Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 4: November, 1873, to April, 1874
In England, the very stronghold of the classical theory, classical study seems to be declining, in spite of, or rather through, the very means taken for keeping it alive. I fear, says the late Earl of Der by, in the preface to his translation of the Iliad, that the taste for and appreciation of classical literature are greatly on the decline. The study of classical literature is probably on the decline, says Matthew Arnold, in his essay on translating Homer. I cannot help thinking, says Mr. Sidgwick, of Cambridge, that classical literature, in spite of its enormous prestige, has very little attraction for the mass even of cultivated persons at the present day. I wish statistics could be obtained of the amount of Latin and Greek read in any year, except for professional purposes, even by those who have gone through a cornplcte classical curriculum. From the information that I have been able privately to obtain, I incline to think that such statistics, when compared with the fervent admiration with which we all speak of the classics, upon every opportunity, would be found rather startling.' And the truth is that the classical system of liberal education in Eng land maintains its place, so fsr asitdoes maintainit, solelyfrom the fact of its being a strictly protected system, through the enormous pe cuniaryprisestowhichitisthe solemeansofaccess. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.