Do not suppose I am no longer
sensible to the charm of classical art. It is wonderful, but I have
come to the conclusion that the time spent on the classics, both here
and in Germany, is mostly thrown away. Take even Homer. I admit the
greatness of the Iliad and the Odyssey, but do tell me, my dear
godfather, whether in this nineteenth century, when scores of urgent
social problems are pressing for solution, our young people ought to
give themselves up to a study of ancient legends? What, however, are
Horace, Catullus, and Ovid compared with Homer? Much in them is
pernicious, and there is hardly anything in them which helps us to live.
Besides, we have surely enough in Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspeare, and
Milton, to say nothing of the poets of this century, to satisfy the
imagination of anybody. Boys spend years over the Metamorphoses or the
story of the wars of AEneas, and enter life with no knowledge of the
simplest facts of psychology. I look forward to a time not far distant,
I hope, when our whole paedagogic system will be remodelled.
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