Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 31.djvu/283

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EDITOR'S TABLE.
271

what modifications need to be introduced into the education of women. The principle of equality once firmly laid down, it remains to be said that, from the point of view of the intellectual future of the female sex, too much importance probably is being attached to what is called "higher education." It is safe to say that such intellectual advantages as men now enjoy are but in a minor degree dependent on colleges and universities. "We constantly see men arriving at high scientific and literary eminence, with little or no aid from scholastic institutions; and what is possible for men is possible for women. The last thing we should wish to do would be to disparage systematic training; but still it is an indubitable fact that many have contrived to accomplish great things without it. Upon the whole, it is an encouraging thought that "higher education" is not confined to seminaries of learning. It can be imparted largely in the home-circle; it can be obtained by independent study and reflection. Let the seminaries flourish, but let it be understood that common sense and right feeling, and worthy aims in the household and in society, constitute in themselves the conditions, and even in some degree the elements, of higher education. We should like to see this whole question reduced to its true proportions and brought into direct relation with the realities of life. We believe that women (like men) have at the present moment within their reach far more extensive means of culture than they care to avail themselves of; and that what is really wanted for the diffusion of higher education in the best sense is not so much the multiplication of institutions of learning, as the communication of an impulse to individuals of a nature to lead them to lay hold of the means of intellectual improvement that abound on every side. Could this be accomplished, the general intelligence of society would advance with rapid strides; while the multiplication of institutions of learning, and dependence on them for intellectual results, will only give us a select class of educated, sometimes over-educated, persons, and will leave society at large but slightly modified by the culture that really ought to mark this advanced stage of human progress.


THE GREEK QUESTION AGAIN.

Since the article on the "Present Status of the Greek Question" appeared in the May number of "The Popular Science Monthly," we have been informed by a graduate of the University of Cambridge, England, that it is now possible to obtain the degree of B. A. from that ancient institution of learning without any knowledge of Greek whatever. This marks, of course, a new era in the history of this question in England.

It may be worth while to glance for a moment at the amount of Greek required for the B. A. at the various British universities where it is still insisted upon as a required subject of examination. We have not the requisitions of Oxford before us, but we are assured that they do not exceed those of the University of Edinburgh and other Scottish universities for the M. A. According to the "Edinburgh University Calendar" for 1883-'84, the Greek set for examination for the degree of M. A. comprised the following: "Odyssey," book vi; Sophocles's "Electra;" Thucydides, book vi, and Plato's "Protagoras." Now, when we consider that these authors and the particular works or portions of their works to be set are thus announced a year beforehand, it will be seen how small an amount of work in Greek is really required for this degree. It does not amount to more than is required for entrance to the classical course of any good American college. A Cambridge graduate has asserted that it was quite feasible for a man, in the days when Greek was required at Cam-