The Evening Star SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1874.

Evening Star, Issue 3636, 17 October 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1874.

There can be but little doubt that next to that part of man’s mental constitution which gives him a constant tendency to press forward and to aim at improvement, the instinct most important to his well-being is that which causes him to look with suspicion on all those proposals the acceptance of which would involve radical changes in his usual modes of thought, and in his cus.tomary actions. In other words, the conservative instinct in man is of an importance inferior only to the progressive, and that only to a comparatively small extent. In fact, these two principles may be looked upon as the co-re-lative social forces which tend to keep society in a healthy condition—free on the one hand from utter stagnation, and on the other from liability to social convulsions sufficiently violent to endanger its very existence, and to

render imminent a relapse into barbarism. When the mutual* action of these two forces is duly proportioned, society advances gradually and safely ; when the liberal or progressive spirit is altogether unchecked, anarchy sooner or later results; when the conservative element is too much in the ascendant not only does society not advance, but it even has a tendency to recede, because institutions which were sufficiently adapted to existing conditions when they were brought into being, may be no longer suitable—may be becoming daily more unsuitable. When this is the case it is evident that the society in which these institutions are

working will be day by day less efficiently served by them—in other words there will be retrogression. This is undoubtedly true with regard to nations as a whole, and to national institutions as a whole \ but it is no less true with respect to parts of the whole—such as religious sects, political parties, social castes, and also with regard to the systems embraced by these subdivisions of the community, such as those which regulate their religious beliefs, their social customs, and their modes of conducting the education of the young. In no case are the effects

of the preponderance of the conservative spirit brought out more strongly than they are in that of education. It is unnecessary for us to show that in this matter conservatism is sufficiently strong to prevent progress almost entirely. Everybody who takes interest in th© subject knows that it is only with the greatest difficulty that any educational reform whatever can be car- ■ ril'd out. The reason of this is suffi--j. cienbly obvious. Men as a rule have a ! tolerably high opinion of. themselves and of their intellectual attainments. They feel that the amount of mental culture they have received has made them what they are, and they are consequently little disposed to give a candid hearing to criticisms on the system which has in their case produced results with which they feel that they have every reason to be satisfied. ; A man has received a classical education. His reply to any unfavorable \ criticism on classical education generally

will be in effect, if not in ■words, “ Away with, your new-fangled proposals ; what should I want for my children better than the education which has made me what I am 1 You see that it would be extremely difficult to improve me much. If you talk to me about the necessity for mathematical and scientific training, and disparage the classics, I shall call you a sciolist, and refer you to those who have been educated as I have, and they will one and all tell you that men who have received a classical training are very far superior intellectually to all other men whatsoever.” So strong is the feeling thus generated, that persons who venture to suggest the possibility that some other system of education might be preferable to the one in vogue, come to be looked upon almost in the light of personal enemies by the favorers of the old system. While the classicists confine themselves to defending their tenets by fair arguments, no one can justly find fault with them ; when they resort to abuse, and impute ignorance and arrogance to their opponents, even then possibly their conduct may be looked upon as to

a certain extent excusable : their stock of arguments runs short, and it is perhaps only natural that in the struggle for existence they should betake themselves to the calling of names j when, however, they are not satisfied even with this—when they begin to misrepresent the statements of those who hold different views from their own—when they begin to say “the thing which is not,” it is time that they should be contradicted. The ‘NewZealand Christian Record’ says or implies that we are in the habit of stating “ that classics are all moonshine.” Now such a doctrine as this has never been set forth in our columns. On the contrary, we have always asserted that the diligent study of the classics will confer on the student a high degree of culture, and that of a very desirable kind. What has been always maintained by us, however, is that this same culture may be quite as well obtained through the French and German languages as through the Latin and Greek. As the latter are of but small use except for the discipline, which the acquirement of them gives, while a knowledge of the two modern languages has in itself, besides the advantages which are to be derived from learning the languages, a high practical value, we hold that French and German : are to be preferred as the means by ; which the linguistic training essential ; to a liberal education should be given ; the classics being made special subjects for those who are likely to require them. We have also pointed out that skill in Latin composition by no means involves the power of writing good English. Our readers will pei’ceive that this is a very different thing from saying that the classics are all moonshine. We may remark, by the way, that without pretending for a moment to that formidable amount of knowledge of the classics and of science that the writer In the ‘ Record ’ tells us, almost in so many words, be possesses, we are not so ignorant as not to know that the Greek play which he recommends, “ (Edivus Rex,” ig founded on a story which makes the hero murder his father and live for years in an unmentionable relationship with his mother. How a writer in a “ Christian ” news paper can seriously maintain that a play founded on such a horrible story as this can give “ a higher education in thought (to say nothing of that in morals and in taste)” than an I intelligent and attentive study of the I works of the Creator is altogether beyond .our comprehension. We venture to say that if “ Ouida” or any other of those naughty persons who write the more highly-flavored sensational stories dared to write a novel with a plot similar to that of “ (Edipxm Rex,” it would be denounced in the bitterest terms from every pulpit and in every religious newspaper in the land. There is one more thing contained in the article to which we refer that perhaps require a word pf comment. The article implies that R hag been asserted by this journal that the test afforded by the examinations for the ]^ T e\v Zealand University Scholarships was an absurd one. Now, this is not the case: the questions were good enough in their way, but they were not fitted to test the truly practical education given at our University and at our High Sphool. We have maintained, and still maintain that the good effects resulting from the educational system of Otago will be far more visible in the counting-house, the workshop, on the farm, and in the mine, than in competitive examinations, alike the result and the fosterers of cram. If a boy, educated in accordance with the Otagau system, and one who had received a purely classical education were both landed on Dunedin jetty without money and without friends, we have no doubt that in such an “ examination” as this the classical boy would prove to •be literally “ nowhere” as compared with his rival. On the whole, it would be difficult to help coming to the conclusion that a paper which claims to be distinctively Christian, and which has an L.L.D. and a B.A. for its editors, might Well endeavor to exemplify the combined advantages resulting from a profession of Christianity and a classical education by being a little less ready to make random and inaccurate statements, and to misrepresent the views of those with whom it disagrees.