It is
taught just as you would teach the rules of chess or draughts. On the
other hand, if I am to understand by a literary education the study
of the literatures of either ancient or modern nations--but especially
those of antiquity, and especially that of ancient Greece; if this
literature is studied, not merely from the point of view of philological
science, and its practical application to the interpretation of texts,
but as an exemplification of and commentary upon the principles of
art; if you look upon the literature of a people as a chapter in the
development of the human mind, if you work out this in a broad spirit,
and with such collateral references to morals and politics, and physical
geography, and the like as are needful to make you comprehend what the
meaning of ancient literature and civilisation is,--then, assuredly,
it affords a splendid and noble education. But I still think it is
susceptible of improvement, and that no man will ever comprehend the
real secret of the difference between the ancient world and our present
time, unless he has learned to see the difference which the late
development of physical science has made between the thought of this day
and the thought of that, and he will never see that difference, unless
he has some practical insight into some branches of physical science;
and you must remember that a literary education such as that which I
have just referred to, is out of the reach of those whose school life is
cut short at sixteen or seventeen.
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