DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49928#0009
I HE study of the Greek and Latin classics still holds its own throughout Europe and America as the foundation of a liberal education. That study has many
rivals, and many times have prophecies of its approaching supersession been uttered in high places. But the opinion still prevails among those who have had
experience in education that on the whole no other kind of training is so effectual in fitting the powers of the mind for the work of cultured life. And if
‘ the proper study of mankind is man,’ this is quite intelligible. In the classics we find the essential man, man as yet unsophisticated but progressive, unwearied
and full of talents, stretching out his hand to pluck the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and laying the foundations of excellence in civilization, art, and thought;
we find the fine talents of nobly gifted races grappling with the great problems which man has to face, and mapping out the paths of action in which we still
travel.
But in order that classical studies may fully/ satisfy the changed conditions of modern life and thought they require to be pursued in a somewhat changed
fashion. An age saturated like ours with the methods of science and the idea of evolution is not contented if the classical writings are merely treated as literature.
They must also be brought into close connexion with history. In a sense they belong, like all the works of genius, to man as man, but they also belong to a race
and a time. They must be regarded not merely as dropped from the clouds, but as rising from the soil. Hence comes a complete change of front.
From the time of the Renascence almost to our own days painters have been content to render scenes from the life of the Founder of Christianity, or deeds
of the heroes of Plutarch with conventional surroundings, modifying the garments and the architecture of their own times in fanciful ways. The Mark Antony and
the Duke Theseus of Shakespeare are set against what is mainly an Elizabethan background. It is evident from many indications that the present generation is
not satisfied with so naive a proceeding. We now want to throw back the characters of history into historic perspective, and place them against a background which
belongs to their own times. The historical imagination is cultivated, and in consequence the scientific point of view is substituted for the literary, and as a result we
are no longer content with subjective impression and opinion, but search out solid grounds of knowledge.
Thus there springs up a desire for facts, facts as to the life of the ancients, their laws and their customs, their beliefs and their cults. Because no fact is
despicable from the point of view of science, we further look into their daily life, the fashion of their dress and their houses, the arrangements of the theatre and
rivals, and many times have prophecies of its approaching supersession been uttered in high places. But the opinion still prevails among those who have had
experience in education that on the whole no other kind of training is so effectual in fitting the powers of the mind for the work of cultured life. And if
‘ the proper study of mankind is man,’ this is quite intelligible. In the classics we find the essential man, man as yet unsophisticated but progressive, unwearied
and full of talents, stretching out his hand to pluck the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and laying the foundations of excellence in civilization, art, and thought;
we find the fine talents of nobly gifted races grappling with the great problems which man has to face, and mapping out the paths of action in which we still
travel.
But in order that classical studies may fully/ satisfy the changed conditions of modern life and thought they require to be pursued in a somewhat changed
fashion. An age saturated like ours with the methods of science and the idea of evolution is not contented if the classical writings are merely treated as literature.
They must also be brought into close connexion with history. In a sense they belong, like all the works of genius, to man as man, but they also belong to a race
and a time. They must be regarded not merely as dropped from the clouds, but as rising from the soil. Hence comes a complete change of front.
From the time of the Renascence almost to our own days painters have been content to render scenes from the life of the Founder of Christianity, or deeds
of the heroes of Plutarch with conventional surroundings, modifying the garments and the architecture of their own times in fanciful ways. The Mark Antony and
the Duke Theseus of Shakespeare are set against what is mainly an Elizabethan background. It is evident from many indications that the present generation is
not satisfied with so naive a proceeding. We now want to throw back the characters of history into historic perspective, and place them against a background which
belongs to their own times. The historical imagination is cultivated, and in consequence the scientific point of view is substituted for the literary, and as a result we
are no longer content with subjective impression and opinion, but search out solid grounds of knowledge.
Thus there springs up a desire for facts, facts as to the life of the ancients, their laws and their customs, their beliefs and their cults. Because no fact is
despicable from the point of view of science, we further look into their daily life, the fashion of their dress and their houses, the arrangements of the theatre and