In his capacity of President of the Municipal Council at Paris, of Minister of Agricultural Commerce, of Vice-President of the High Council of Education, and of Perpetual Secretary of the Academy of Sciences, Dumas had abundant opportunity for the exercise of his administrative ability, and no one has questioned his great powers in this direction; but in regard to his political career we could not expect the same unanimity of opinion. That he was a liberal under Louis Philippe, and a reactionist under Louis Napoleon, may possibly be reconciled with a fixed political faith and an unswerving aim for the public good; but his scheme for "civilian billeting" (by which wealthy people having rooms to spare in their houses would have been compelled to billet artisans employed in public works) leads one to infer that his statesmanship was not equal to his science. Nevertheless, there can be no question about his large-hearted charity. He instituted the "Crédit Foncier," which flourishes in great prosperity to this day; he also founded the "Caisse de Rétraite pour la Vieillesse," and several other agricultural charities, which, though less successful, afford great assistance to aged workmen. Louis Napoleon used to say in jest that the whole of the War Minister's budget would not have been enough to realize M. Dumas's benevolent schemes; and once, half-dazzled, half-amused, by one of the chemist's vast sanitary projects, he called him "the poet of hygiene."
It was to be expected that a man working with such eminent success in so many spheres of activity, and at one of the chief centers of the world's culture, should be loaded with medals, and marks of distinction of every kind. It would be idle to enumerate the orders of knighthood, or the learned societies, to which he belonged, for, so far from their honoring him, he honored them in accepting their membership. It is a pleasure, however, to remember that he lived to realize his highest ambitions and to enjoy the fruits of his well-earned renown. France has added his name in the Pantheon
"Aux Grands Hommes la Patrie Reconnaissante."
IX.
THE GREEK QUESTION.[N]
The question whether the college faculty ought to continue to insist on a limited study of the ancient Greek language, as an essential prerequisite of receiving the A. B. degree, has been under consideration at Cambridge for a long time; and, since the opinions of those with whom I naturally sympathize have been so greatly misrepresented in the desultory discussion which has followed Mr. Adams's Phi Beta Kappa oration, I am glad of the opportunity to say a few words on the "Greek question."
This question is by no means a new one. For the last ten years it has been under discussion at most, if not at all, of the great universities of the world; and, among others, the University of Berlin, which stands in the very front rank, has already conceded to what we may call the new culture all that can reasonably be asked.
Let me begin by asserting that the responsible advocates of an expansion of the old academic system do not wish in the least degree to diminish the study of the Greek language, the Greek literature, or the Greek art. On the contrary, they wish to encourage such studies by every legitimate means. For myself I believe that the old classical culture is the best culture yet known for the literary professions; and among the literary professions I include both law and divinity. Fifty years ago I should have said that it was the only culture worthy of the recognition of a university. But we live in the present, not in the past, and a half-century has wholly changed the relations of human knowledge. Regard the change with favor or disfavor, as you please, the fact remains that the natural sciences have become the chief factors of our modern civilization; and—which is the important point in this connection—they have given rise to new professions that more and more every year are opening occupations to our educated men. The professions of the chemist, of the mining engineer, and of the electrician, which have entirely grown up during the lifetime of many here present, are just as "learned" as the older professions, and are recognized as such by every university. Moreover, the old profession of medicine, which, when, as formerly, wholly ruled by authority or traditions, might have been classed with the literary professions, has come to rest on a purely scientific basis.
In a word, the distinction between the literary and the scientific professions has become definite and wide, and can no longer be ignored in our systems of education. Now, while they would accord to their classical associates the right to decide what is the best culture for a literary calling, the scientific experts claim an equal right to decide what is the best culture for a scientific calling. Ever since the revival of Greek learning in Europe the literary scholars have been working out an admirable system of education. In this system most of us have been trained. I would pay it all honor, and I would here bear my testimony to the acknowledged facts that in no departments of our own university have the methods of teaching been so much improved during the last few years as in the classical. I should resist as firmly as my classical colleagues any attempt to emasculate the well-tried methods of literary culture, and I have no sympathy whatever with the opinion that the study of the modern languages as polite accomplishments can in any degree take the place of the critical study of the great languages of antiquity. To compare German literature with the Greek, or, what is worse, French literature with the Latin, as means of culture, implies, as it seems to me, a forgetfulness of the true spirit of literary culture.