Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 42:166 (Apr 1885)
Article: Greek Among Required Studies
Author: William G. Frost

BSac 42:166 (April 1885) p. 327

Greek Among Required Studies

Rev. William G. Frost

The discussion with regard to the claims of the classics to the place which they now hold in the college curriculum is not a new one. For many years the debate has been in progress, and the opponents of the classics have been steadily gaining in the strength of their arguments and the vigor of their attack.

There was a time when the classics were studied for the perfectly satisfactory reason that there was little else to be studied. Moreover, they met a very practical need, in that they were the only key to such treasures of thought and literature, ancient or contemporary, as the world possessed.

This condition of things has passed away; the constant growth of modern literature and modern knowledge necessarily diminishes the relative importance of the classics, and, at the same time, crowds the curriculum with new studies. It is inevitable that the prejudices of the vulgar should be re-enforced by the questionings of scholars, and that the argument against the classics should grow stronger and stronger. Is it strong enough, will it ever be strong enough, to justify their being set aside altogether?

Objections Stated

In the first place, it is urged, the classics, being an heirloom from mediaeval times, are taught in a mediaeval fashion; the whole process resting upon “unintelligent memorizing,” and yielding meagre results.

BSac 42:166 (April 1885) p. 328

Secondly, the ancient languages are difficult, abounding in exceptional idioms “which are the delight of the grammarian and the despair of every one else.” The result is that the Greek alone monopolizes “more than half the student’s time for three years merely to prepare for college.” And, after all, very few attain sufficient familiarity with the Greek to be able to judge whether a given work is a masterpiece or not.

Thirdly, the languages so painfully acquired are soon forgotten. The graduate is not able to read Greek tragedy at sight, or to converse in the style of Tully; and, in a few years, the dust has gathered upon the classic volumes, and they are closed to him forever.

Fourthly, the fact is, that a man of affairs in this nineteenth century has no use for Latin and Greek; he has no occasion to speak them; they have no commercial value to the merchant or traveller; they are not the “avenues to modern thought or life “; they are dead, and had better be respectfully buried. It is even claimed that classical studies are detrimental, diminishing a student’s interest in the present and making him a stranger to independent thought.

Fifthly, whatever value they possess is only for a...