134 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION. 
studied Greek; while others, graduates in Science, had not. Here, again, the difference 
in ability to meet and overcome difficulties is very conspicuously in favor of those who 
have had the broader classical training. This is shown in their greater ability to 
ippreciate nice distinctions and abstract statements. as well as in their greater facility of 
working generally. 
In view of the arguments which may be adduced from rational considerations, and 
especially in view of my own experience and observation as a teacher of science, I should 
be very sorry ever to see any considerable number of our colleges consenting to bestow 
he B. A. degree, except on condition of requiring study of the Greek as a part of the 
course leading to that degree. 
C. F. BrACKETT, 
Henry Professor of Physics in Princeton University. 
As I am neither a teacher, nor connected in any official way with education, I can 
contribute to the ‘“ Greek question ” nothing but the practical experience of a journalist 
who earns his living with his pen, and whose calling requires a continuous observation 
of society. 1 frankly exclude from any conclusions on education, genius of the first 
order, whose brain difference from the average man, plus or minus education, I believe 
io be in even greater proportion than the relative rarity of his appearance, so that 
education is with genius a neglectable quantity. Mere money getting I also exclude, 
since it is a mechanic trade in which an early apprenticeship is, if not indispensable, 
still a great advantage in acquiring a fortune, though education is needed to enjoy one. 
What I have to say deals with the needs of that great body of men who carry on the 
ousiness of being civilized, without which nations are mere herds of dumb driven 
rattle. 
First. In my own calling a generalized capacity for expression and observation is 
of first importance. Relative to the number with and without the regular classical 
training, this capacity is earliest acquired and best used by those with this training. 
or fifty years, for instance, at the point of greatest competition, New York City, an 
overwhelming majority of the men in charge of periodicals, daily, weekly, and monthly, 
nave been college men of the Greek course. The greatest have not been such ; but the 
average is the other way. Next, the man with the old degree and required Greek rises 
{aster and holds his own more steadily. So far as my own personal experience goes, but 
a small thing in a subjoct as broad as this, the value of the study of classic tongues, 
Greek in especial, to secure skill in the expression of thought and the use of language, 
has long been to me past all discussion. Modern language study is mere gruel by the 
side of it. 
Second. With the overwhelming drift of our day and time toward mere use as the 
sest of all value, cannot you who control education keep one degree which visibly stands 
for devotion to the highest intellectual ideal, irrespective of wage-earning use ? Greek, 
and the education which the affirmative of the ¢“ Greek question ” stands for, is. I believe, 
the best for the stress of practical life in all of its walks which make the creation of men. 
tal and moral values their chief aim. But, aside from this, there ought to be one degree 
whose requirements are avowedly arranged to meet the highest intellectual ideal, with- 
out compromise, conciliation, or concession. Where all substitutes are presented on the 
ground that they are ¢“ as good as Greek,” the practical conclusion is and must be that 
che Greek standard is the best, by common agreement and a mutual exclusion. Let us 
nave one degree in the future, as A. B. has been in the past, whose distinct aim is not a 
choice between advantages, but an uncompromising requirement of the best. 
Lastly. Ours is a secondary civilization. Where in history has there been one which 
lid not owe such intellectual life as it had to the study of a classical field ? The per- 
manent and mental tilths which the world’s wider civilizations enjoy, all rest on the 
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