The Evening Star MONDAY, MARCH 1, 1875.

Evening Star, Issue 3750, 1 March 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, MARCH 1, 1875.

We have been informed that the parents of boys attending the High School have been very nearly unanimous in preferring what is called the “ modern side ” of the instruction given at that institution : that is to say, they are desirous that their sons shall be taught English, the modern languages, mathematics, and physical science, rather than that they should be drilled in Greek and Latin. It is needless for us to say that, in our opinion, their choice is a wise one. We have over and over again maintained that in a young < olony like this, at all events, it is of vast importance that the instruments used in imparting mental culture should be of such a nature that they may have some practical bearing on the thoughts, wants, and wishes of the present time, ravher than that they should have reference exclusively to the state of things existing under bygone civilisations It does not require a - olomou to understand that, other things be>rg equal, it is better that boys should learn to read and write French and German than that they should be “taught something about the Romans,” as Sydney -mith puts it ■ o one in his senses can fail to see that to be able to write German is a more valuable accomplishment than to be able to wrho a in. he only quest on then that remains to be decided is whether the menial culture gamed by a person who has learnt German is equal in amount to that which is in volved in a thorough training in the Latin tongue. Now, it is not easy to see why the culture*given by a training in each of these two languages should not be about equal. They are almost equally difficult: if we may believe Professor «.oko, the learned editor of Cicero, German is slightly the more difficult of the two ; they are both, compared with English, highly inflected languages; the syntax of each is involved, and complicated, and affords equal scope for the exercise of the faculty of discriminating between minute shades of meaning according as one mode of expression or another is used. Indeed, without going more into detail, it may suffice to say that the difference between the mental culture of Latin and German scholars as such, must be almost inappreciable. But it will, perhaps, be said that though this may be true of German, it is not so of French. Of course thatis to a certain extent a matter of opinion. But we have been informed by able French scholars that the French language is far more difficult than either Latin or German. It is true, they say, that for beginners French is an easy, a very easy language; but as the student goes on he finds that his difficulties increase to a very large extent, and he becomes aware of the fact that a knowledge of the language and a smattering of it are altogether different things, Frenchmen, indeed, are accustomed to say that it is the rarest thing to find a foreigner who is able to write good French prose. If this is indeed the case, it actually follows that greater mental effort is required to learn this language, and consequently greater mental culture is involved in the acquisition of it than is required or involved in the learning of Latin. Bub though many people are quite willing to admit the justice of such a view of the case, yet they say that a classical education gives a certain tone of mind, a certain peonliar intellectual flavor, so to speak. This is perfectly true : we admit it most fully ; but when we come to inquire a little further into tfce matter we are constrained to confess that after all this classical tone is by no means necessarily the best. Those who have it are not necessarily superior to those who have it not. For, a kn wledge of modern languages also gives a peculiar ‘tone,” and fortunately wo have a ready means of comparing the two “ tones.” It has been for many years the custom in Great Britain for the wealthier lasses of society to have distinct kinds of training for the two sexes. Well-educated men, as a rule, have received a classical training ; well-educated women have learnt, as a rule, to speak two or three modem languages. Now he would be a hold man who would maintain that the average English gentleman is, as a rule, more refined, mure cultured, or indeed in any respect intellectually superior to the average English iadv. If our own private opinion on the subject is of any value, our readers are welcome to it: it is that what advantage there is lies quite in the other direction. Even when we have made every allowance for differences depending on sex, we are compelled to oome to the conclusion that, as a rule, English women have received better linguistic culture than English men. “ The proof of the pudding is in the eating,” and we may be allowed to ask our readers whether they have not found such letters j as they may have received from educated | ladies, more refined, more elegant, less j confused, and* in short, superior to'

hose they hay® received from men. As a rale, too, In ordinary Conversation women are able to express their thoughts more lucidly and more fluently than men. Now, is it fair to set this down altogether to difference of sex ? Is there not at all events a strong presumption in favor of the supposition that the education of women, in this department at all events, is conducted on more rational principles than is that of men. o believe, at all events, that the parents of boys attending the High School will never find cause to regret the choice they have made, and venture to hope that year by year classical work will be' more and more con fined to the institution of whose curriculum it is a legitimate and valuable portion—the University of Otago. Boys must receive some preliminary instruction in classics before they can profit by University lectures, but we hope that only those boys whose parents intend them to go through the University course will receive this instruction. and only such an amount of it as may absolutely necessary to prepare them for