In a letter prefixed to the Port Royal Latin Grammar, is the following complaint. “The grammar which is in use in all our schools, has been, it is true, compiled by a learned man—but is so prolix, that boys can scarcely learn it in four years.”
The friends of classical learning in Great Britain assume, that the illustrious men whose education has been completed at either of the universities, and who reflect honor on the nation, have owed their celebrity and the development of their talents to those great establishments. The Edinburgh Review repudiates this idea as destitute of truth.
“It is in vain to say we have produced great men under this system. We have produced great men under all systems. Every Englishman must pass half his life in learning Latin and Greek—and classical learning is supposed to have produced the talents, WHICH IT HAS NOT BEEN ABLE TO EXTINGUISH.”—Edinburgh Review, No. XXIX, p. 50.
Having offered some of the arguments against the prevailing system of classical education, it is but fair to exhibit some of those of its advocates.
“I believe I may say, though not without danger of offending the conductors of English academies, that no man who does not understand Latin, can understand English!”—Knox on Education, p. 82.
“Latin themes, Latin declamations and Latin lectures are constantly required of academical students.”—Idem, p. 78.
“Another argument in favor of the Latin exercises in our seminaries, is, that it has a natural tendency to improve the student in English composition.”—Idem, p. 79.
“To write Latin in youth is an excellent preparation for that vernacular composition which some of the professions require.”—Idem, p. 79.
“As soon as the grammar is perfectly learned by heart, [perfectly learned by heart!!] I advise that the practice of our ancient schools should be universally adopted—and that passages of the best classics, construed as a lesson in the day, should be given as a task to be learned memoriter at night.”—Idem, p. 101.
“I recommend that the scholar's week shall be thus employed: Monday evening, in Latin themes; Tuesday evening, in Latin verse; Wednesday evening, in English or Latin letters; Thursday evening, in English verse; Friday evening, in Latin verse, or in translating English into Latin; and the interval, from Saturday to Monday, in a Latin or an English theme.”—Idem, p. 59.