Laudator Temporis Acti

J.B. Bury (1861-1927), "Compulsory Greek," Fortnightly Review 50 (1891) 811-821 (at 815):

The foes of Greek have succeeded in frightening some of the guardians of the Universities by quoting the Zeitgeist. They exhort them to keep up with the progress of the age; they represent that the spirit of the times is impatient of the old routine of study; they urge that useless and antiquated subjects must be swept away as speedily as possible, and our colleges garnished with something newer and better and more "technical." These interpreters of the Zeitgeist laugh at the guardians as backward and old-fashioned if they decline to listen to such counsels, and perhaps hint threateningly that the present state of things cannot last in the face of modern progress. The Zeitgeist, it seems, has frowned on Greek as an unprofitable servant, and declared that it must be abolished. Greek, indeed, is not likely to serve the Zeitgeist, or any other master. But the Universities will do well to keep the Zeitgeist at a civil distance. He is interesting, certainly, in many ways. It might be no harm to invite him to dine in hall, and dons in their private capacity may not do ill to cultivate his acquaintance with discretion. Perhaps the University might even go so far as to confer upon him an honorary Degree. But to allow him to have any voice in the regulation of academic studies—that is fatal indeed.