32 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

That the narrow-minded and presumptuous opinions
referred to are not held by all classicists is true, but they
are tenets of the classical schoolmaster, and that is the
stumbling-block in the way of reform. The late Professor
Henry Sidgwick, one of our most profound classical
scholars, held that classics are the great impediment to
a literary education. The present Poet Laureate indeed
contends that “ our present methods of classical education,
 being unscientific, are actively pernicious ”.
The true relation of a classical education to a study
of the English language and literature has been enunciated
 most clearly by Dr. Macan, the President of University
 College, Oxford. Is it too much to hope that
those classicists who believe in the perfection of their
own methods, and in the self-sufficiency of a classical
education to the neglect of all other studies, may read,
mark, learn, and inwardly digest the following quotation
from a speech made by this eminent classical authority on
3rd May, 1916?!
«There is one point of view which I, as a Hellenist,
as one who has devoted forty years to the study of
ancient history, and especially Greek history, should like
to put before this meeting. 1 think that the men of
science at the present day, and those who, like ourselves,
are demanding an extension of scientific education in this
country, are working in the true interests of Hellenism,
and in the spirit of Ancient Greece. To do so would be
to follow the example of the Ancient Greeks. To do so
would be to adopt their spirit, even if we dropped a certain
 amount of their letters.
«There were four elements in the education of the
Greek Ephebi, or undergraduates, of the palmy days of
the Periclean University. The first was gymnastic, or

1 Conference on the Neglect of Science held at Burlington House. The
full report of the proceedings is published by Messrs. Harrison &amp; Sons,
price sixpence.