in the case under mention. If we
had the power to guarantee even a limited
demand there is little doubt the chance would
have been instantly seized by the printers,
for it would have cost them only a trifle to
do so, and would have been excellent business.
Even to state this, under present circum-
stances, may appear to suggest that we cannot
really dispense with Germany. Perhaps it is
so, and may it not be so for many a long day !
To offer translated matter to our students is,
from the patriotic standpoint, a mere pis
aller ; but at least we should be supplying them
with something written in their own tongue,
and something from which they could derive
sound information about the pictures.

We could name any number of similar cages,
for, indeed, we have fallen very far behind in
the race. The question of models has not been
dealt with, as the present writer has not used
them to any great extent. But I know that
several teachers have a great belief in the

180 Part II— The Classical Revival

importance of models and of having them made
as far as possible by the boys themselves.
Perhaps it is on this side that our greatest
progress will be made. There is plenty of
room here for individual enterprise, and when
we get properly under weigh we may show that
our own boys in their own workshops will be
capable of great things. I might allude to the
excellent work of Mr. M. A. Bayfield in making
models to show the equipment of the Homeric
warrior, and in particular the Mycenean
Shield,* and of Mr. A. B. Cook, who gave
directions for a model f to represent his theory
of the Greek Trireme. The published illustra-
tions even of these models are extremely helpful.

The fact is, we have no lack of talent nor of
good will. What we do lack is organization
to bring our resources to bear on ordinary
school and college work.

When England emerges from the ordeal she
will become a changed nation. She is already
bracing herself to deal with national problems
in a new and improved frame of mind. Many
time-honoured controversies will be found to
be dead. There will be less tendency to
break the Gospel prohibition about bottles.
We shall be more united, more practical, per-
haps a trifle more humble, and certainly a good
deal less inefficient.

The average teacher of Classics must benefit

* See Leaf and Bayfield's Iliad, Vol. i., p. 546.

•f The model was executed by Messrs. Swan, Hunter, and
Richardson. For description see the Classical Review, Vol. xix.
p. 376.

" New Wine in Old Bottles " 181

by the infusion of new virtues into our educa-
tional system. He will at length have learned
— and may it not be too late — that there is no
longer room for dispute as to the possibility of
England continuing to tolerate unreformed
Classical education. The problem which will
confront us will be different, and its final solu-
tion not so easy to foretell. When Classics are
reformed, and as thoroughly efficient as other
branches of modern education, will they even
then be able to hold their own in their struggle
for life ?

Perhaps the best way of summarizing the
above views will be to enumerate the features
of education which we believe can alone com-
mend it to the modern mind, and give it a
hope of surviving in the struggle for life. It
is unnecessary to add that we assume no
reform of Classical teaching can be worth
considering which does not satisfy this test.

Modernized education, then, should show,
at least, the following five characteristics :

1. The ability to apply to its own processes
striking results of modern science.

2. A desire to place itself in harmony with
approved ideals of modern pedagogy.

3. A readiness to employ modern educa-
tional appliances.

4. A distinct claim to prepare its pupils for
taking their place in the modern social
organism.

5. A power to commend itself to the mind
and instincts of modern democracy.

182 Part II— The Classical Revival

Undoubtedly there are a large number of
branches of modern education which satisfy
every one of the above tests. Take, for
instance, the new geography, and to a less
degree the best methods of teaching unified
modern history. The Reform that has taken
place in our time in regard to the teaching of
modern languages is too well known to require
any detailed description here. Nor do I pro-
fess to have special knowledge about the
modern methods of dealing with such subjects
as mathematical and physical sciences ; but
every man in the street knows that various
changes and reforms, both as to ideals and as
to methods, are constantly taking place in
regard to laboratories and laboratory work
and every side of technical education.

The great fault of Classical teachers in the
past was that, instead of throwing them-
selves into the current of modern life, and
adapting themselves to all that is really good
and progressive in education, they kept aloof,
on the ground that their fathers and grand-
fathers and great-grandfathers knew better
than modern people what and how to teach —
a heresy which just contains the grain of truth
to make it dangerous ! The men of old suc-
ceeded precisely because they knew how to
adapt themselves to the needs of their own
times, and that is what the Reformer in
Classics is trying to do to-day. And no subject
can be more truly modern in the sense above
defined than Classical, and particularly

" New Wine in Old Bottles " 183

Hellenic, learning, when it is treated on the
broad lines which it deserves. The Times
recently stated that "the revival of Greek
is one of the striking features of the present
age, and is nowhere more marked than among
ourselves. Greek studies find themselves in
vital contact with the new sciences, with
physiography and anthropology, with his-
tory and economics." The general public
in England, as in Ireland, can be interested in
Greek art and ancient institutions when they
are brought before them agreeably. A great
part of the work of all Classical Associations
(a greater part than they seem to be aware of)
should consist in the steady effort to popu-
larize those aspects of Classical learning which
are both important in themselves and suitable
for being impressed on minds which cannot
acquire deep culture. For one person who
learns to read and write Latin and Greek
fluently, one hundred could be fairly well
versed in Greek and Roman literature by means
of good translations, and one thousand could
be familiarized with many salient facts about
ancient life, and even interested in some of
the great monuments which have come down
to us. And we shall be prepared to be mis-
understood in our efforts. We shall smile at
the accusation of superficiality because we
brace ourselves to the hardest of conflicts, the
effort to reach superficial persons, to bring our
lessons within the purview of a superficial age.

CHAPTER VII

How TO QUICKEN APPRECIATION OF
CLASSICS *

We must now descend to details. In this
paper it will be our effort to explain prac-
tically how at least one very important part
of our principles may be carried into effect.
When driving home the method of eye-
teaching as something vital to the healthful
development of Classical teaching on modern,
efficient, and democratic lines, one must guard
against misunderstanding.

It should hardly be necessary to allude to
the faults and exaggerations of weak-headed
persons who, being dissatisfied with the
present position and prospects of Classical
education, think that any wild panacea will
suffice to save the situation. Representing a
sort of revolt from the hard discipline of
Classical study, and having acquired cheaply
and hastily some scraps of modern information
about Classical history or literature, they
seem to themselves to have discovered that
royal road to learning. But we know better.
A Kodak is a poor substitute for the grammar
and the dictionary, and a smattering of that
degenerate compound of tongues called Mod-
ern Greek is of very little avail to give us a

* The substance of this chapter and Appendix No. 2 were read
to the Educational Conference held at Chautauqua, N.Y., in July,
1916.

184

Appreciation of Classics 185

real appreciation of the language of Sophocles,
Plato, and Demosthenes. To all this, one is
forced to exclaim : " Non tali auxilio, nee
defensoribus istis ! r

Why, then, do we insist so much on one
particular aspect of a large problem ? Not
because eye-teaching is everything — not be-
cause by itself it will suffice to put everything
right — but because the neglect of eye-teaching
is, as I believe, in these countries our besetting
sin. The degree to which it has been neglected
in the past appears to me personally some-
thing quite appalling. I use a strong word,
but I have weighed it. Nothing has shocked
me, when I have ventured to propose that
something must be done, more than the
attitude of the archaeologists themselves.
When discussing eye-teaching with Professors
of Classical Archaeology I positively derived
less encouragement from them than from any
of the other classes whom I have approached,
viz., teachers, headmasters, curators, adminis-
trators, and professors of pedagogy — which is
saying a good deal.

Again and again I was warned (even by
friendly archaeologists) that to employ the
lantern and archaeological aids to ordinary
teaching is to endanger the well-being of
archaeology as a science because, forsooth,
ordinary teachers cannot know all about it.
This is the sort of fatuity that renders one limp
and speechless. It is as though bankers made
a rule that there are to be no depositors who

186 Part II— The Classical Revival

do not thoroughly understand the science of
banking — or that professional cricketers were to
exclude all amateurs who play on a standard
lower than their own. The topsy-turvydom
of Alice would pale before a Wonderland like
this!

Let this pass — they did not really mean it.
But we are beyond all doubt up against a
very big difficulty. Take the case of a teacher
of Greek or Latin who, for the first time, feels
his conscience twinging him because he has
never shown a slide or anything else to his
students. They are in Cimmerian darkness —
but he finds himself in an uncommonly awk-
ward dilemma. He cannot get slides very
easily, he does not possess photos, still less
archaeological material. His school may not
be within reach of large collections, nor does
he know how to obtain anything, even on the
more modest scale, which, if not fully ade-
quate, would be better than nothing. What
is worse and what seems often to absolutely
paralyse these poor wretches is the undoubted
fact that even if they could obtain material
they would not at first know how to use it.

To set about helping people like this may
indeed sound paradoxical, and yet it is not
impossible. Solvitur ambulando. Those of
us who were once in a desperate condition
know that we got out of it by degrees. We
saw " men as trees walking " before we saw
anything clearly. We saw and handled first
one thing and then another : the more we saw

Appreciation of Classics 187

the more we wanted to see — improvement was
perhaps imperceptible, but it was steady.
When I was starting to use, first, coin-slides,
and then coins, as illustrations of my class-
work, I always told my students that numis-
matic study is difficult, and that I did not
expect them to know very much about it,
because I knew very little myself. Now
things are better : we do not pretend to be
numismatists (at least I don't, though I have
perpetrated a small book on the subject) but
we do know something about the way that
history can be illustrated and vitalized by
handling Greek and Roman coins and by
learning accurately a few simple facts about
currency. Since I took up this hobby I
have really grasped an infinity of interesting
things about Greek and Roman life and
history which I am certain I should never
have learned any other way. And then the
delight of seeing and handling the coins is to
me intense and indescribable.

This matter is so important and so typical
of the whole question of reviving and reform-
ing Classics that I shall venture to give a
few particulars regarding Greek history as
illustrated by numismatic material, whether
it be original or reproduced. And there is
a frame of mind which we must consider — it
was for a very long time my own state of
mind — it is just this. One will reflect that
a knowledge of Greek and Roman coins is
certainly an important thing for learned

188 Part II— The Classical Revival

specialists. We see how they are frequently
referred to in our manuals of history and
antiquities and in commentaries on Classical
authors. But we gather from those very
references that the subject is most intricate,
because it evidently deals with material which
is recondite and even difficult of access. The
points observed by experts and referred to
in their treatises are often extremely minute
and elusive to an untrained eye, which has
not learned to interpret them by long and
close application to the subject. Above all,
the varieties of coins, chiefly the Greek but
also the later Roman issues, appear to be so
immense as to be positively bewildering to
the tiro.

All this is indeed very true, and yet I wish
to convince my readers that the subject may
be made both interesting and practical for
ordinary students of antiquity. What I wish
to advocate is that, even though small, a
knowledge of coins may be encouraged as a
useful attainment. I should like to encourage
schoolboys to take up Greek and Roman
coins as a sort of hobby, collecting them as
they do butterflies or postage stamps; and,
when this is impossible, at least to bring
within their reach a small collection of Greek
and Roman coins. It is easy enough to
obtain many interesting and beautiful speci-
mens, and electrotypes of the rarer coins.
The real coins are, of course, the best. Nothing
seems to put you more closely into touch with

Appreciation of Classics 189

antiquity than to handle Greek silver or
Roman brass. If all danger of modern forgery
is eliminated, as it may be easily enough, to
see and touch them is to hold what passed
through the fingers of Romans, Athenians,
Corinthians, and Thebans in the days of
Peistratus, Pericles, and Aristophanes, or of
Scipio, Antony, and Vergil.

First of all, let me point out that I am not
now going to deal with more than one
particular aspect of coin-study — its general
historical interest. Other highly noteworthy
aspects are much less important for beginners,
though I should not dream of stating that
they ought to be absolutely excluded from
our purview. But I do not intend to insist
upon them in these pages.

First of all there is the question, which is
highly technical, and one which we could
never master even for ourselves, the questions
of weight, standard, and value. The standards
e.g., in use in Greece were merely approximate
and were perpetually changing. The same is
true, to a less extent indeed, in Rome, where
there was a steady depreciation. In Greece
it has even been maintained that it was im-
possible, except perhaps in the earliest periods
of coinage, for people ordinarily to have
attached any fixed value to special coins — but
must have used them as specie, by weight
rather than recognized standards. Again,
there are whole controversies about the origin
and development of coinage, and their types,

14

190 Part II — The Classical Revival

which are interesting and instructive, but are
only mentioned to rule them out of our
present discussion.

Lastly, the study of coins from the aesthetic
standpoint is fascinating enough for the
student of art, and of first-class importance
for the understanding of many art problems.
Coins are often masterpieces of art ; they are
not, like most of the statues in the great
Museums, only copies of earlier works. Yet I
do not include this topic as belonging to the
historical value of coins.

What I mean is this. The student of
ancient life who pays even a cursory attention
to the study of coins will find considerable
light thrown on this subject.

In Roman coinage the interest is broad
because so many little points of ancient life
are referred to, especially in the consular
denarii, but also in the Imperial series. In
one very small collection of the later Re-
publican period, made for schools, the follow-
ing references to contemporary events were
noticed. The wars of Pompey and Caesar ;
the victories of the latter in Gaul after
Pompey's flight, and that in Spain, at Munda,
over Pompey's friends ; the Battle of Phar-
salia ; Caesar's claim to descend from ^Eneas
and therefore from Venus. We also find
reference to Antony and his cruel Fulvia, who
pierced the dead Cicero's tongue with a needle ;
to Antony's marriage to Octavia ; to the
Battle of Actium, and the triumph of Octavius

Appreciation of Classics 191

in honour of the same battle ; next to the
submission of Asia to the Conqueror, and to
the Asiatic cult of mystic serpents ; then to
that greatest diplomatic triumph of Augustus,
the surrender of the Roman standards lost
by Crassus to the Parthians ; again to various
triumphs of the new Emperor in the year
20 B.C., and finally to his title " Pater Patriae,"
and his choice of two grandsons (in default of
direct male issue) to succeed him in the Prin-
cipate. That both these youths, Caius and
Lucius, predeceased the Emperor, and that
he therefore had later to make a new and
different choice, is but a special instance of
the irony of fate — and in no way detracts
from the interest attaching to the denarius
struck in the year 2 B.C., the last in the
series of the cabinet, which ends with the
century.

Let us now turn to what is even more
important in this connexion, the study of
Greek history. When he studies Greek his-
tory in the ordinary way, I mean through the
ordinary literary process, the beginner must
almost necessarily gain a somewhat restricted
or even distorted view of his subject. He
looks at everything through Attic spectacles*
He gets Attic salt with his food, not by spoon-
fuls, but rather by the overturning of the
salt-cellar. It may be true to say that Paris
is France, but it was certainly never true to
say that Athens was Greece. However, it is
allowed in our histories that one or two

192 Part II— The Classical Revival

places existed in Greece — outside of Attica —
Sparta existed, so did Corinth and Thebes.
But I believe it is only those who begin to
handle Greek coins who also begin a little
to realize the vast extent of the real Greek
world, as distinct from the world of books-
how it was practically spread over the area
of the whole world then known, or at least
the more important part of it. I like to
show charts showing the Greek world of books
and the Greek world of coins. I do not mean
merely that modern students should learn,
perhaps for the first time, of centres of Greek
life of which he would be otherwise more or
less ignorant. It is his whole perspective that
will be changed by coin-study. He will get a
real and lasting inkling of the relative im-
portance of, say, the Asiatic Greeks, or those
of Magna Graecia and Sicily (he just guessed
that Syracuse must have been a big place
owing to the misadventures of Athenian
armies there, now he will see the decadrachms),
of the early ^Egina, of the Imperial Cyrene, of
the wealthy cities of Thrace and the Pro-
pontis. But it is regarding the Hellenistic
period that his eyes will be properly opened.
From a very superficial acquaintance with
Greek numismatic issues, he will learn how
large and how true was the spread of Greek
civilization, art, commerce, language, and re-
ligion in Egypt, Syria, and even the Far
East, during the fourth and third centuries
before Christ.

Appreciation of Classics 193

Again, still keeping to a general view, the
student learns much as to connexion between
the religion of the Greeks and their life in
the market-place. On a very large proportion
of coins we find either an effigy of a deity or
some reference to his or her supernatural
power. Authorities may differ on the ques-
tion as to how far this fact is due to the
religious spirit, or to ordinary motives of
convenience or patriotic feeling. But even if
we hold that the god appears rather on
account of his distinctive connexion with the
locality than on account of his spiritual
attributes, the result is much the same as
to the intimate connexion between civil and
religious life in Greece.

Thus do we gain new points of interest
regarding the extent of the Greek world, and
the variety and importance of the cities which
constituted it. But there is another point of
very great importance for the young student,
and that is that coins illustrate the mutual
independence of the city-states. They show
strikingly the fact of their individual sove-
reignty, just as the city-tokens of England
and Ireland illustrate the individual life and
growth of the towns at the time of striking
them.

And yet there is the other side of the numis-
matic shield. Everyone familiar with Bury's
History oj Greece must have been struck with
his references to coin-alliances, as illustrating
history. And yet he wrote before Professor

194 Part II— The Classical Revival

Percy Gardner's really epoch-making dis-
covery about the coinage of the Ionic Revolt.
This period is one of great importance, it
interests the average boy, and yet very
little is known about the real progress of the
revolt and the reasons for its disastrous
failure. We know there must have been
imperfect organization, indeed there is plenty
of evidence of the general fact. What more
illuminating than the knowledge that at a
time when every state issued its own coins
(and indeed the rule was not broken in the
Alliance) these cities should have had a series
of electron staters, almost identical in colour,
weight, form (which is very peculiar), style of
type and of reverse incuse. Again, that these
staters most probably provided each the
monthly pay of a fighting-man. Anyhow, it
works. Less than a week ago a student of the
first year, not particularly brilliant or archseo-
logically disposed, came to me and said : " Do
show me the coins of the Ionic Revolt." Alas !
I could only show him one, and that a repro-
duction, but I showed him also the photos
given by Gardner in the Journal of Hellenic
Studies. It was enough, though barely.

Again, there is the alliance of the Achaean
cities of South Italy, as shown by the strange
flat coins, with type duplicated on reverse in
incuse ; and of course the anti-Spartan league
of the time of Epaminondas ; as well as a
coin struck by that great general. It would
be out of place here to pursue the subject

Appreciation of Classics 195

further. But I may just refer to the inter-
esting issues of Selinus, illustrating its puri-
fication by Empedocles ; the Nike-coin of
Poliorcetes ; the Himera issue, when under
Agrigentine control; and the Bactrian series,
of extraordinary fineness and abundance.

Before proceeding further an important
proviso may be made, which regards not
merely coin-study but the whole principle of
visual or rather tactual instruction as applied
to Classics. According to Professor Gardner,
practically everyone who attacks this problem
for the first time believes that the process con-
sists in seeking to obtain direct illustration of
ancient authors, such as we occasionally find,
especially in recent editions, of Classical books.
This is, of course, a fallacy, and a very per-
nicious one, lying, as I believe it does, at the
root of four-fifths of the prejudices against
which unfortunately we have to contend.

It is possible to illustrate a modern novel,
though I doubt whether it is of much im-
portance to do so, except perhaps for un-
educated people or children. But historical
writing or literature of the higher sort scarcely
ever lends itself to direct illustration with
real advantage. Who really cares to see
illustrated editions of Dante, Shakespeare, or
Milton ? This is not, of course, a question
of high art. Painters and artists will fre-
quently find themselves inspired by sacred
and secular literature for their grandest crea-
tion. But that is another story.

196 Part II— The Classical [Revival

To return to our subject: we do not, of
course, deny that occasionally the texts read
by students even require illustration, which,
in these exceptional cases, it would be our
duty to provide. But, generally speaking, the
effort to illustrate authors directly on any
elaborate scale will assuredly end in dis-
appointment, and not improbably in fiasco.
A concrete instance of this will make the
matter clear. Suppose you are teaching the
Bacchce to a class, and want to give their
minds a real grip of the subject. One plan
would be laboriously to collect a lot of wood-
cuts of gems, vase-paintings or reliefs, illus-
trating more or less grotesquely Bacchanalian
scenes, or rather what artists, very likely of
the later Greco-Roman period, thought bac-
chanals must have looked like. The result of
this will be either to shock your students or
more likely to bore them to death ; you will
not really carry them forward in their work,
but will give them an impression which is
certainly unreal and more than likely posi-
tively false and misleading. And the effect
on yourself (I have seen this sort of case)
will be to put you out of humour with the
whole reform of teaching, so far as depending
upon Visual Instruction.

Now for the true method, which consists
not in the Direct but the Indirect illustration
of Latin and Greek authors, by brightening
and enlightening the study of them all along
the line. If you were aiming at this in the

Appreciation of Classics 197

case referred to, you will use your lantern and
all your powers of illustration to make your
lads or your girls understand what a Greek
theatre was really like, what the Athenian
audience was really like, what Macedonia was
like, what Euripides was like, with his friends
and his enemies ; and then you will have
helped them to get a real understanding of
the Bacchce. Show them views of the extant
theatres, not too many ; show them a theatre
ticket; show them casts of the tragic masks,
with the onkos and the cothurnos ; show them
the aulos and the kithara ; the infant Dionysus
with Hermes, or the grave, bearded Dionysus
on the Theban tetradrachm ; by all means show
them a Thyrsos, with its pine-cone top, and
wreath of wild convolvulus ; but you can safely
leave the revels to their own imagination,
stimulated as it will be by the Euripidean text.
Hence we get the answer to the commonly
put question: What is meant by visual in-
struction in Classical education, if it does not
imply textual illustrations ? We want to
bring the senses of our pupils into direct
relation with ancient life as a whole. They
cannot actually be transported to Rome or
Carthage, Athens, Syracuse, or Ephesus, as
they existed of old. They cannot actually
shake hands with Pericles or Cicero. They
cannot see with their eyes the games of
Olympia and Delphi ; the performances in the
Great Theatre at Athens or the processions to
Eleusis and the Parthenon ; nor can they

198 Part II—TJie Classical Revival

actually witness a triumph of Scipio, Pompey,
or Julius Caesar and hear the shoutings of
the delirious Romans as the chariots pass
along the Via Sacra. What we can do for
our students is less than this, but it is worth
doing. We can at least bring them to feel
that such things happened. Reading is all
very well, for grown-ups especially — but cer-
tainly for the mind that is immature only
seeing is believing. We can show them a lot
that will stir their hearts as well as their
minds, stimulate their imagination, correct
their misapprehensions, and, above all, clear
them of a great deal of that mental haziness
which is incompatible with real education.
From seeing the right kind of archaeological
aids to study they will return to their litera-
ture refreshed, interested, alert, and contented.
There is only one method which has been
proposed, so far as we know, of providing, at
least in a small but very definite manner, for
the wants of the great mass of our Classical
schools and colleges. In a later chapter
we offer some suggestions as to the possible
utility of public Museums for students of the
Humanities. What can be done in that direc-
tion is not yet clear, and it will take time,
perhaps a long time, before anything very
complete can be effected. But meanwhile we
must help ourselves. Besides, many schools
are not within reach of any public Museum of
importance such as might be expected to
provide adequate aids to Classical study.

Appreciation of Classics 199

The most ideal thing would be if schools
and colleges could have (what, of course,
exists to some extent in the Universities and
elsewhere) a small but practical collection of
their own of Classical pictures, slides, anti-
quities, and other aids to Classical teaching.
Till that can be done— and when will it be
done ? — the only alternative is the system
which has been already tried with some suc-
cess in England, Ireland, and America ; that
is, the use of small loan-collections specially
prepared for circulation among all the centres
of education which require them and can
arrange to get them in due rotation. All the
difficulties and drawbacks of such a system
are so obvious that it is hardly necessary to
state that we take them all for granted.
Difficulty is one thing ; impossibility another,
and that, we claim, has been already proved
not to exist.

Such a collection will necessarily include
small, specially prepared, numismatic collec-
tions, properly catalogued, so as to give the
teacher the minimum of trouble. We may
prepare the cabinet ; the teacher has to
prepare himself — that is the rub ! Besides
coins and electrotypes, there will also be
small collections of portable (and of course
not too valuable) antiquities, by which is
meant specimens of metal, pottery, glass, and
other fabrics suitable for illustrating any
phases of ancient life or literature. Replicas
are of the highest importance. For instance,

200 Part II— The Classical Revival

we cannot circulate original inscribed stones,
but nothing is easier than obtaining squeezes
or even casts of very interesting inscriptions
and inscribed objects. As an instance, I may
refer to the small bronzes found at Olympia
and proved by Professor Bosanquet* to be
spear-butts, though originally taken by Dorp-
feld and others for spear-heads. The inscrip-
tions on them state that they are part of
votive offerings to Zeus, from the spoils taken
by certain Greek armies who were victorious
over their enemies. They are very portable,
and students find them interesting. Many
other similar objects exist and would give
invaluable casts.

But this is not all. A most important part
of a loan collection will consist of photos,
slides, books, diagrams, or wall-pictures ; and
perhaps models, illustrating Classical life and
art. This method of circulation is already
generally adopted in the case of lantern
slides, though, unfortunately, there are only
too many schools which cannot get lantern
slides and would not be able to use them, if
they could. Nothing can be more useful in
teaching Greek and Roman history than good
sets of slides, illustrating important centres
like Rome and Athens, Corinth, Sparta,
Delphi, Olympia, Pompeii, and a hundred
other sites. The prehistoric settlements or
fortresses of Gnossos, Troy, Tiryns, Mycenae,

* Essays and Studies presented to W. Ridgeway. Cambridge,
1913; p. 276 ff.

Appreciation of Classics 201

Pylos, etc., can be made extremely interest-
ing, even for young students, by the lantern.
And, of course, topography is only one branch
of work, Architecture and every phase of
art ; military, civil, and domestic life ; many
classes of antiquities (notably coins and pot-
tery) are admirably presented on the screen —
and it is sad to think how much of this is
neglected in very important centres of learn-
ing, and I fear in most of the Classical schools,
not merely of Great Britain, but even of
America. No doubt the chief cause of this
neglect is the real difficulty in many schools
and colleges of obtaining, upon easy terms,
a regular supply of lantern slides on Classical
subjects which shall be adequate and varied.
This is not by any means the only cause,
perhaps not the most deeply rooted, as those
of wide experience know too well.

The collections of our Hellenic and Roman
Societies are indeed admirable — too much so
for the humble people I have been con-
sidering. Such collections require to be sim-
plified or adapted to school needs more fully
than they have been, so far as I am aware.
Teachers want definite sets of slides on de-
finite subjects, with suitable descriptive cata-
logues and references as to sources of further
simple information. But there is another
difficulty which will have to be faced, and
the sooner it is done the better. The sets of
slides referred to are, of course, only available
for members of the societies. The rate of

202 Part II — The Classical Revival

hire has been considerably reduced, but, car-
riage and insurance included, the use of them
is fairly expensive, and there are numbers of
Classical teachers who are outside these
learned bodies, and they are just the people
most in need of help. When the matter is
properly understood and attended to, un-
doubtedly some means will be found to over-
come these difficulties ; nor do I think it
necessary to make detailed suggestions on
that score. To acquire permanently a suffi-
cient number of slides is impossible, except
for very well equipped colleges and schools ;
and, I repeat, a small number of slides is no
good. To try to improve your teaching by using
two or three sets is like sleeping on a feather-
bed containing but two or three feathers.

Although we lay ever so much stress upon
a larger and improved use of the lantern, of
photographs, and of other means of pictorial
illustration, it must be stated again and again
that if we are to vitalize our teaching of
Classics thoroughly, this method, good as it
may be, is yet not enough. Photography is
in many cases inadequate and even deceptive ;
for instance, in the case of coins, pottery, and
sculpture, and even in architecture, it does
not give an accurate notion of the magnitude
of any object, which often may be an im-
portant element in our impressions. But the
great thing is it is psychologically wrong.
Pictures are never tri-dimensional, and they
can only appeal to a single sense. We must

Appreciation of Classics 203

also use the tactile sense — we must see, but
we must handle also. What chemist, geo-
logist, or biologist would be satisfied with
teaching by slides alone ? and are we less human
than these inhuman monsters ? I hope not.

The preparation of loan cabinets is un-
doubtedly a more delicate matter than sup-
plying photos, diagrams, and slides, partly
owing to the difficulty, explained in a former
chapter, of procuring suitable material, partly
from the general lack of experience in using
them, and partly on account of the increased
difficulty of transit. In an appendix I give
details based upon experience gained by the
existing Committee of the A.R.L.T., and of
the Classical Association of Ireland, both of
which bodies have prepared loan collections
for schools. I may here quote a few words
by S. E. Winbolt, written just before the
war broke out : —

A Headmistress, who is a subscriber to the scheme,
wrote: "Altogether I think the Realien worth several
guineas a year, not one only." Perhaps she is an
enthusiast, but what she says is borne out by many
others, who write : " the coins have been greatly ap-
preciated " ; "I have found the pictures tremendously
useful, and the children are very keen "; "the boys
are delighted with the pictures" ; " the pictures and
photographs have been of the greatest interest," and
so on. Altogether, there can be no doubt of the
complete success of the beginnings of our attempt to
popularize the use of Classical Realien. The news has
spread, and we have several names already waiting to
be enrolled as members for our next year's working.*

* Journal of the Association for July, 1914, p. 44.

204 Part II — The Classical Revival

Alas, Vhomme propose, Dieu dispose. The Com-
mittee has just managed, by herculean efforts,
to keep things going during the war, but, need-
less to say, progress has not been remarkable.

I would urge this system as very important
for different classes of teachers. There are,
as I said, many schools and institutions out of
reach of Museums : for those there is no alter-
native to the circulation system. But everi
for those who are not quite out of reach of
Museums the circulating cabinets will be
useful, because as a beginning it brings the
material to their own door. We know by
experience that there are many who do not
utilize their public museum opportunities to
the full from want of time, want of know-
ledge, and (I fear I must add) want of inclina-
tion. Now, these persons will be enabled by
means of circulating exhibits to overcome their
vis inertice with a minimum of expense, time,
and labour. In regard to preparing and cir-
culating museum exhibits I append some hints
in a summary of Don'ts, or " things to be
avoided." I have also drawn up, in a separate
schedule, a detailed catalogue of the kind of
material which has been, or ought to be, in
general use.* It is, however, necessary to
premise that the whole scheme is still in an
experimental stage, and ought to be regarded
rather as something transitional, which may
lead to better things, than as something which
is already to give absolutely perfect results.

* See Appendix No. 2, p. 273.

Appreciation of Classics 205

THINGS TO AVOID IN A CIRCULATING MUSEUM.
A SUMMARY.

1°. DON'T attempt to illustrate Greek and
Latin texts directly. This is a very common
fallacy which is almost certain to lead to dis-
appointment and even revulsion. To illus-
trate ancient life rationally means to illustrate
literature also, but indirectly.
• • •

2°. DON'T attempt to teach archaeology as
a science — but merely to make use for or-
dinary class purposes of the assured results
of archaeological research.

• • •

3°. DON'T attempt to collect for circulation
valuable objects, as coins which are rare or
exceptionally well-preserved, or things that
are easily broken, as valuable specimens of
glass and pottery.

4°. DON'T circulate anything which is not
good of its kind. Poor slides, e.g., are to be
rigorously excluded : photographs and wall-
pictures should be of a high quality : even
the cabinets should be not only strong but
artistically made. (They will, of course, re-
quire outside cases for transmission.) The
boxes for mounted photographs must be
designed specially.

5°. DON'T ever mix reproductions with ori-
ginals, but use both and keep your cabinets

15

206 Part II— The Classical Revival

separate. Thus much confusion and bewilder-
ment will be avoided. The electros of the
choicest coins will be fairer to look upon than
the cheaper sort of originals. But, of course,
the latter are more interesting.
• • •

6°. DON'T send out any exhibit, including
slides, without some adequate explanation.
(Opinions will differ as to the amount of in-
formation which should be offered.) It is a
good thing with certain cabinets, e.g., numis-
matic ones, to send a book in illustration of
the subject ; or sometimes, when so requested,
a set of photographs.

7°. DON'T expect to escape trouble and
difficulties in getting back the exhibits. But
if the loans are properly organized, the loss
and damage will be inappreciable compared
with the advantages gained.

8°. DON'T restrict the use of the cabinets
to any one class of school or institution.
Exhibits which are well selected and pro-
perly prepared may be suitable for very
different classes of students, though naturally
these will view the objects with different eyes.
The youngest children can be interested in
ancient history — whereas many university
students have never in their lives handled a
Greek or Roman coin.

Appreciation of Classics 207

9°. DON'T expect that public Museums will
do what is impossible. As a rule they are
sympathetic with Classical students and even
anxious to help us; and in preparing exhibits,
particularly in the case of reproductions, they
can be expected to render valuable service.
But in regard to originals, we must make it
clear to them that we do not expect them
to part with their treasures. On the contrary,
unless they happen to have absolutely surplus
material which cannot be of use, exhibits for
circulation must be specially acquired as well
as prepared for the purpose in view.

CHAPTER VIII

A NEW ERA FOB PUBLIC MUSEUMS *

It is becoming evident that in the near
future the true function of public Museums,
by which is meant those supported by national
or municipal funds, will be better understood.
During the past few years a serious move-
ment began in London, and is now extending
to the provinces, to bring Museums into direct
relation to the educational systems of the
country. The object of the movement is to
impress on the minds of all concerned that
public Museums are in fact a vast national
asset, which has not been hitherto utilized to
the full, and to endeavour to arrive at methods
of developing their utility to the highest degree.
It has been computed that the entire worth
of National and Municipal Museums in the
British Isles amounts to something like the
enormous sum of eighty million sterling, a capi-
tal sum which, if realizable now, would pro-
duce an income of more than four million
pounds.

Now, considering the increased and in-
creasing expense of education to the nation —
which hardly any wise person would consider
a matter for regret — considering, in fact, the
growing conviction that upon our system of

* Partly reprinted from Studies by kind permission of the
Editorial Committee.

208

A New Era for Public Museums 209

education national welfare depends, almost
more than on anything else, it hardly requires
to be argued that such a huge national asset
ought to be utilized to the full. In speaking
thus of education, we must not understand it
in any narrow sense. There is not only the
education of children and the education of
people growing up, but also in a very true sense
the education of the grown up ; and all these
could be greatly benefited by a more rational
and a more ordered attention to the utility of
public Museums.

What has been the history of Museums in
the past ? I do not say of course exclusively,
but very largely, they have been regarded by
most people as vast store-houses of more or
less useless, and very often absurd, curiosities
— or places where the public may lounge about
listlessly on a wet Saturday afternoon, and
become by degrees infinitely bored by their
surroundings.

The mind of the public is now being forced
to attend to this question, owing largely to a
campaign which has been carried on to force
on reform, at least in one particular direction,
by Lord Sudeley, F.R.S. He succeeded in
persuading the House of Lords to take action,
at least to the extent of demanding information
from the Museums as to what they were doing
for the direct mental improvement of those
who enter their portals. All this was before
the war, which, of course, has, for the time,
interfered with parliamentary activity.

210 Part II— The Classical Revival

Meanwhile, from another quarter interest is
being aroused in the educational world as to
the value of Museums. At a meeting of the
British Association held in England just before
the war a most interesting debate was carried
on by experts in the Educational Section on
Museums in their relation to education ; and
as the outcome of this discussion a Committee
was appointed to consider and report on the
whole question, under the Presidency of the
Professor of Education in Sheffield University.
The Museums' Association (an organization
which holds a Conference annually in different
centres) had already taken up the matter
warmly, and it is remarkable that the two
Secretaries of the British Association Com-
mittee are both Curators and active members
of the Museums' Conference. I may be per-
mitted to add that at the Dublin meeting (1912)
I had been invited to address the Conference
on the help which public Museums can and
should render to students of the ancient
learning. My suggestions were received with
marked sympathy by the Curators present,
and I owe it to their influence that I was asked
to join the Committee of the British Associa-
tion (Education Section) in order to collect
the views of teachers of Classics on the utility
to them of public Museums, and to submit
these views with my own in the form of a Special
Report. When we consider that the object
of the British Association is the advancement
of Science (as generally understood), I think

A New Era for Public Museums 211

the advocates of Classical teaching will agree
that the Educational Section have shown a
desire to approach the question of Museum
facilities in a broad-minded way, and without
that partisan spirit which is detrimental to the
progress of learning.

We may consider, first, the classes of people
which the Museum should benefit. Then we
can briefly discuss the various plans that have
been suggested, and inquire how far they
have been already put to the test and with
what results.

There are clearly three classes of persons
whose interests in regard to Museums are not
merely distinct, but in some cases may be
even opposed to one another. These are —
(1) Students in the narrower sense ; those, for
instance, who are devoting themselves to some
particular branch of art, industry, science,
history, or archaeology. (2) The general public
who are not expert students, but who desire
to enlarge their stock of information, and to
become interested in various departments of
mental culture. (3) Classes of school-children
of various ages and sorts — none of whom are
necessarily excluded from Museum influences.
In regard, for instance, to natural history, it
is evident that the youngest children are
capable of being highly interested in suitable
exhibits, and of deriving therefrom much
benefit.

In saying above that the interest of these
different classes (all of whom belong to the

212 Part II— The Classical Revival

public, and have therefore a right to be con-
sidered) may be in mutual opposition ; it will
be of course understood that this is meant in
a relative sense. It would be possible to cater
for all ; but clearly, if the attention of Museums
is closely centred on any one class, say, the
expert student, or the schoolboy or girl, other
classes will be in danger of being to that
extent neglected. And as a matter of fact we
find that those who have spoken and written
with a view to effect reform in the Museum
system, generally seem to urge the claims of
one, or at most two, of the above-mentioned
classes of persons.

Lord Sudeley's chief care seems to be the
extension of the system, which has been adopted
from America, of Museum Guides. I cannot
do better than give the following extract from
a lecture which his Lordship gave in London,
in 1914, to a number of local school teachers,
on the invitation of the London County
Council. His idea is that school teachers
might themselves act as Demonstrator-Guides,
thus, as it were, killing two birds with one
stone by rendering assistance alike to their
own scholars and to the general public. He
said : —

If I am right, as I am sure I am, that in the near
future many of you teachers will become thoroughly
proficient in and enamoured with your power of
interpretation of Museum subjects, then you will
begin to realize what an opening there is for cul-
tivated men and women amongst your assistant
teachers in this pleasant, useful, and educationally

A New Era for Public Museums 213

important profession of Official Guides and Popular
Interpreters for Museums, Galleries, and Botanic
Gardens.

I feel quite certain that year by year more and
more Guides of both sexes will be required by the
institutions scattered throughout the country, and
there will, of necessity, soon have to be formed a
new profession of Guide-Demonstrators,

In London, at the British Museum, three years
ago — 1911 — which was the year Public Guides were
started, and before it was sufficiently well known to
affect the entries, the number of visitors to the
Museum was 754,872. In the year 1913 there have
been no less than 947,000 visitors. This is an in-
crease of about 200,000 visitors. Surely this
enormous increase must be principally due to the
interest and pleasure which the Guide system has
created in this great Museum, in the opening up of
its vast treasures.

This is principally due to the fact that a first-rate
Guide was obtained, and to the enthusiastic manner
in which the plan has been carried out by Sir Frederic
Kenyon, and by the authorities and officials of the
Museum.

Anyone visiting the Museum now and remembering
what it was two or three years ago, will at once
observe that it is now a hive of industry, showing
that large additional numbers of people are inter-
ested and are examining the various exhibits.

Let us now take the case of the Provincial Museum
in the large town of Leicester. The population of
Leicester amounts to 227,000 people. Last year,
1913, no less than 334,000 people visited the Museum,
one-half more than the population. These large
numbers have undoubtedly come to such an extent
owing to special local causes, including a Loan Ex-
hibition of Impressionist Pictures, which created great
controversy. Giving, however, full allowance for
these special facts, it cannot be denied that the
greater part of this large influx of people, one-half
more than the entire population, is due to the great
activity and special steps taken to popularize the

214 Part II— The Classical Revival

Museum by the very able Curator, Mr. Lowe, and an
active local Museum Committee.

It will be necessary to add that the scheme
as outlined has received the warmest en-
couragement, not only from Sir R. Blair, the
chief Educational Officer of the London
Council, but also from the English Board of
Education. Mr. Joseph A. Pease, late Minister
of Education, wrote to Lord Sudeley : —

The question of the relations of Museums to edu-
cation, and especially in the payment of visits to
them by students from various types of schools, is
one in which I feel a great interest. I am glad to
say that there are a number of children from public
elementary schools already in the habit of paying
visits, under the supervision of their teachers, to
Museums under the control of the Board. The
reports received from my Inspectors are unanimous
in emphasizing the value which the children derive
from these visits, when properly conducted, and the
increase of animation and interest which they show
as the result of this form of visual instruction.

There is no need for me to lay stress on the im-
portance which is rightly attached to visits and
study under proper supervision on the part of more
advanced students, and it is gratifying to know that
a large majority of the Schools of Art in London are
in the habit of sending students regularly to the
Victoria and Albert Museum for purposes of study.
I may add that the provision of Guides, in which
I know you take a keen personal interest, continues
to be appreciated.

These extracts prove that in England, at least,
a very wide-spread effort will be made to bring
Museums more into touch with teaching, at
least in the lower grades. In London, where
experiments can be made on a large scale,

A New Era for Public Museums 215

practical difficulties either do not exist, or can
be readily overcome. In the provinces, on the
other hand, and much more in Ireland — I might
say Dublin and Belfast, where alone, I fear,
public Museums of importance exist — the
practical difficulties are much greater both on
the side of schools, where eye-teaching is only
in its infancy, and on the side of the Museums
themselves. And there is, naturally, con-
siderable difference of opinion as to the methods
by which Museums ought to endeavour to
extend their educational influence.

In the first place, some authorities think that
the main duty of Curators in regard to educa-
tional facilities is to promote research, to work
hand in hand with the University or higher
school, and to provide every means in their
power by which the special student may have
access to any material and expert aid in its
interpretation which he may require. Others,
while taking it for granted that a Museum's
functions will include some aid provided for
the expert student, yet do not believe that it
falls within the Curator's duty to devote his
own time and mental resources to those who
ought to find teaching elsewhere, generally in
a local University or technological institute.
They lay more stress on the needs of the general
inquirer, believing that it is the Museum's
chief function to collect and preserve, to label,
and otherwise arrange to the best advantage,
the exhibits which the student will turn to
account for his own purposes as best he may.

216 Part II— The Classical Revival

This aspect of the subject was dealt with
in a paper communicated by Dr. F. A. Bather,
of the Kensington Museum of Natural History,
to the Congres de Fassociation frangaise pour
Pavancement des Sciences, held at Havre in
1914. Dr. Bather, who is Vice-Chairman of
the British Association Committee, has taken
a foremost part in the English movement,
and is qualified to speak with authority con-
cerning it. In this paper he advocates the
cause of young school-children, and seems to
imply that a section of a Museum, or even when
possible a Museum, should be entirely conse-
crated to their service, the cases being adapted
to their height, and the exhibits and labels
arranged to suit their intelligence. When
this is done, he adds, "the Museum, instead of
boring them, will become a truly enchanted
palace." He adds that this experiment has
been very fully carried out at Brooklyn and
other American cities, but that all we ourselves
can hope to do at present is to try and utilize
in favour of the young our existing establish-
ments.

On the subject, however, of carrying on
actual teaching at Museums (by means of the
Museum staff) Dr. Bather frankly admits that
he is, as he styles himself, something of a
heretic. He says* : —

The Librarian fulfils his duty when he collects the
best books, and preserves them and has them always
in good order at the disposal of his readers, and whose
* The paper is in French, but I translate the passage.

A New Era for Public Museums 217

catalogues are properly descriptive. He is not ex-
pected to give lectures on his books, either on the
binding or on the contents. The duties of a Curator
are similar : his business is first to preserve ; secondly,
to give all facilities to students and researchers ;
thirdly, to put forward the objects wanted by the
public and to arrange them, attractively if objects of
art, systematically if scientific specimens. For teach-
ing there are schools, professors, and manuals — but
in the Museum it is the exhibits themselves which
ought to speak.

This doctrine is very well for the great
Museums of capital cities. In smaller centres
it will generally be found that those in charge
of collections will be glad to promote study
by personal service, so far as opportunity will
allow. It may easily happen that Curators
will be the only available sources of expert
information relating to exhibits ; and, as a rule,
they only want to be asked to share their
knowledge with serious inquirers. It is evident
that in applying a new principle — or I should
rather say, in finding new applications for a
principle which has always been to some extent
recognized — no hard and fast rule can be
discovered which will suit all cases in detail.
If the Museum of the future is to be a centre
for distributing exact knowledge it is only
through experiment, and possibly only after
making mistakes, that we can hope to hit upon
the most feasible and the most efficient
methods of carrying on the distribution.

With regard to the employment of pro-
fessional guides (these, of course, do not ordin-
arily belong to the Museum staff), it is evident

218 Part II — The Classical Revival

that the use of the method must depend upon
varying conditions in different localities. They
will certainly best suit industrial centres in
which Museums are often crowded with classes
of people who, though poorly educated, are yet
intelligent and willing to learn at a small ex-
pense of labour. In the provinces and in
Ireland I am not aware that such Demon-
strator-Guides have been to any extent
employed.

There is, however, a third method of utilizing
Museums for teaching purposes, and it is
perhaps in many cases the best, anyhow it is
fairly clear that for the Classical teacher it is
generally the best. I mean the system of
class-demonstrations (or even semi-public de-
monstrations) given by the ordinary professor
or schoolmaster in the Museum; of course with
the approval and, if necessary, the help of the
Museum authorities. This is the natural
method, and is suitable for all grades of
education ; even if it can be extended to the
outside public it will contain many of the
advantages of the Demonstrator-Guide system
without its evident drawbacks. I have myself
derived the greatest pleasure from lectures
given in this way in the British Museum,
having heard Professor E. A. Gardner lecture
on Greek Sculpture in the Elgin room ; and in
the same room a lady-teacher talking to
young children on Greek life, as illustrated
by sculpture.

If educators showed more interest in the

A New Era for Public Museums 219

work of Museums, the Trustees and Curators
could give assistance, which they are really
eager to give, in a hundred ways, without actu-
ally undertaking the burden of demonstrations.
Surely the actual teaching of a class (or even
of the outside public in regard to one's own
special subject) can be done at least as well
by ourselves as by those who do not include
teaching among their primary duties. The
Museum staff can help teachers indefinitely by
supplying the exhibits needed, by displaying
them in a way suitable for demonstration, by
giving facilities and assistance for Museum
teaching, and sometimes, when we ask it, by
supplying expert information about the ex-
hibits, their history, provenance, etc., and, in
a word, by heartily co-operating with us in our
desire to utilize to the full the opportunities
which we have a right to expect in a public
Museum.

The new movement to utilize public Museums
for education took its rise about the last decade
of the nineteenth century in the United States
of America, where it is rapidly progressing.
In 1916, with the view of studying the move-
ment on its Classical side, and preparing my
report on the subject to the British Association
Committee, I made a short tour of the Eastern
States and the Middle West. This Report,
which has not yet been published, and may be
further delayed owing to war conditions, is by
arrangement appended to this Volume. I will
now endeavour merely to convey some of the

220 Part II— The Classical Revival

impressions I received in America of the vast
and important results obtained there from the
co-operation of Museums with teaching in-
stitutions. I can also avail myself here of a
report written on the subject by Miss Louise
Connolly, of the Free Public Library of Newark,
N.J., which did not come into my hands until
my own report had been written, and which
I find to be a mine of admirably condensed
information. Being specially deputed by
Newark Museum, she had visited for the purpose
of reporting on them 65 institutions, including
35 Museums ; and had also made a special
study of Museum literature issued, chiefly in
America, during the last 20 years. In the form
of an appendix covering nearly 8 pages she
gives a list of these books and articles, the titles
of which are instructive. A few of the more
striking are : " Museums in connexion with
Public Libraries " (C.Adler and M. Medlicott) ;
" Educative Value of the Modern Museum "
(W. Gilbey) ; " Museum Study by Chicago Public
Schools" (0. C. Farrington); "Essentials of
a Children's Museum " (A. B. Gallup) ; " How
may Museums best Retard the Advance of
Science ? " (F. A. Bather, who has been quoted
above) ; " Some Experiments of a small
Museum " (H. L. Madison) ; " Gloom of the
Museum " (J. C. Dana) ; " Museum Extension
in Schools," and " Circulating Museums "
(F. J. Mather, Jun.) ; " If Public Libraries
why not Public Museums ? " (E. S. Morse) ;
" Use and Abuse of Museums " (W. S. Jevons) ;

A New Era for Public Museums 221

and " Museums and their Value to a City"
(A. H. Griffith).

The titles quoted will at least suggest the
great complexity of this subject. Miss Con-
nolly herself remarks that in her view every
Museum must be three kinds of a Museum.
It must provide for Art (under which we may
in part include archaeology), Science in the
stricter sense, and Industry. There is the
question of Children's Museums (or Depart-
ments), which is rapidly coming to the front.
Moreover, it will be understood that we do not
include among public Museums those which
are adjuncts to Universities, or other educa-
tional institutions ; and still less special
Museums connected with commercial or pro-
fessional interests. A good example of the
latter would be Medical Museums, with which
the public, however important they may be
ultimately for its welfare, has no immediate
concern.

The combination alluded to above, of Art,
Science, and Industry, all in a single building
or under a single organization, may appear to
many to involve doubtful advantages. There
may, however, be a special reason for adhering
to the arrangement where activities are very
intense and where large cities spring up
rather suddenly, so that much has to be
accomplished with the shortest possible delay.
This, however, is a side issue which we need
not dwell upon here.

What, however, is important to note from our

16

222 Part II— The Classical Revival

stand-point is that under all systems, where
Museums are to be turned to account educa-
tionally, the difficulty of co-ordinating and even
balancing conflicting interests must be im-
mense. And it appears to me that, for any one
approaching the subject, the first thing to
grasp is the impossibility of attempting to lay
down hard and fast rules for Museum reform.
The most we can try to indicate is certain
principles, which, however good and true in
themselves, will always have to be applied to
individual cases with the utmost caution.
Everything must depend on local needs : and
everything must depend on local possibilities.
Types of Museums vary enormously. This
is both inevitable and supremely desirable.
When we come to deal with questions relating
to Classical collections and the use of them,
we must always bear in mind that relative and
not absolute perfection is the goal we aim at.

Before, however, leaving the general con-
sideration of the subject, I must guard against
the implication that in America I found the
problems in question to have been finally solved.
I have before me a very interesting paper on
the subject issued by the Federal Government
for the year preceding my visit (1915)* in which
it is stated, on the one hand, that the important
educational function of Museums is now gener-
ally recognized alike by the leaders in both
museum work and school work and by the

* Report of Department of the Interior Bureau of Education.
Chapter xxii. Vol. i. (Washington Govt. Printing Office).

A New Era for Public Museums 223

teachers who have come in contact with it.
Yet, on the other hand, it is complained that

(1) As yet only a comparatively small proportion
of the Museums in the country are thoroughly aroused
to their possibilities ; (2) there is a much larger
opportunity for educational work among the smaller
public Museums, college Museums, and historical-
society Museums than is now appreciated ; (3) the
initiative in this work is usually taken by the
Museums, and school authorities who have not had
actual experience with it are not thoroughly alive to
its advantages ; (4) Museum facilities are available to
schools in various localities to a very unequal degree.

The Report then proceeds to state that
there is clearly need of some agency " to
stimulate and co-ordinate museum educational
work throughout the country and to diffuse a
full knowledge of it among schools and other
educational organizations."

The more, I think, the experience gained in
America is understood in this country, the
more it will be realized that, however backward
we may seem to be in comparison with our
cousins over the Atlantic, we are bound at no
very distant date to follow their important
lead. In fact we have already started.

A very distinct advance was made about
ten years ago in the British Museum, on the
Classical side* — one which, as it seems to me,
definitely committed the authorities to the
principle that even a great national Museum
should directly promote not merely higher
research, but, in the ordinary sense, education.

* Previously similar experiments had been made in other
Departments of the Museum.

224 Part II — The Classical Revival

I mean the establishment of the exhibition of
Greek and Roman life in a large and central
position in the Museum, and the providing of
an excellent guide to the same, well illustrated,
and sold cheaply. The objects were brought
together from various sections — a few repro-
ductions were also included, and the result
is an educational exhibit which must have
been and is of untold value for classical
students in and near London. Athletics, war,
industry, domestic antiquities, burial rites,
the arts (including the useful art of medicine
and surgery), education, agriculture and sea-
manship are among the subjects illustrated.
Even this exhibit has its drawback — what is
there that has not ? The different periods
and cultures are not sufficiently discriminated :
ancient life is treated as though it were one
thing. Therefore there is some danger of
false impressions as to detail being received,
which would, however, be easily corrected by a
competent master or guide. As a means of
stimulating the imagination of students, and
leading them on to further inquiry, the ex-
hibition is beyond all praise, and, as we have
hinted, its inauguration marks an epoch in
the evolution of educational Museums in Eng-
land, and has undoubtedly paved the way for
further developments in the near future.

In regard to the action taken by the British
Association to stimulate our progress, the fact
that the appointment of the Committee almost
synchronized with the outbreak of the war

A New Era for Public Museums 225

has been a very serious drawback — though to
me personally it is nothing short of marvellous
how much has been already accomplished by
my colleagues under these apparently im-
possible conditions. One reason for this is, I
think, the conviction we all have that when
the war is ended it will be found that the work
of the Committee has been most opportune.
For it is clear that a vast amount of national
reorganization will be necessary — a process
which must profoundly affect every grade
and type of education.* We have, moreover,
very high authority for asserting that the
Museum movement (whose inception we have
seen was prior to the war) will have to be carried
on at a much accelerated pace. Two causes
will contribute to this. The demand for
efficiency and economy will ensure that the
nation will no longer go on wasting the precious
resources of its national and municipal (and
I might add some of our educational) Museums.
Secondly, an improved psychology will tend
more and more to emphasize the advantages
of visual as distinct from merely aural in-
struction.

This will undoubtedly mean that, much as
we have been spending on Museums (with,
comparatively speaking, poor results), we shall
have to spend freely upon them, almost
lavishly, if they are to do the work which will
be in the future demanded of them. From

* Written before the promulgation in the Hoiise of Commons
of Mr. Fisher's scheme for educational reorganization.

226 Part II— The Classical Revival

the educational point of view (and ought
Museums really to be considered from any
other standpoint ?*) the Museums of Great
Britain have been simply starved. It is abund-
antly clear that as a class Curators are most
willing to respond to all educational initiative :
but it is equally clear that with the staff they
have they can barely keep their own heads
above water. If our Committee bring this one
fact home to the public, it will have done good
work. If the Museums (the larger ones) are
going in future to take a regular part in the
whole education system of the country, they
will require, what is conceded in America, at
least some officials who are properly equipped
for educational work and are free to devote
their time to it. This is quite independent of
those questions which are still sub judice re-
garding method, e.g., whether it is the proper
duty of a museum staff to do regular teaching
for schools or not. Even if the museum staff
are only expected to organize the educational
side of museum work, they will find their hands
pretty well filled in the larger centres of
population. One fact will illustrate this : it
is, that in the Metropolitan Museum of New
York, no less than six museum officials are
engaged in carrying on work which is directly
educational (only two of these being actual
Docents or Instructors).

* I hope the context will make it clear that I do not mean by
this that students, in the strict sense, have alone a right to be
considered — but that the general public may always derive from
Museums the sort of education which is fitted for them.

A New Era for Public Museums 227

Our immediate interest is, of course, merely
the question how far we may hope as teachers
of Classics to participate in the benefits of the
movement ? The answer to this is, I believe,
very simple. It depends on ourselves.

The question has two aspects — one regard-
ing the collection of material, the other the use
of it when provided. If museum reform in
general had once become an accomplished fact,
we should soon learn how to use our material,
and we may very well for the moment dis-
regard that side of the problem. The real
difficulty at present and for the immediate
future is — how can the large bulk of our public
Museums be induced to give any aid to the
cause of Classical education ?

It is, however, only fair to note here that
we have already in England very important
collections of Greek and Roman and cognate
material, which, on the whole, are admirably
co-ordinated with serious study in all its
grades. Quite independent of the special
section to which I referred, the British Museum
is, in fact, the Mecca of classical students.
There is nothing, I make bold to say, in the
world to compare with its collections in the
Greek and Roman and the Numismatic De-
partments, to say nothing of others which also
contain much useful and necessary material
for us, or of the Library, which is, I suppose,
unique. It is fortunate for University
College that it is located very near the
Museum, while the Hellenic and Roman

228 Part II— The Classical Revival

Societies, with their superb photographic collec-
tions, are practically next door. It is unnecessary
to point out here what are the facilities pro-
vided for research students and what is the
unfailing patience and courtesy of the staff
towards all comers, even the rankest of out-
siders. No doubt there is plenty of criticism,
and room for criticism, regarding the Museum.
But the real weakness of our Museum system is
not at Bloomsbury — nor is it in the older
Universities. I can speak better for Oxford
than for Cambridge ; where could a better
Museum be found for University students than
the Ashmolean — except, that it perhaps suffers
from want of room, and such-like drawbacks.
The Public Museum of Liverpool and the
Liverpool (University) Institute of Archaeology
give an admirable object-lesson of harmonious
action between the Museum Director, Dr.
Clubb, and Professor Bosanquet with others of
the University staff. As at present organized
the two institutions furnish Liverpool with
an excellent school for Classical study on its
archaeological side. At Nottingham there is a
valuable exhibit of about half the yield of the
important excavation at the celebrated lake
of Nemi in Italy. The wealth of Romano-
British antiquities in Great Britain is great
and well-spread over the island. I may men-
tion the Museums I know best — in the south
the Guildhall in London, Bath, and Reading
(for Silchester) ; in the north, York, Chester,
Ribchester, and the important collections along

A New Era for Public Museums 229

the line of Hadrian's Wall — Carlisle, Chesters,
Corbridge and Newcastle. (No one will take
this as an exhaustive list.) Then there are
many private collections, some of which are,
with special permission, available for study.

I have said nothing of the Scottish collections
which I have not personally visited, but they
are known to be full of academical as well as
of local interest. In Ireland the collection at
the National Museum, while not relatively
important, is certainly useful ; and there has
been a marked disposition of recent years to
improve it on extremely practical lines.*

But after all that can be said, if we extend
our view to the great mass of public Museums
in these countries, the condition of affairs is not
so reassuring. No one could pretend that as a
rule they are in a position materially to assist
Classical education. The question at once
arises, why is it that, except in a few exceptional
cases, and outside of local excavation, little or
nothing is found in our municipal collections
in illustration of the ancient civilization from
which we have inherited nearly everything
in which we take national pride ? China and
Japan, Mexico and Peru, every form of savage
culture, possibly Egypt, Persia, India, Burmah,
or Turkey, you may expect to find more or
less represented. Why not Minoan and Greek
culture — above all, why not that Roman empire
from which our forefathers started to build

*While this book was in the press important Greek vases of the
Hope collection were purchased by the Museum.

230 Part II— The Classical Revival

the culture of our own imperial race ? At
first sight some of us might feel inclined to
find fault with our museum authorities, on the
ground that they have done so little to inspire
and enliven our study of ancient history and
literature.

So far am I from framing an indictment
against our Curators for not catering for the
study of ancient art, history and sociology,
that I would exempt them almost entirely
from blame in this matter. All experience
which I have gained, both as a member of the
Committee on Museums and otherwise, leads
me to believe that although Curators have to
make their Museums popular and attractive
they do not want them to be one-sided. They
want them to be educational in the highest
sense, and, as a rule, they understand that edu-
cation with Greek and Latin excluded must be
a hollow sham. Economic interests are apt to
look after themselves ; culture and humanism
cannot be rammed down unwilling throats.

But the action of Curators in promoting or
neglecting the needs of our Faculty is conditioned
by a very clear principle. Any public institu-
tion supported by public money must be
directed not to benefit sectional interests, but
what is generally recognized to be the public
good. The principle that Museums exist to
benefit education at all is only now coming
into general recognition in England ; and it
is quite clear that only those educational
objects which appeal to the public mind can

A New Era for Public Museums 231

reasonably expect to engage the attention
of Museum Trustees and Curators.

Hence if Classical teachers have not yet
made up their own mind about what amount
of help they hope or desire to obtain from
public Museums, they can hardly expect the
Curators to make it up for them ; or rather if
teachers of Classics intend to convince Curators
that their wants are worth attending to, they
have first to convince themselves, and then
the public. The main object of this paper is
to provide them with a few suggestions on
the subject from the point of view of one who
is both a teacher of Classics and a strong
believer in the educational value of Museums.

I would submit, therefore, that our claim
must be pressed, not so much on behalf of our-
selves and our pupils — though we, too, are
entitled to be considered at least as one among
the important educational faculties — as on
behalf of a wider community.

While still in the earlier stages of museum
reform we should do well to insist upon those
aspects of Classical study which are likely to
make a fairly wide appeal to all persons of
ordinary intelligence. These will include,
perhaps, illustrations of ancient industry and
the history of art ; matters arising out of recent
epoch-making excavations or other remarkable
discoveries of our own time ; and, above all,
existing vestiges of the Roman occupation of
Great Britain, especially if they are found in
the neighbourhood of particular Museums.

232 Part II— The Classical Revival

Besides, all exhibits may be divided into two
classes — those that are attractive in them-
selves on account of their appeal to the eye,
and those that are attractive to students on
account of their associations. We should
commence chiefly with the former class ; later
on, when our claims are better understood,
perhaps we may be able to get something of
the latter. Unless we succeed in popularizing
Classics to the extent that a healthy interest
in the art and civilization of Greece and Rome
is spread abroad, reaching the parents of our
schoolboys (and I suppose I ought to add our
schoolgirls), we can never succeed in reviving
the deeper sort of Classical learning. So that
the policy I am venturing to recommend in
regard to Museums will have the two-fold
object of influencing the families of students,
and of actually promoting study by making
it attractive and easy.

Before offering detailed suggestions, I may
consider a possible objection. If schools and
colleges are themselves, as I have urged, to be
supplied with loan collections of Classical
material, why should we trouble ourselves
about the larger Museums at all ? Could
we not be independent of them ? Or at least
let us decide once for all what is the best
method for teachers of Classics to adopt, so
that there will be no frittering away energy
or duplicating of our appliances.

Certainly it is very desirable that there
should be no overlapping in regard to Museums,

A New Era for Public Museums 233

as to other educational institutions. But
neither would there be. In the first place we
must remember that a large proportion of our
schools and colleges must always be out of
reach of public Museums, or least of those
larger ones which alone are likely to carry out
a Classical programme. Again, from what we
have already laid down, it should be fairly
clear that the sort of material included in a
travelling collection would be radically different
from the larger and more showy objects which
we advocate as suitable for public Museums.
The circulating things would consist largely
of books, diagrams, photos, slides, small casts,
portable objects, such as pottery fragments,
and above all numismatic exhibits (coins and
their reproductions); whereas the Museums
would show rare and more elaborate and
expensive objects — though, let it be observed,
not ordinarily things of the highest value such
as you would see in London, Paris, Rome,
Berlin, Boston and New York.

Lastly, if there is going to be co-ordination
there can be no clashing. Curators and
teachers would both combine to provide the
small circulating exhibits, just as they will be
in consultation in regard to the larger per-
manent ones. Under such a system, neither
would stir without the other ; and common
sense would dictate that in such a case there
would be no duplication. There is plenty to be
done, as those who have so worked together can
aver. Personally I know cases where this

234 Part II— The Classical Revival

system works admirably, and it is the only
sensible system. I have expressed a belief
that if educationists would throw themselves
into the work of assisting Museums to the best
of their power, they would, as a rule, find
Curators more than ready to meet them half
way. But so long as they are left severely
alone by the literary and historical side, it
will be no great wonder if they devote their
time, their resources, and their influence to
assist those who appreciate them, I mean the
votaries of science and natural history.

It is fully time that I should give a few
detailed if rather rough suggestions as to what
we ought to demand. In doing so I hope it
will be clear that I am suggesting what I think
would be the most ideal arrangement and not
what I think would be found generally prac-
tical in its entirety here and now. I will
merely indicate the sort of material which will
be useful to teachers of Classics in the case
where a Museum (say an important one in a
large city) would try the experiment. In
smaller Museums something less ambitious,
but still quite useful, might be attempted.
But I repeat, nothing can be done or attempted
unless and until teachers show a willingness,
rather a strong desire, to reciprocate to the
utmost of their power by also making experi-
ments on their own part.

1. ANCIENT SCULPTURE. — Let us consider
the case of Sculpture first, because casts of
Greek and Roman statues and reliefs are the

A New Era for Public Museums 235

one solitary item usually provided by Museums
or thought of in regard to the wants of classical
students. Yet I should not place emphasis
upon these exhibits as benefiting ordinary
students, as distinct from the general public,
for whom I daresay they are, if well chosen and
arranged, suitable enough. Even for students
I do not say they are useless, but for two reasons
I think they are comparatively unimportant.
First of all, though laying great stress upon
some study of ancient art in connexion
with Classics, I think the study of sculpture,
especially of statues in the round, is the least
important of the great branches of art. It is
a difficult and technical subject and probably
does not appeal to the young, unless owing
to special associations such as regards athleti-
cism or something similar. But there is
another reason. In the case of sculpture, if
one wants to bring it forward, photography,
with the lantern of course preferably, will
make a working substitute more than in the
case of other branches of art such as we are
going to consider.

2. POTTERY (including Terra Cottas, Lamps,
and other Clay Exhibits). — This branch of
antiquities is very important for the ordinary
student. Photographs are of some use, but
they are for obvious reasons unsatisfactory.
The vases must be seen for their beauty, for
their general technical and archaeological in-
terest, and for the information they give us
about ancient life. They are difficult to obtain,

236 Part II— The Classical Revival

so much so that the only chance of having a
sight of them is practically in larger Museums,
where they will be generally admired and
appreciated. The same is true of Roman
(Samian) pottery, though in a less degree. I
think pottery is so important, that I have
always advocated the circulation, not only of
slides and photographs of vases (which, by the
way, are not so easy to obtain as is desirable),
but of fragments, which are portable and not
of high intrinsic value. But these are of course
not enough. If in any given Museum the
students could see even a small number of
representative vases, e.g., a single Panathenaic
Amphora, and a very few good Cylixes, they
would be much better able to understand
photographs and even fragments. This, to
my mind, is the department in which it is
absolutely necessary that the Museums should
furnish aid to the teaching faculty. But it
is also true that even the average classicist,
who has not been interested in archaeological
aids, will find much difficulty in preparing
himself for giving pottery demonstrations to
his class.

3. ANCIENT GLASS, FAIENCE, STONE,
MARBLE, AND OTHER FABRICS. — We need not
say so much here. Glass is rather fragile for
a circulating Museum ; but there are many
little things of this class which could be ob-
tained by a public Museum with slight trouble
and expense, relatively speaking. Such things,
I mean, as specimens of Roman Mosaic,

A New Era for Public Museums 237

perhaps fragmentary, but all the same very
interesting for students to see (especially when
reinforced by the lantern), scale-weights, loom-
weights, sling-stones, various kinds of stamps,
scarabs and other seals, perhaps a few gems,
or impressions of gems, and a multiplicity of
things used in the daily life of the ancient
peoples. Here a little trouble would effect
wonders.

4. METAL WORK. — This deserves a word
by itself. It comprises all varieties of offensive
and defensive armour, including daggers and
knives ; locks and keys ; pins and needles ;
rings, torques and bracelets ; many little in-
struments for medical and other purposes —
mirrors and strigils should be very interesting,
and such things can be by degrees acquired
fairly easily.

5. CASTS AND REPRODUCTIONS. — So far
we have considered originals only. But a
very important section of museum objects will
consist of reproductions, especially casts,
which are the easiest of all things to obtain.
A Museum consisting wholly of casts is a
mistake, because it misses the appeal to
sentiment which real objects must necessarily
make to the sympathetic student. But a
combination of originals with reproductions
is not merely feasible, but it is by far the best
method ; though of course it is a great mistake
to mix them in the same case, except occasion-
ally for purposes of comparison, and then they
should be carefully distinguished by labelling.

17

238 Part II— The Classical Revival

In the Greek and Roman room at the Dublin
Museum there are (rightly to my mind) so
many cases of reproductions that recently
every case, in addition to the ordinary de-
scriptive labels inside, has been marked with
a label on the outside, stating that it is a
case of Originals or of Reproductions respec-
tively.

Casts will include inscriptions and inscribed
objects, not necessarily for epigraphic study, but
to give ordinary students a general familiarity
with the appearance of inscriptions, and a
knowledge of some specially interesting ex-
amples of classes of inscriptions or even in-
dividual inscriptions. In their ordinary hand-
books of history and antiquities they see
printed copies of these things ; but the casts,
which should be when possible coloured in
facsimile, give a very different effect, awak-
ing, as they undoubtedly are wont to do, con-
siderable interest among thoughtful students.
Many other classes of casts could be mentioned
of things illustrating almost every branch of
ancient life and often of ancient art, especially
the drama. When once the principle of
utilizing casts is established, it will be found
easy enough to extend it in any required
direction. Even miniature models of statues
and busts, though intended more for orna-
ment than serious extension of knowledge,
may be quite useful in giving some concrete
idea of unattainable originals.

The manufacturers have carefully reproduced

A New Era for Public Museums 23D

a large and important series of metal
objects of the highest utility. Strange to
say they belong to the very earliest or to the
latest phase of ancient culture.

In many University and public Museums one
sees copies of the rhytons, cups, swords,
dagger-blades, headbands, and various gold
ornaments of Minoan and Mycenean culture
executed from the designs of M. Guilli^ron, to
whom students of the prehistoric periods are
immensely indebted for the light shed upon
their subject by his marvellous insight and
ingenuity. These are things which everyone
interested in the origins of European civiliza-
tion ought to see. Possibly some of them can
be put into circulation ; but there are the large
reproductions of frescoes, reliefs, and other
instances of Minoan art which can only be
be seen in a public Museum.

The class of reproductions in metal of later
objects of art, to which I referred, are fine
vases, cups and dishes of the Roman imperial
period. Among those which can be obtained
are many Pompeian antiquities of great
beauty ; and more particularly the finds of
Hildesheim, Berthouville, and Boscoreale.
These things are executed with the utmost
skill, and many of them are extremely beauti-
ful, and are well worth a position in any
Museum.

The importance of casts and reproductions
may be gathered from the fact that even in
the British Museum, where there is such a

240 Part II— The Classical Revival

wealth of original material that there is
hardly space to exhibit it properly, a large
number of reproductions are on view, and a
whole room, of considerable proportions, is
devoted to the exhibition of casts. And a
most interesting room it is.

6. MODELS, with Printed Illustrations and
Photographs. — It will hardly be necessary now
to devote much space to the subject of models
and prints or photographs, save to point out
that this might be made a department of
almost unlimited scope and of the highest
utility. Occasionally the simplest and cheapest
things may be very effective. For instance, a
a few days ago I saw hanging in a frame near
other Classical exhibits a most striking
picture of the great Altar of Zeus at Pergamum
(restored). On looking nearer I saw that it
was merely a print taken from an ordinary
illustrated newspaper ; and I very much wished
I could have seen it before giving a lantern
lecture on the subject over which I had spent
a good deal of trouble in collecting views, but
got nothing giving such a clear impression of
the whole.

7. NUMISMATIC SPECIMENS. — This branch of
the subject is so important, that I think it
well to put it in a separate section. Although
these archaeological aids are the ones which can
best of all be catered for by means of circulat-
ing collections, especially as they should be
shown in class (and not merely to advanced
students but beginners), yet there is no reason

A New Era for Public Museums 241

why public Museums should exclude coins and
electrotypes from their scope. All Museums
which recognize our claims to their aid should
do something to procure specimens, if possible
to be exhibited under glass ; but they may
also be stored away for the inspection of
students. The importance of electrotypes
is well illustrated at Newcastle Gatehouse
Museum, where is shown a set of facsimiles of
the important Corbridge find of Imperial gold
coins — the most important ever made in
Britain — and the possession of which as
treasure-trove was successfully contested by
the British Museum as representing the Crown.
This instance brings me to my last section.

8. ROMANO-BRITISH ANTIQUITIES. — This
subject has been alluded to above, and here it
is only necessary to point out that in this
regard every important Museum in Great
Britain can do something to help us. Here
we are on common ground with all who
think that patriotism is worth the attention
of the educator, and that love of our native
land goes hand in hand with some intelligent
knowledge of its past. Museums do recognize
this principle, and if they trouble to inquire
they will find that upon the whole no epoch
of our history is more suitable for museum
illustration than the long period of Roman
rule. The antiquities belonging to it are just
so difficult to acquire, that teachers will need
the aid of large Museums to show to their classes
anything of importance. Samian sherds and

242 Part II — The Classical Revival

a few small things they may be able to get hold
of ; but things worth seeing are rare enough
to make it the duty of our Curators to be on
the look-out for this class of material. And
for all they do they will earn our sincere
gratitude, while no single being will dare to
question their right to do it.

APPENDIX No. 1

REPORT ON MUSEUMS IN RELATION TO THE
HUMANITIES

The following Report was drafted by the
author (see p. 210) at the request of a Committee
of the British Association (Education Section)
on " Museums in Relation to Education," for
assistance in drawing up their General Report.
The publication of the latter has been somewhat
indefinitely delayed, owing to the war; and
pending its appearance, the author requested and
obtained the sanction of the Chairman, Professor
J. A. Green, to incorporate his Report in this
volume.

BRITISH ASSOCIATION INQUIRY ON
MUSEUMS IN RELATION TO EDUCA-
TION.

Classical Study and the Humanities.

Prof. H. Browne and Dr. Clubb, Secretary, were
directed by the Committee to draw up and circulate
among Curators and educationists a Special Question-
naire on the utilization of Museums in Classical and
other literary and historical education ; and Prof.
Browne was empowered to do what had been already
done on the Scientific side by Mr. Bolton, Secretary,
and Dr. W. M. Tattersall, namely, to visit America
and inquire for the Committee into the educational
work of Museums in that country as related to
Humanism.

This Report embodies the information so obtained.

243

244 Museums and Humanities — (A Report)

PART I— REPORT ON BRITISH SCHOOLS AND
COLLEGES

The Questionnaire was directed both to Curators
of Museums and to educationists, with a common
covering letter which stated that the inquiry, while
specially referring to Classical schools and colleges, is
also intended to apply to the Humanities in general ;
that is to say, it covers the teaching of History and
Literature, Antiquities (local and national), Art and
Sociology, in a word, all education, other than
scientific, which is capable of illustration in Museums.
Those addressed were asked kindly to give the
Committee the benefit of their experience and advice
in any form found convenient and to consider the
following remarks and queries merely as suggestive.

1. The principle that co-operation between Museums
and centres of education ought not to be confined to
Science, as distinct from History, Literature and Art,
appears fairly evident. Moreover, while it must be
admitted that the principle has not met largely with
practical recognition in the past, the conviction appears
to be growing that in the future Classical (and other
literary) education will incline to adopt reformed methods,
which will both add to its efficiency and render it more
attractive and democratic.

2. In considering what can be done towards pro-
moting such reforms, it is needful to bear in mind : —

(a) As regards finance, nothing can be done for which

there is no proportional public demand.

(b) The resources of individual Museums vary so

enormously that it is difficult to propose de-
tailed suggestions which could be of wide
application.

(c) The whole question is at present, and may be for

a considerable time, in a tentative stage.
Changes would have to be experimental and
gradual.

Part I — "British Schools and Colleges 245

3. Suggestions in general might be under the following
heads : —

(a) The strengthening, where feasible, of Classical (or

Archaeological) sections in public Museums
generally.

(b) Direct assistance to Teaching in Museums — whether

by the ordinary Staff, by Demonstrator-Guides,
or by teachers to their own students.

(c) Indirect assistance outside the Museums — whether

by cheap supply of replicas, photographs (in-
cluding postcards), slides ; or by circulation
among schools and colleges of small cabinets
containing suitable exhibits.

THE FOLLOWING QUERIES WERE ADDRESSED TO CURATORS

ONLY.

1. Have you in your Museum —

(a) A Classical Section (including, of course, Romano-

British Antiquities) ?

(b) Medieval and Recent History Sections (local or

otherwise) ?

(c) A general Archaeological Section ?

(d) A special Art Section ?

Kindly outline the general plan of arrangement of
such Sections, describing any outstanding features.

2. Please furnish what information you can as to —

(a) The direct use of these collections by teachers.

(b) Their popular value to the ordinary visitor.

3. Are lectures given by demonstrator-guides or others

on these Sections ? Do you think more could be
done in this way if educationists were anxious to
co-operate ?

4. Can you supply casts or any other form of replicas of

objects in your Museum ? Have you illustrations
of exhibits, for public use, in the form of photo-
graphs, picture postcards or lantern slides ?
Would you be prepared to supply them if there
was a prospect of demand ?

246 Museums and Humanities — (A Report)

From Museums in Great Britain, 39 replies were
received, as follows : —

PUBLIC MUSEUMS.

London. — British Museum, Director, and

Heads of three Departments . . 4

Guildhall, and Horniman Museums . . 2

The Provinces. — Cities or large towns . . 18
County Museums (not all public in strict

sense) ..... 3

Scotland. — Glasgow and Dundee ... 2

29

ACADEMIC MUSEUMS.

University. — Oxford, Cambridge, Aberdeen,

London, Liverpool .... 5

University Settlement. — Manchester . . 1

Public School. — Eton, Harrow, Winchester,

Rugby ..... 4

10

The following is an analysis of the replies : —

/. Public Museums. — London.

SIR FREDERIC KENYON, K.C.B., Director of the
British Museum, wrote as follows : —

" With the general principle, that Museums can
usefully co-operate with teachers, I heartily concur ;
but the circumstances of the British Museum are so
different from those of the ordinary provincial
Museum, that I fear my experience will be of little
use to you. This especially applies to the question
of the extent to which the Staff of the Museum
should take part in the instruction of the visitors.
In the ordinary Museum, where accessions are not
very frequent, and where the Museum is not a centre
of scientific research, I take it that the duty of in-
terpreting the collections to the public comes next

Part I— British Schools and Colleges 247

after the actual custody and arrangement of the
objects in the Curator's scale of duties. At the
British Museum, on the other hand, not only are
acquisitions, and questions connected with acqui-
sitions, so frequent as to make a large demand on
the time of the Staff, but the Staff are expected to
be experts of the first rank in their respective subjects,
and their time must be devoted very largely to study
and research, and to the composition of catalogues
and guide-books, which are authoritative contribu-
tions to the literature of the subject.

" Under these circumstances, I think it would be
wasteful to require the Staff to take any considerable
part in the oral instruction of visitors. Their contri-
bution will be the arrangement and labelling of the
collections, and giving information to the official
guides ; besides, of course, being ready to assist in-
quirers who need expert advice as distinct from
general information. The latter function falls to the
official guides, on whose usefulness I need not dilate.

" The next point that I ought to make is that in a
place like this the official guides cannot deal directly
with all the local schools. When the experiment
was new and applications few, our guides used to
take round classes of school children from time to
time ; but the more the custom grows of sending
classes to the Museum, the less is it possible for the
guides to deal with them. What they can do is to
instruct the teachers ; and arrangements have been
made with the London County Council whereby
classes of teachers attend our guides' lectures, and
thereby qualify themselves to bring their children to
the Museum and give them useful instruction.

" These are, I think, the two main points to be
remembered in considering the part which the British
Museum can play in this great educational move-
ment. In the provincial Museums the conditions are
very different, and different methods will no doubt
be appropriate ; but for these you will get better
advice from those who are more intimately associated
with them."

MR. ARTHUR H. SMITH, Keeper of Greek and

248 Museums and Humanities — (A Report)

Roman Antiquities, sent in a reply to the circular,
relating mainly to his own Department.*

Mr. Smith's attitude towards any effort which can
be made to vitalize Classical teaching by Museum
work is, it is unnecessary to say, most sympathetic.
He, however, does not wish " to state the obvious
nor yet to speak for the Museum as a whole, which
would be to invade the province of the Director."

As to the Educational activities of his own
Department, he states that it is used by teachers in
University, Secondary, and Elementary work. With
regard to the last, he adds : " I do not know whether
the children profit much by it."

As to Demonstrator-Guides^ he says, " there are two,
who give regular lectures, which are well attended."

As to Casts and replicas, he refers to " the casts
and electrotypes, illustrated catalogues, publications
de luxe, photographs, postcards, and lantern slides,
which can be obtained at the Museum."

It is, of course, well known that in this respect the
Trustees have recently done good work.

MR. G. F. HILL, Keeper of the Department of Coins
and Medals, in replying to the Questionnaire, refers
to the exhibition of coins or electrotypes in cases,
and states that " a special exhibition, illustrating the
coinage of Great Britain, is in contemplation."

With regard to educational use of the Department
he remarks : " Teachers can visit the exhibitions in
the same way as the ordinary public ; but the direct
use of the unexhibited collections has to be limited to
very small parties." He adds, " the public does not
take much interest at present in the collections, but
would do so if they could be better exhibited, as
they will be after the war."

With regard to Demonstrator-Guides he remarks :
" The Official Guides have hitherto avoided this
Department. When the new exhibition is ready-
some time after the war — they will have to deal with
it. More could certainly be done, but not by the
Staff of the Department, which is undermanned."

* This information Is valuable, and none the less welcome
because our circular was drafted mainly with a view to provincial
Museums.

Part I — British Schools and Colleges 249

To the question about replicas, he replies : " Casts
and electrotypes can be supplied, but at present, and
until the new scheme gets under way, only in small
quantities and through the private maker. There are
a few postcards and lantern slides. Materials for
more could be supplied if the demand were certain."

GUILDHALL MUSEUM, LONDON. — Mr. Bernard
Kettle, Curator, refers, in his reply, to the fine
collection of Roman Antiquities of London ; it is
visited by school parties, and teachers frequently ; on
application, the Museum Clerk acts as lecturer ; per-
mission is granted to make casts ; postcards are sold.

HORNIMAN MUSEUM (Forest Hill, S.E.). — Mr.
Harrison says there are no Classical exhibits, but
refers to the prehistoric section ; teachers use this
collection for demonstrations and classes ; official
guide also ; probably more could be done if educa-
tionists were anxious to co-operate ; lantern slides
are in use for Museum lectures.

II. Public Museums in the Provinces.

From public Museums in the Provinces, 23 replies
were received, as follows : —

1. Have you a Classical Section ?

Museums which have a relatively important

Classical Section .... 6

Museums with Classical Section, but unim-
portant ..... 8

Museums with Romano-British exhibits only 8

Museums with no Classical Section . . 1

23

2. Use of Collections by Teachers or by Demonstration-

Guides ?

In answering this and other queries, it is not always
apparent that Curators are restricting their replies to
the sections in question. The following, however, is

250 Museums and Humanities — (A Report)

a summary of the replies. (Note. — There may be
overlapping here) : —

Museums in which a University Professor gives

demonstrations . . 1

„ „ schools visit ... 12

,, ,, schools are now commenc-

ing to visit . . 3

,, ,, visiting parties are assisted

by Curator or Assistant 9

,, „ regular lectures are given

by the Staff . . 3

,, ,, outside lecturers are regu-

larly invited . . 1

„ ,, there is a Demonstrator-

Guide 1

„ „ there is a demand for De-

monstrator-Guide . 1

„ ,, there is no use for Demon-

strator-Guides 2

3. Do you think that more could be done if Educationists
were anxious to co-operate?

Replies strongly affirmative . . . . 11

,, affirmative (but appear to hesitate) . 4

,, in the negative .... 2

No direct reply given ..... 6

23

4. Are replicas and photographs supplied ?
(Note. — Replies may overlap.)

Affirmative . . . . .14

,, (only in contemplation) . . 2

Negative . . . . . . 5

No clear answer ..... 2

More could be done if demand increased . 12

Part I — British Schools and Colleges 251

///. Academic Museums.

From these Museums, 10 replies were received, 6
from Universities, as follows : —

ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM, OXFORD. — The Assistant-
Keeper : "The Archaeological collections (Classical) are
used for demonstrations in connexion with lectures
under University course. . . . We can supply casts,
as the Staff includes an expert restorer-formator.
Casts and electros can be supplied, but such objects
to be of value must be of the best work, and there-
fore cannot be cheap. . . . Photographs are supplied
when asked for ; the Antiquarium owns the negatives ;
new negatives have to be paid for."

PROFESSOR PERCY GARDNER, Lrrr.D., Keeper of
Cast Galleries, etc. : " I think that the first requisite
is that the teacher should be familiar with the monu-
ments. I do not think it possible to give directions
which will enable teachers to use materials which
they have not thoroughly digested. A man who is
at home among Greek and Roman monuments will
find them of use at every turn in his teaching ; but
mere sets of slides or photographs, arranged by an
institution, with text, will do little good. In my
experience it requires great practice and patience
before students (and especially boys) learn what to
look for in an object of antiquity. Teachers, too,
expect often a more direct bearing upon the text of
historians than the monuments afford."

FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM, CAMBRIDGE. — The Director :
;t This Museum has a Classical section, but there is
an independent museum of casts from the antique ;
we have also many medieval objects — local antiquities,
however, being elsewhere." " The Museum is some-
times visited by the local school of art. No lectures
are given by Demonstrator-Guides or others; possibly
more could be done if teachers were anxious to co-
operate ; there is no general supply of replicas."

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON (Museum of Egypt-
ology).—Prof. W. F. Petrie, Litt.D. : " Visits and
inquiries of teachers are frequent ; many visitors

252 Museums and Humanities — (A Report)

come, but the collection is intended for students
only." " Lectures are not given in the Museum by
Demonstrator-Guides or others ; we do not supply
replicas, as we have neither time nor money for
arranging such supplies."

LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY (Institute of Archaeology).
— Prof. R. C. Bosanquet, replying to the question,
" What methods do you adopt ? " wrote : " The
University teaching collection includes many objects
which can be brought into the class-room ; a selec-
tion is always on view in the class-room. The class
is frequently taken into the Cast-room, and Uni-
versity classes on certain subjects are held in the
Galleries of the public Museum, by permission of
the Museums Committee."

" What features in the collection do you find most
valuable ?" "A few good casts rather than many.
When the original was in bronze, bronze the plaster.
Supplement with originals ; terra cottas and small
vases are always obtainable."

UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN (Museum of Anthro-
pology) : " Teachers from School of Art and Board
Schools make much use of our collections ; and the
ordinary visitor shows much interest. We do not
give regular lectures in the Museum."

FROM FOUR PUBLIC SCHOOL MUSEUMS.

The queries were not primarily intended for School
Museums, but some interesting information has been
kindly supplied by Curators.

1. At each of these Museums there is a Classical
Section of some value — that at Winchester being
noted as small ; at Harrow the absence of Romano-
British exhibits is remarked.

2. The Museums are not used in school work, with
the exception of Rugby, where " the Curator acts as
Guide-Demonstrator whenever a party visits the
Museum."

ETON. — " Unfortunately the collections are of little
use for school teaching purposes."

Part I — British Schools and Colleges 253

HARROW. — " As far as I can judge, no use whatever
is made of the Museum by Classical or Historical
teachers."

WINCHESTER. — " The direct use of the Museum by
teachers is not as great as might be wished — mainly
lantern slides are used."

3. On the other hand, there is evidence that these
Museums are not wholly devoid of utility to students
of Classics : —

ETON. — " The Memorial Buildings Museum is not
used for teaching purposes, but individual study can
be encouraged. The feature I find most valuable
consists in the coins, chiefly."

HARROW. — " The collections are of great value to
a small minority of boys with a scientific, archaeo-
logical, or artistic bent. For the rest it is a place
where one takes one's people when showing them
round."

" Once on a time a Classical form-master tried the
experiment of taking his form (of small boys) to the
Museum once a week in school time, and showing
them pictures. The then Headmaster soon put a
stop to that."

WINCHESTER. — " On a Sunday morning there is
generally someone present to talk with boys indi-
vidually about the exhibits. The boys, or a few of
them, learn a great deal from the collections."

RUGBY. — " We are always willing to lend photo-
graphs, and to give facilities for taking them."

4. To the query as to methods of making Museums
more useful to teachers the Curator at Winchester
replied as follows :—

" By making Greek and Roman life real by models,
dolls, etc., showing the wearing of different garments,
armour, etc. Models should show houses, forum,
tombs, distaff, loom, etc. Clear descriptions should
be appended, and classes occasionally given in
Museum. Art should be mainly left to individual
students, a curator being there to explain exhibits
at certain times. Lectures in Museum and with
lantern- slides are also of great value."
is

254 Museums and Humanities — (A Report)

THE FOLLOWING QUERIES WERE ADDRESSED TO
EDUCATIONISTS ONLY.

1. Do you make use, for teaching purposes, of the col-

lections in any public Museum containing —

(a) A Classical Section ?

(b) Medieval and Recent History Sections (local or

otherwise) ?

(c) A general Archaeological Section ?

(d) A special Art Selection ?

2. If so, will you suggest to the Committee —

(a) The methods you adopt ?

(b) The features in such collections you find most

valuable ?

3. Generally, will you kindly submit to the Committee

your views as to the development in public
Museums of Sections as above and as to methods
of making them —

(a) Of direct use to Teachers ?

(b) Of use for facilitating and encouraging the study

of Classics or the Humanities ?

4. Are you of opinion that Teachers would welcome and

give practical support to efforts on the part of
Curators to be of service to literary education ?

From Educationists in Great Britain and Ireland,
56 replies were received as follows : —

Board of Education — J. W. Mackail and

A. E. Zimmern ..... 2
Other individual replies ....

The Universities and University Colleges . 20

Higher Colleges for Women and for Men . 4

The Public Schools 15

Secondary Schools, boys and girls . . 13

56

Part I — British Schools and Colleges 255

THE FOLLOWING IS AN ANALYSIS OF THE REPLIES.

/. Individual Replies.

BOARD OF EDUCATION. — J. W. Mackail, LL.D.
(formerly Professor of Poetry at Oxford) : " No
development in the work of Museums is possible at
present. After the war it will be a matter of national
importance to re-organize the Museums, so as to
make them active and not passive institutions.
They might be of great use towards facilitating
and encouraging the study of Classics or the Hu-
manities by being linked up with the educational
system, and worked as (1) teaching, (2) circulating
organizations. This applies to provincial Museums
more than to the great national Museums. Teachers
require to be educated up to this ideal, and trained
in its application, before they can help effectively to
carry it out. One of the most important functions
which a local Museum can fulfil is to organize classes
of teachers, held in the Museum, for the purpose of
learning how to study such collections and how to
impart thereafter the capacity and desire for such
study to their pupils. To start work in the schools
without preliminary training of the teachers will
lead to many mistakes and much disappointment.

" For this purpose, one or more sections of a
Museum should be systematically strengthened, and
the co-operation of the local educational authorities
and the various guilds and associations of teachers
invited.

" When a foundation has been thus laid, it should
be regarded as part of the regular duty of the Museum

(1) to produce replicas, slides, etc., at a cheap price ;

(2) to form small collections for circulation of objects
chosen by a joint committee of the Museum officials
and the teachers concerned, with the help of expert
advice from some central advisory body.

" The work of Demonstrator-Guides with casual
collections of visitors may prove to be largely a
waste of labour. This work should be concentrated
on regularly formed classes, first of teachers, and

256 Museums and Humanities — (A Report)

thereafter of a teacher and his or her pupils. There
should be short courses, not merely detached visits.
The particular collection (Classical or other) in the
Museum should be so arranged and set out as to
facilitate this. The Governing Body of each Museum
should have an educational sub-committee, including
some actual teachers, charged with the direction of
this special work."

A. E. ZIMMERN, M.A. (formerly Fellow and Tutor
of New College, Oxford), to the query, " How should
public Museums develop their collections so as to
make them of direct use to teachers ? " he replied :
" By getting into personal touch with teachers and
infecting them with the Curator's own interest and
enthusiasm. By making the collections as accessible
as possible, and using every opportunity of showing
the connexions between them and other branches of
study."

" Would teachers welcome the efforts of Curators ? "
" Yes, if it were put to them in a way that appealed
to their imagination."

A. PURSER (formerly Chief Inspector of Education,
Ireland, now Curator of the Loan Collection of
Classical Association of Ireland) : " My own view is
that the use of Museums, etc., must begin with the
teachers. Until they are well acquainted with the
exhibits and what may be learnt from them, there is
little use bringing in pupils or classes. As a rule, the
collections are too large and miscellaneous for be-
ginners, even for teachers. A special selection on
historical lines and limited to a few typical specimens
from each period should be made for educational
purposes."

II. Replies (20) from the Universities and University
Colleges.

OXFORD. — Professor of Classical Archaeology ; *
Balliol College;
New College ;
Magdalen College.

* Prof. Gardner, who also replied as Curator.

Part I— British Schools and Colleges 257

CAMBRIDGE. — The Public Orator.
GLASGOW. — Professor of Greek.
ABERDEEN. — Professor of Greek.
DURHAM (3). — Professor of Greek.

Armstrong College, Professor of Classics.

Professor of Modern History.
LONDON (University College) (3). — Professor of Latin.

Professor of Ancient History.

Assistant in Egyptology.
LIVERPOOL (2). — The Vice-Chancellor.

Professor of Classical Archaeology.
LEEDS. — Professor of Classics.
SHEFFIELD. — Professor of Greek.
NOTTINGHAM. — Professor of Classics.
READING. — Professor of Classics.
ABERYSTWYTH. — Professor of Greek.

It is much to be regretted that limits of space will
not allow of our recording these valuable replies at
length. All that is possible is (1) to attempt in a
very inadequate way to tabulate the views expressed
in them, and (2) to quote a few extracts which seem
to be of exceptional interest.

1. Do you make use, for teaching purposes, of collec-
tions in any Public (or University) Museum ?

Replies in the affirmative .... 11

„ in the negative .... 5

No clear reply given ..... 4

20

3. Will you submit views as to the development of
collections for facilitating the study of Classics
or the Humanities ?

Replies distinctly favourable ... 10

„ favourable, but with limitations . 3

„ unfavourable (1 doubtful) . . 2

No clear reply given ..... 5

20

258 Museums and Humanities — (A Report)

4. Are you of opinion that teachers would welcome
efforts of Curators to be of service f

Replies strongly affirmative ... 10

„ affirmative, but with reservations . 2

„ negative ..... 1

„ neutral or doubtful . . 7

20

PROF. G. A. DA VIES (Glasgow), under 4 : " Yes,
but the results would probably be disappointing for
some time, and faith and perseverance would be
needed."

PROF. J. HARROWER (Aberdeen) : " I agree with
Prof. Percy Gardner, in his address of fourteen years
ago, that the attempt directly to illustrate Greek and
Roman Literature by works of art and antiquities,
even when made by trained archaeologists, can never
come to much." Later he wrote : " I think, perhaps,
what I object to most is exaggerated expectations re-
garding what archaeology can do for the enlivenment
of Classical study. ... I don't want archaeology taught
in schools as a separate science. ... I am rather
hopeless about good coming of the proposal to utilize
public Museums."

PROF. A. H. CRUIKSHANK (Durham) : " It is more
important (given certain conditions) to concentrate
the attention of the pupils on the important details
of grammar and the acquisition of a good English
style than to dissipate their energies on vague
interest."

PROF. I. WIGHT DUFF (Armstrong College), under 3:
" I believe the development of such collections would
greatly help (a) teaching, by making it more realistic ;
(b) the study of ancient books, by recreating their
original environment."

PROF. CASPARI (London), under 3 : " A continuous
and representative series of average objects is often

Part I— British Schools and Colleges 259

more useful than a few outstanding objects, e.g., a
series of ordinary Attic vases than a few choice
specimens."

A. MURRAY (London), under 4 : " I have lectured in
schools and colleges throughout the United Kingdom
and always find the teachers most anxious to increase
their knowledge by means of Museums."

SIR ALFRED DALE (Liverpool), under 1 : " The study
of Classical literature should be combined with that
of antiquities. To do this effectually, Museum collec-
tions (not necessarily elaborate) are essential. I have
had a definite conviction of this for many years, and
have tried to give effect to it."

PROF. R. C. BOSANQUET (Liverpool), under 4 : " At
any rate, the younger men would welcome efforts on
the part of Curators to be of service to them."

PROF. RHYS ROBERTS (Leeds), under 3 : " Two of
our younger Classical Lecturers (both of them now
absent on active service) have done much to stimulate
local interest in archaeological study."

PROF. F. GRANGER (Nottingham), under 3 : " The
Exhibition of objects should be supplemented by
collections — systematic, of course — of photographs."

III. Replies (4) from Colleges of Higher Studies (three
for women, one for men).

BEDFORD COLLEGE (London University). — Reply is
generally hopeful ; advocates " isolated " collections,
especially for children ; thinks teachers would welcome
help from Museums ; complains of lack of time in
teaching.

LADIES' COLLEGE (Cheltenham). — College possesses
museum, which is used only very occasionally for
teaching ; reply thinks more could be done if there
were co-operation.

260 Museums and Humanities — (A Report)

ALEXANDRA COLLEGE (Dublin). — The Lady Prin-
cipal writes : " It is of the greatest importance that
students visit Museums in connexion with such
subjects as History and Geography."

HOSTEL OF THE RESURRECTION (nr. Leeds). — The
Warden writes : " We have no museum of our own
and being some miles from a town of any size, we
do not use a museum."

IV. Replies (15) from Public Schools.

(H. signifies written, or countersigned, by Head-
master.)

Eton 2, Harrow, Winchester, Westminster, Christ's
Hospital (H) 2, Merchant Taylors (H.) 2, Wellington,
Rugby (H.), Birmingham (H.), Epsom, Liverpool
College (H.), Stonyhurst.

1. Do you make use of any collection in Public
Museum ?

Affirmative (simply) ..... 2

„ (occasionally) S

Negative (simply) ..... 6

,, (but have some local exhibits) . 3

Doubtful . 1

2. What methods do you adopt; what features are
most valuable ?

" Slides of Hellenic Society "... 1

" Lectures given by outsider from a Museum " 1

" Loans from Realien Committee " 2

" Use of British Museum Collections " . . 2

„ „ especially for inscriptions 1

„ „ especially exhibit of Greek

and Roman Life . . 1

" A Museum of Casts " (only projected) 1

No direct reply ...... 6

Part I — British Schools and Colleges 261

8. Views as to development of collections for facilitating
study of Classics.

" Every big school should have its own Museum."
" One coin in the hand is worth twenty in the case.'*
" Regret that nothing is done or likely to be done
here — least of all now, on account of expense."

" Not all teachers of literary subjects have know-
ledge of Art or Archaeology sufficient for profitable
use of collections."

" I regret to say I have not made much use of any
collection, so cannot answer."

"Archaeology is rather a subject for the Univer-
sities, not much use for schoolboys."

" The great difficulty is getting cheap replicas."
" Greek (and Roman) coins offer one of the most
hopeful means of getting ancient history into con-
nexion with Art."

4. Are you oj opinion that teachers would welcome
efforts oj Curators to be oj service?

Replies strongly affirmative (in 2 cases implied) 8

,, affirmative, but with limitations . 3

„ negative ..... 1

No reply given ..... 3

F. Replies (13) jrom Secondary Schools.

These included

Grammar Schools .... 5

Endowed „ (Boys) 3

Preparatory „ .... 1

Girls „ .... 4

1. Do you make use oj Collections in Public Museums ?

Affirmative (simply) ..... 5
„ (occasionally — one made use of
Realien Committee Loan for

one year) .... 3

Negative (three add " No Museum available ") 4

No reply ...... 1

262 Museums and Humanities — (A Report)

2. What methods do you adopt — what features most
valuable ?

" Museum authorities have kindly lent me one or
two objects for exhibition in school."

" A problem or aspect of history cropping up in
school work can be treated best by sending a boy to
discover what he can about it in the Museum."

" Real Museums (not stuffed bird sections) are badly
needed in provincial towns."

" Realien to be really useful should be on the spot.
When a thing is mentioned that needs illustration, a
picture, a cast, a model, should be produced then and
there."

" I do not think visits to Museums are profitable to
higher forms — a good deal might be done by supply-
ing cheap replicas to schools."

" Museum objects which are permanently on view
in or near the class-room are the most effective."

" Small, personally conducted visits of boys to
Museums, without arranging help from Curators."

** It is an awkward business to take a number of
small boys through London."

" When peace comes we want a few practical and
cheap things, with a leavening of originals."

4. Are you oj opinion that teachers would welcome
efforts of Curators to be oj use ?

Replies affirmative strongly (in one case

implied)

,, ,, (with some restrictions) . 2

Negative . . • • • none

No direct reply ...... 4

Part II — American Museums 263

PART II— REPORT ON AMERICAN MUSEUMS.

Professor Browne's visit, which lasted for four
weeks, extended to States of the East and Middle
West. His observations were rapid and somewhat
summary, nor do they claim to be in any sense
complete. The following Report, however, is in no
case based merely upon printed matter, but upon
personal inquiry. It is supplemental to that of the
Secretary (Mr. H. Bolton) and Dr. W. M. Tattersal,
from which it was already clear how much is being
done in American Museums on the scientific side ;
and in particular how many loan collections of slides
and cabinets for teaching science are in circulation
in the United States.

/ — General Remarks.

I approached the inquiry into Classics mainly from
the side of the teaching institutions, but also inspected
several important Museums. The Universities I
visited were Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Chicago, Johns
Hopkins, Pennsylvania (very inadequately), the
North Western University (Evanston), the State
Universities of Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan. I
had conversation with the President of the (examin-
ing) University of New York ; visited the Catholic
University of America, and the Jesuit Universities of
Georgetown, Fordham, Detroit and Marquette (Mil-
waukee), Vassar College, and several High Schools.
In addition to Museums in these institutions, I
visited the Public Museums of New York, Brooklyn,
Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia.

My general impression regarding Classics may be
summed up as follows : —

(a) In the Museums of Universities and of

great cities much is being done to
promote visual instruction in the
Humanities.

(b) In the schools of America (as in our own)

there is still much to be desired.

264 Museums and Humanities — (A Report)

II — Museum of University of Pennsylvania
(Philadelphia).

This Museum is peculiarly interesting, perhaps
unique ; inasmuch as, belonging to the University,
it is fully utilized by the teaching staff and it also
serves as a Public Museum for a large and populous
city. Its teaching activities are great. A new audi-
torium for lectures, which took three years to erect,
is now completed. Being shown a picture of this
hall crammed with girls from High Schools, I asked
what subject was being taught, (thinking it was some-
thing about insect life or aeroplanes). It was on the
" Life of Women in Ancient Rome," of course with
lantern illustrations. I was also informed that
lectures relating to Classical topics form a large
proportion of those given in the Museum or in schools
by the Museum Staff, viz., something between 33
per cent, and 40 per cent. I considered these facts
very encouraging from the Classical standpoint, and
a member of the staff (Mr. Luce, Jr.) told me that
good results follow, not merely from the courses
given in the Museum but also from those supplied
in the schools. The latter frequently hold the attention
of the students for periods of 1 J hours — a sure proof
of their worth. Much of the success obtained by
these methods is due to the work done by the
** Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of Liberal
Studies," and by a local Classical Club which is
affiliated to the " Classical Association of the Atlantic
States."

/// — Museum of Fine Arts (Boston).

Here again I found much encouragement. The
work of instruction is carried on extensively ; and
Mrs. Scales, Docent in charge of all instruction
given to schools in the Museum, assured me that for
this purpose no part of thebuilding is more used than
the Classical galleries. It is an interesting feature of
the Docent instruction that it is frequently given by
persons not on the Museum Staff, who lend their

Part II — American Museums 265

services free and whose assistance is gratefully
acknowledged by the Museum in its Report.

From the statistics supplied, it is evident that the
faculty and students of Harvard are among those
who make use of the Museum. With regard to schools,
in a period of three months it is noted that 30 schools
in all made 77 visits under the Docent's instructions,
and 53 schools made 97 visits under instruction from
their own teachers.

Subsequent to a prolonged conversation with me,
the Director, Dr. Fairbanks, put into my hands a
written summary of his experience and views which,
on account of its importance, I append : —

"MY DEAR PROFESSOR BROWNE,

"May I summarize part of our conversation as to
the educational work of an Art Museum ?

" (1) The purpose of the Art Museum is to help
people to see objects of Art, not to compete with
school or University.

" (2) As for the general public, its task is to furnish
information by labels, catalogues, etc., which will
make its exhibits intelligible. If it can go further
in this same direction by furnishing oral comment,
the visitors are often grateful. The aim of our
* docent ' system is to furnish a guide, who can
help the visitor to see one or another work of
Art by discussing it with him as one student with
another.

" (3) As for the schools, our instruction is for
teachers rather than for children. Classes in history
and literature in the Secondary schools are usually
brought by a teacher. The Museum instructor, how-
ever, ordinarily is asked by the teacher to join the
class and assist in interesting the children.

" (4) Younger children are not ordinarily brought
here for instruction but for pleasure. The Museum
instructor tells stories which start from some work
of art (e.g., the scene on a Greek vase) ; lantern slide
views are shown with the story. Children are taken
to see the painting or vase itself, and often are given

266 Museums and Humanities — (A Report)

a postcard reproduction of it when they go. The
object is to connect the work of Art naturally with
their life and thought — not to * teach them Art.'

" With cordial interest in your undertaking,
" I am,

" Faithfully yours,
" (Signed), ARTHUR FAIRBANKS.**

(A word may be added to the above note of Dr.
Fairbanks, and it is this. In the more important
Museums of America, the Docents are by no means
the sort of guides with which the idea used to be
associated. They are not merely well qualified to
give instruction, but are frequently of high academic
distinction.)

IV — Metropolitan Museum (New York).

The importance of the educational activities of
this great Museum may be grasped from the fact
that the Secretary, Mr. Kent, devotes most of his
time to it, and that it fully occupies five other persons,
two of whom are regular Docent instructors for schools
and the public. In his Report for last year, Mr. Kent
says " this year has seen our best work done."
During the year lectures in the Museum were attended
by 11,666 persons. Many of these courses were for
teachers or for High Schools and Elementary school
children. They were not merely illustrated by lantern
slides, but after the talks the children were shown
objects in the galleries, appertaining to the subjects
treated of.

Among those chosen for children were the Iliad
and the Odyssey ; but I am not able to state to what
extent Classical topics are included generally in the
Museum instruction. It is well known to English
scholars that the collections of Greek and Cypriote
pottery, of gold ornaments, and of archaic sculpture,
are of the highest importance ; and the Director,
Dr. Edward Robinson, will eagerly co-operate with
any efforts to bring his Museum into close touch
with the promoters of the Classical revival. It is

Part II — American Museums 267

interesting to know that the relation between this
Museum and Columbia University (situated in the
same Park of New York City) is close ; on occasion
of an Art extension lecturer of the University giving
a course of 16 lectures in the Museum, it was found
necessary to divide the hearers into three sections.

(There is, of course a private Classical collection
at the University of Columbia. When there I was
told by a lady professor that it is of great importance
and well used. I much regret, however, that circum-
stances prevented my inspecting it, as I had hoped
to do.)

The Department in the Metropolitan Museum for
lending slides during the past year issued no less
than 34,219 slides, as follows : —

For use in the Museum . . . 5,366
N.Y. City . . . 19,247
outside N.Y. City . 9,606

The Report of the Museum adds : " Many of those
using the slides say that they had previously no
idea that so much was being done to help people to
know what the Museum and the world of Art have
for them."

The slides are sent to country villages and academies
as well as to Colleges and Art Associations.

V — Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore).

The Classical collection in the old building is in
every sense a teaching Museum, situated so as to be
of the utmost utility, being in a central hall out of
which the class-rooms open and also the library of
Classical books. (In the new building, to be im-
mediately occupied, this arrangement will be adhered
to.)

Like that of the University of Pennsylvania, this
Museum by no means confines its activity to the
needs of University students. Naturally it cannot be
kept open as a public Museum, but it offers to all
neighbouring Classical schools facilities for increased
efficiency in teaching. Teachers are generously

268 Museums and Humanities— (A Report)

encouraged to bring their classes to inspect the cases
in the hall, and hardly a week goes by without some
school availing itself of this privilege. Members of
the Faculty travel to educational centres, carrying
not merely slides but objects selected from the
University Museum, in illustration of their lectures.
As a teaching collection in every way admirable, this
is due to the initiative of the venerable Professor
Gildersleeve. Besides important gold ornaments,
epigraphy is well represented, and there is a quite
good series of pottery (including signed black-figure
and red-figure vases) with bronzes illustrative of
ancient life, and Greek and Roman coins which are
fully utilized in ordinary class-work.

VI — State Universities and Others.

University of Michigan.

With the Classical Museum at Johns Hopkins must
be classed the thoroughly practical collection at
Ann Arbor (Michigan). This is important in itself,
having been arranged by Prof. Kelsey, who acquired
in Rome a notable series of inscriptions, along with
other useful material. It is not as yet adequately
displayed, but it is none the less useful for teaching
purposes, and is very fully utilized by the Staff. No
one has done more than Prof. Kelsey for promoting
in America a Classical revival on rational lines, and he
and his assistant, Miss Butler, are anxious to do some-
thing for schools remote from Museums, by sending
them, on loan, such duplicate material as can be
spared. The day I visited the Museum I saw a
consignment dispatched to a school which had asked
for help. Although no regular system of such loans
has been inaugurated, Michigan University will be
among the first to co-operate in any such plan.

University of Illinois.

At Urbana, a Classical teaching Museum on an
ample scale has lately been inaugurated through the
enterprise of Professor Pease, who received a con-
siderable grant for the purpose. The fact that this

Part II — American Museums 269

University is not within easy reach of a large Museum
has conditioned the character of the collections. I
noticed a very fine series of Minoan replicas from
Athens, other important reproductions including
complete casts of the old and new Ludovisi sculptures,
which are nowhere else (as I think) juxtaposed. This
Museum is likely to be further developed on admir-
able lines, and is in itself an object-lesson of what can
be carried out by personal initiative.

Chicago University.

Here there is an extremely large and fine collection
of slides, photographs, and archaeological printed
material. The Museum exhibits are at present very
inadequate and out of proportion The City Art
Institute contains, indeed, a collection of Greek
vases, etc., which, though small, is quite good ; but
is a long distance from the University. I was accord-
ingly informed by the Professor of Greek that an
effort will shortly be made to provide the Classical
students with exhibits suited to their needs.

Harvard and Yale.

I say nothing relating to these ancient Universities,
because it goes without saying that both seats of
learning are properly equipped for Classical study.

Catholic University of America (Washington).

This is a young but growing institution, and will
be probably soon ranked among the greater American
Universities. Up to the present, circumstances have
not allowed the Classical section to develop, at
least on lines of visual research. I learned, however,
that a Museum is in contemplation, and will probably
be erected at an early date. In this case the Professor
of Classics (who happens to be from Ireland) will see
to it that due provision is made for himself and his
students.

At Georgetown University, there is a series of Roman
and (I think) of Greek coins : but that they are
actually used to any extent in teaching did not appear.
19

270 Museums and Humanities — (A Report)

My impression, received in the Catholic colleges
which I visited, is that there is a strong desire to
improve the standard of Classical teaching, together
with some apprehension as to the possibility of keeping
it up in any force. There appears to be, as generally
in American schools, an absence of appliances for
visual instruction in Classics which is keenly felt ; in
some cases inquiries are on foot as to possible methods
of remedying the defect.

Vassar College.

This was the only college for women which I was
able to visit. There I saw a very good teaching
collection with plenty of coin-electros and other
useful things. Some of the professors also have
private collections for helping on their class-work.
I believe that Classical education is here prosecuted
with enthusiasm.

University of the State of New York (Albany).

The Regents of this University (which is in fact
an important organization for registering and ex-
amining schools — with influence beyond the borders
of the State) are pioneers in spreading the means for
visual instruction in schools. They have made a
generous provision for lending slides, photographs,
and wall-pictures, and although much valuable
material was destroyed by a fire on the Capitol in
1911, already a new collection of some 69,000 lantern
slides has been acquired. In the first half of 1915,
207,682 slides were lent. The Trustees announce that
arrangements can be made through any Public
Library of the State, for teaching establishments to
derive benefit from the slides. The regulations are
extremely favourable to the borrower (a brochure
explains the rules for borrowing slides, Visual Instruc-
tion Handbook). The Regents boast that they do
more than any other State in this matter. Assuming
this to be true, it must also be remembered (as is
proved by this and Mr. Bolton's Report) that other
Universities and organizations are doing much in the
same direction. It is not clear how far Classical

Part II — American Museums 271

schools are benefited by these arrangements ; but it
is evident that, were the demand forthcoming, the
Regents at Albany would not be wanting. From the
paucity of Classical sets listed, it may be concluded
that teachers of Latin and Greek in the State of New
York are not very anxious as to visual instruction,
or are possibly unaware of the uncommonly good
offer made by the Regents.

VII — The Great Mass of Classical Schools.

A large number of schools and colleges are not
within immediate influence of the Universities and
great Museums ; even those of them which use slides
and photographs must be innocent of all object-
teaching of a tactual or tri-dimensional kind. There
can be little doubt, however, that in the near future
steps will be taken to reach the younger students of
Latin and Greek in a more direct and psychological
manner than is possible at present. As in the United
Kingdom, the difficulty, not only of getting material
but of learning to use it is very great. Still facts are
stubborn things, and they will drive forward the
reluctant. In one of the greatest centres of American
life, I learned reliably that in no High School of the
city are more than a dozen boys at present learning
Latin and Greek ! On the other hand, there is in
New York a Catholic High School where 1,400 boys
will shortly be learning both ; and there is at least
one in Massachusetts with an equal number. How
far the children like this is a further and very apposite
question. Some authorities, both in England and
America, believe that Classical schools may be kept
up by a sort of compulsion. But that could be only
for a time. There is undoubtedly a feeling among
teachers in both continents that the ground is slipping
from under their feet, and that a radical reform is
imperative before it becomes too late.

Till — The Archaeological Institute of America.

This report would be incomplete without a reference
to the work being steadily carried out for Classical

272 Museums and Humanities — (A Report)

extension by the Archaeological Institute, which,
though it embraces other branches of research, is
specially directed to promote knowledge of the
ancient cultures. Moreover, any effort to extend
help to remote Classical schools by circulating
cabinets is practically certain of obtaining the support
of the Institute.

Hitherto its activities in popularizing the Classics
have been mainly directed to providing lectures. The
Secretary, Dr. Mitchell Carroll, summarized for me
the complete activities of the Institute, as follows : —

1. Support accorded to the Archaeological Schools

of Athens, Rome, Jerusalem, and Santa Fe
(Mexico).

2. Publication of Journals, including Art and

Archceology, which has a large circulation.

3. Local Branches, 45 in number, arranged in

four geographical sections, in which the
Institute has helped to provide, during the
past twelve months, for at least 200, and
perhaps 250 lectures.

4. Summer Schools of Archaeology from which

great good has accrued. In the School to be
held this year arrangements are being made
for holding a two-days' Conference of Teachers
on Classical Education, and the methods of
making it more widely accepted.

Here is clearly an existing organization which is
in a position to give active support to the Classical
Associations of America, so soon as they take prac-
tical steps to provide material requisite for improved
Classical teaching. We can learn something from
America already, and it is not unlikely that in the
near future we shall learn much more.

(Signed), HENRY BKOWNE.
June, 1916.

APPENDIX No. 2

SUGGESTED CATALOGUE OF EXHIBITS FOR A
CIRCULATING MUSEUM, WITH ESTIMATED
COST

The following catalogue is intended to suffice
for a circle of about fifty schools or institutions,
and supposes that each loan would last for about
one week on the average. Ordinarily, in practice^
a selection would be made; theoretically, any
school or schools that wished to see all the exhibits
could, on a principle of rotation, have one set of
slides PLUS one other exhibit, including some
loans of books, each week of a school year of forty
weeks. Though not herein provided for it might,
however, be found desirable in part to duplicate
the sets of slides. To do so should not be difficult
or very expensive.

A.— LANTERN SLIDES.

We naturally begin with this branch of the work.
Slides supply by far the most important kind of
visual instruction : they are, moreover, expensive,
because to be of real advantage they must be used
in considerable numbers. They are not, however,
very subject to depreciation as a rule — breakage,
which ought not to be frequent, being, of course,
made good by the actual borrower and covered by a
system of insurance.

They will be loaned in sets, and to determine even
the average number of slides in the sets is a matter
of great difficulty, so much depends upon the subject
and the method, time and place of using them. I
think, for ordinary school purposes, the sets should
hardly ever be more than about 40, and often a
set of 20 or 30 will be most useful. On the other

273

274 Circulating Museums

hand, when used for extension work (especially when
dealing with topographical subjects) it may be
necessary to go as high as 80 or even 100, but never,
I think, beyotid. Let us, then, strike a working
average, and suppose that the forty circulating sets
will each contain ordinarily not less than 30 nor more
than 50 (possibly sometimes 60) slides.

The sets may be classified as follows : —

1. TWENTY TOPOGRAPHICAL SETS.
Prehistoric subjects :

Troy and the Troad 1

Gnossos and Crete ..... 1

Fortress and Tombs of Mycenae ... 1

Tiryns, Pylos and Orchomenos ... 1

Tombs of Etruria ..... 1

Excavations in the Roman Forum . . 1

6

Greek Subjects :

The Acropolis and its Temples ... 1

Athens, Eleusis, and Attica generally . . 1

Sparta, with Corinth ..... 1

Delphi, with Olympia ..... 1

Syracuse and Sicily generally ... 1

Asia Minor* 1

Other Greek sites 1

Latin Subjects :

Imperial Rome ..... 1

Ancient Gaul . . . . . • 1

Roman Occupation of Britain . . . 1

Carthage and North Africa . . 1

Pompeii .... 1

Ostia with other Italian sites . . 1

6
The Hellenistic World . . 1

20

* Including, of course, Pergamum.

Suggested Catalogue of Exhibits 275

2. TEN SETS ON ANCIENT ART.

Pottery — Minoan, Greek (2), Roman . . 4

Prehistoric Art and Antiquities . . 1

Architecture ...... 2

Sculpture (including Roman portrait series) . 2

Ancient Paintings and Mosaics ... 1

10

3. Six SETS ON GENERAL ANTIQUITIES

(Greece and Rome).

Warfare ...... 1

Education and Athletics .... 1

Religious ritual, altars, votive offerings, etc. . 1

Drama of Greece and Rome ... 1

Domestic Antiquities .... 1

Tombs and Sepulchral Rites ... 1

6

4. THREE NUMISMATIC SETS.

Greek Coins ...... 1

Roman Republican . . 1

Roman Imperial .... 1

8

5. TOWN PLANNING among the Ancients . 1

The above sets would number forty in all.

It is obvious that the list given could be inde-
finitely extended, especially in the direction of
architectural and monumental sculpture. But the
list as suggested would probably be quite good and
practical for ordinary school needs. On page 235 I
gave reasons for the opinion that sculpture is not
relatively a very important subject for younger
students. For Extension work, sets on sculpture
might be found more useful, but probably photo-
graphs would do as well, and therefore better. A
set on Trajan's Column might well be added.

Now as to cost. Taking an average of 50 slides
{this is probably too high) for each of the 40 sets we
get a total of 2,000 slides. They should not cost
more than £125 to £150, cases included.*

* But see note on p. 280.

276 Circulating Museums

B.— PHOTOGRAPHS, WALL PICTURES, ETC.

The photographs should be also in sets of, say,
about 25 to 40, and should be kept in specially
designed boxes with outside cases for transmission.
For individual instruction they will be simpler to use
than the lantern ; and even for class work they may
be at times more convenient. As with slides the
number and choice of subjects will vary greatly.
Some of the sets may correspond with the slides as
listed ; or some may be different. A set on Attic
Grave Reliefs ; also of special kinds of Attic vases ;
or of special groups of sculpture, e.g., the Pergamene
or the Panathenaic Frieze, or Tanagra Statuettes
might be serviceable. Probably, 10 sets would be a
fair number if considered as supplemental to a
generous supply of slides.

But it is very difficult to lay down fixed lines
for the use of mounted photographs, as this is
particularly a case where much experiment will be
needful before any circulating museum could be said
to be equipped in the best degree. By the way,
postcards are not to be always despised — everything
can be turned to account — but they might be thought
infra dignitatem as material for circulation.

As to the cost, it should not be relatively very
great. The half-tones in the series of Bulle referred
to on page 178 (Der Schoene Mensch) would be prac-
tically almost as good as photographic prints. Pre-
sumably these are not now procurable in England or
America. If such half-tones are used, they should
be mounted like photographs on cartridge paper and
circulated in specially prepared portfolios.

Taking such photos or reproductions as costing,
(mounting and arranging in boxes or portfolios, in-
clusive), at most Is. 6d. each, the cost of 10 sets,
according to my calculation, should be at most
somewhere near £25.

As to wall-pictures there are many series, also
chiefly German, of course. Some of these are poor ;
but there is a set by A. Pichlers, Vienna, containing
33 plates, many of which are extremely good. They

Suggested Catalogue of Exhibits 277

cost about two shillings each, and can be had separ-
ately— are not suitable for framing. At least three
sets (containing each a dozen, more or less) should
be, if possible, procured. Other similar exhibits
could be put in circulation.*

We should therefore have in this section :

Sets of photographs or half-tones . . 10

Pichlers' wall-pictures, when procurable . 3

Other similar sets of diagrams, say . . 2

15

C.— EIGHT NUMISMATIC CABINETS.

These are, perhaps, the most important of all the
circulating exhibits, and also the most troublesome
to provide. The cabinets must be specially designed
— trays small and not too shallow (with good side
flanges) — each containing from 15 to 24 specimens ;
and each cabinet usually about 6 trays. The originals
have been found to average under 2s. 6d. a piece —
the electrotypes cost about the same. Thus, allowing
£3 for the cabinet itself, the cost of each will be
about £15 to £18, or something over.

I. Cabinets of ORIGINALS (bronze, with some silver).

Greek coins of Hellas, of Asia Minor, and of
the West 3

Roman coins, Republican (including

Roman o-Campanian), and Imperial . 2

II. Cabinets of ELECTROTYPES, gold, electrum, silver.
Earlier Greek issues, and Later ... 2

III. Casts of Roman and Italian Aes Grave . 1

8
The cost may be computed at about £130.

* The preparation of a series of pictures, suspended during the
war, was undertaken by G. Bell and Sons, under direction of the
Hon. Sec. of the Archaeological Aids Committee.

278 Circulating Museums

D.— SIX CABINETS OF SMALL ANTIQUITIES.

Minoan Replicas ..... l

Pottery Sherds — Prehistoric, Greek, and

Roman ...... 3

Bronze objects illustrating domestic life —

Strigils, razors, bracelets, etc. ... 1

Other various things — lamps, writing materials,

stamps, iron implements, etc. ... 1

6

The cost per cabinet should be less than the coins,
and I estimate the total cost at about £60.

E.— EPIGRAPHICAL EXHIBITS.

This is a subject which has never been practically
dealt with, as far as I know, but it seems capable of
being made interesting to young students and, if so,
very useful. They should be told something about
various kinds of writing and shown the more im-
portant scripts, beginning with Egyptian, Cuneiform,
and Cypriote, then Minoan, and early Greek, Etruscan,
and Roman, with some account of the origin and
growth of their own alphabet.

Inscriptions of the ordinary sort are, of course,
too large for circulation as casts. But there are a
few quite small inscriptions ; and for the important
and interesting ones showing the development of
writing, squeezes could be easily provided. Students
would thus be prepared by a suitable degree of
familiarity with the subject, for coming across
original inscriptions in Museums or elsewhere.

Besides this, I have stated already that there are
a large number of small inscribed objects of which
replicas could be taken. There is the Phsestos Disc ;
the spear-butts presented as votive-offerings by vic-
torious armies at Olympia,* and supplied from
Berlin in facsimile ; and other similar exhibits.

* See above, p. 200.

Suggested Catalogue of Exhibits 279

Again, small collections of Ostraka, papyrus frag-
ments, jar-handles, vase-bases, and such-like objects
could be easily acquired, and would be portable.
These would illuminate Classical study from various
points of view.

The cost of this important exhibit would be ex-
tremely small — almost nominal. Let us be on the
safe side and estimate it at £10.

F.— ILLUSTRATED BOOKS.

There are a number of illustrated handbooks and
other publications on Archaeological subjects, especi-
ally numismatic books, some of which are too ex-
pensive or not sufficiently needed by the ordinary
teacher to induce him to purchase them. A few of
these might be lent to schools with exhibits or
perhaps separately. Again, there are others which
are so cheap and attractive that, if known, they
would certainly be acquired by schools, and in this
way great good could be done by putting a few
books of this class into circulation (without, of course,
undertaking the functions of a regular lending library).
Even to circulate a list of such books would be useful.

Without going into details here, the following
books, written in English, deserve special mention
among many others: Hill's Greek Historical Coins, and
Roman Historical Coins ; Walter's Handbooks of
Greek Art and Roman Art ; Mrs. Strong's Roman
Sculpture; Baedeker's Guides to Greece, South Italy
and Sicily, and Central Italy ; Burton Brown's Ex-
cavations in the Roman Forum ; Fowler and Wheeler's
Greek Archaeology ; British Museum Guide to Greek
and Roman Life (Is. 6d.). More expensive works
could be circulated, as found practicable.

The cost of this section need not be great; but
undoubtedly, as experience points the way, such a
collection would tend to increase in size and utility.

280 Circulating Museums

SUMMARY REGARDING COST.

From the above it will appear that the provision
of slides, if included, will be a notably expensive
item in the scheme. In some localities this will not be
necessary, as they may be obtainable in other ways,
but they are included for completeness. The estim-
ated initial outlay for a circle of 50 schools is, therefore :

£

40 Sets of Slides* 130

10 Sets Photographs, with cases . . 25

5 Sets Wall Pictures and Diagrams . . 10
8 Numismatic Cabinets .... 130

6 Cabinets of Antiquities .... 60
Collection Epigraphy, say . . 10
Books, say ...... 10

£375

Thus the capital required would be £375. If the
subscription was fixed at £l Is., which is quite
moderate, the interest would be £52 10s., or nearly
15 per cent. About 10 per cent, might be required
for depreciation, and the rest could do for interest,
but there would be no margin for a sinking fund.
Hence the scheme does not appear to be a purely
commercial one, but capital would have to be pro-
vided from some benevolent source, whether public
or private ; or else the subscription must be raised
beyond the guinea. (This seems undesirable, inas-
much as the borrower will have to pay cost of transit
and insurance for every exhibit.)

When working out the scheme for America I
calculated the initial expense at a higher rate. I
thought it might reach $2,800. On the other hand,
I thought in America a two guinea subscription (or
$10) would not be considered excessive, which would
leave about 10 per cent, for depreciation in addition
to 10 per cent, for sinking fund and interest.

* It is not impossible that many schools could command sets of
elides or negatives. They ought to be willing to pool them, and
this would reduce the cost. In Ireland this was done with good
results.

Suggested Catalogue of Exhibits 281

Naturally, any financial scheme must be only
regarded as tentative and approximate to the actual
cost. Besides, experiments clearly could be made,
and indeed have been made, on a more modest scale.
The A.R.L.T. scheme provided for 30 schools only,
and the material was both inadequate and partly
provided without cost to the Association. It is
quite obvious that when it is feasible a large circle
is more economical than a smaller one, inasmuch as
it provides exhibits on a better scale, and also gives
to them a more constant circulation. They are not
wanted, as a rule, in each centre of tener than annually,
and there is no reason why they should be kept for
longer than a week upon the average. In Ireland a
sum of money was raised by an appeal to the aca-
demic public and the response was, relatively speak-
ing, generous ; and this should be quite possible in
England and America upon a larger scale. The ex-
periments referred to would have been much more
definite in their results had not the war intervened
and upset our calculations.

PRINTED BY

BROWNE AND NOLAN, LIMITED,
DUBLIN*

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Browne

AUTHOR

^Renaissance

TITLE

Brovme, H.

Our Renaissance

PA

Ik
.B8