I do earnestly hope that our Committee will give to my observations their most serious deliberation. Let us come to no hasty conclusion on this subject: accustomed as we have been to hear constantly repeated such conventional phrases as that “Latin and Greek are essential to the education of a gentleman;” that “classical studies are indispensable to a liberal education;” to hear applauded to the echo orators who have introduced into their speeches quotations of bad Latin or worse Greek by audiences of whom not one in one thousand understand what was said. We have been apt to receive such phrases as embodying truths, without ever examining their foundations. I respectfully urge the Committee to consider well before they act, to study the reasons assigned by the great thinkers I have named for condemning, as, humbly following in their wake, I venture to condemn, as worse than mere waste of time, the years devoted to Latin and Greek studies.
Let us endeavor to make the College of this city worthy of the city and of the state; let us cast aside the trammels of mediæval ignorance, and supply to the pupils of the College “the culture demanded by modern life.” Let us in this, the first important matter which has come before our Committee, act in harmony and without prejudice, for the welfare of the College and “for the advancement of learning,” and so prove ourselves worthy of the sacred trust we have assumed.
I am, dear sir, very truly yours,
NATHANIEL SANDS,
Member of “The Executive Committee for the Care,
Government, and Management of the College of the
City of New York.”