The Athenian Boy

Horowhenua Chronicle, 5 November 1915, Page 2

The Athenian Boy

In ;i lecture on "The Athenian Boy,' the principal oi Auckland Training College remarked:—There were throe great teachers upon wlio.se writings thy oducatoii ol the Athenian boy rested JS'ocTates—standing l : of all tliat is groalu.st in original thought. Of Socrates, the story is told tii'at ho hud a shrewish wile -Xanthippe—who once, alter roundly rating him, threw over him u bucket of water, whereupon Socrates contented him with the remark "After thunder rain." Plato came next— the most famous writer upon the aims and principles of education, then Aristotle—the most Teamed man who has ever lived. Upon t ! he teachings of this trio t>l immortals—Socrates, IMato, Aristoflc—the Athenian youth was led, and them ne learned to reverence, me first crisis in the boy's career after his a.ppearance in this world, wa.s the question a.s to whether he was t.) 1)0 kept. If the- pa rente decided that he bid. fair to become a creditable representative of tho family -well and good; if not the Greeks had the curious custom of "potting" the rejected infant. That is ho was put into an onrtlipnwa.ro pot. and carried some (Usance and exposed. IT the resident ol tlit , pot attracted sympathy and/ approval ol anyone ho much the bettor for him-lie might bo adopted; il not. lie just returned ■whonce he fame.