Laudator Temporis Acti

It may be asked, At what point should the reading for pleasure begin? It should begin at about the second lesson, when some entertaining sentence or verse should be learned — as the Lorelei is learned on the first day of German. A little of the language should be put in alive into the child's mind each day; and the grammar should then come behind and sweep up, and explain; it should be kept as a necessary utensil. This relationship should be maintained throughout life; and the attention should be kept on the meanings which occur in sentences and verses, rather than on the shadows of them which the grammars have worked out. The reason why the cart is put before the horse in classical education is that the grammarians through whose admirable labors it is that we possess the classics at all, have always been interested in the cart. It has been their province to study out a rule; and they have interposed this rule between us and the language. They have done it with the best intentions.

There is another circumstance which largely accounts for our inherited misteaching of Latin and Greek. The learned world has been digging out the classics for the last four hundred years; and the ideals of the learned world are accurate scholarship and scientific precision. It is probably right that the learned world should have such ideals — or should have had them during this epoch. And yet accurate scholarship and scientific precision are illusions in the case of language, and there is no scholar living who could write a page of Greek without making ludicrous errors errors of the sort that the Anglo-Indian makes in writing English, which he has learned from books. If even Mr. Mackail or Gilbert Murray or Nauck, that great, horrible mythic monster — should spend a whole day in dove-tailing phrases which they had fished out of Plato or Thucydides to make an essay of, the chances are that any Athenian would laugh five times to the page over the performance.

One question will I spare thee, lest I provoke thy laughter;
the foe that each of them encountered in the fray,
the spear from which each received his death-wound.
These be idle tales alike for those who hear
or him who speaks, that any man amid the fray,
when clouds of darts are hurtling before his eyes,
should declare for certain who each champion is.
I could not ask such questions,
nor yet believe those who dare assert the like;
for when a man is face to face with the foe, he scarce
can see even that which 'tis his bounden duty to observe.

ἓν δ᾽ οὐκ ἐρήσομαί σε, μὴ γέλωτ᾽ ὄφλω,
ὅτῳ ξυνέστη τῶνδ᾽ ἕκαστος ἐν μάχῃ
ἢ τραῦμα λόγχης πολεμίων ἐδέξατο.
κενοὶ γὰρ οὗτοι τῶν τ᾽ ἀκουόντων λόγοι
καὶ τοῦ λέγοντος, ὅστις ἐν μάχῃ βεβὼς        850
λόγχης ἰούσης πρόσθεν ὀμμάτων πυκνῆς
σαφῶς ἀπήγγειλ᾽ ὅστις ἐστὶν ἁγαθός.
οὐκ ἂν δυναίμην οὔτ᾽ ἐρωτῆσαι τάδε
οὔτ᾽ αὖ πιθέσθαι τοῖσι τολμῶσιν λέγειν·
μόλις γὰρ ἄν τις αὐτὰ τἀναγκαῖ᾽ ὁρᾶν        855
δύναιτ᾽ ἂν ἑστὼς πολεμίοις ἐναντίος.

Boys and girls must dance together at an age when plausible occasions can be found for their doing so, in order that they may have a reasonable look at each other; and they should dance naked, provided sufficient modesty and restraint are displayed by all concerned.

τῆς οὖν τοιαύτης σπουδῆς ἕνεκα χρὴ καὶ τὰς παιδιὰς ποιεῖσθαι χορεύοντάς τε καὶ χορευούσας κόρους καὶ κόρας, καὶ ἅμα δὴ θεωροῦντάς τε καὶ θεωρουμένους μετὰ λόγου τε καὶ ἡλικίας τινὸς ἐχούσης εἰκυίας προφάσεις, γυμνοὺς καὶ γυμνὰς μέχριπερ αἰδοῦς σώφρονος ἑκάστων.

Now I suppose I will have to hear again that my philosophy is disconsolate, just because I speak according to the truth, but the people want to hear that God the Lord has done everything right. Go to church and leave the philosophers in peace! At least do not demand that they arrange their doctrines according to your training and background; that is what the scoundrels do, the philosophasters — from them you can order whatever doctrines you like.

Da werde ich wohl wieder vernehmen müssen, meine Philosophie sei trostlos; eben nur weil ich nach der Wahrheit rede, die Leute aber hören wollen, Gott der Herr habe Alles wohlgemacht. Geht in die Kirche und laßt die Philosophen in Ruhe. Wenigstens verlangt nicht, daß sie ihre Lehren eurer Abrichtung gemäß einrichten sollen: das thun die Lumpe, die Philosophaster: bei denen könnt ihr euch Lehren nach Belieben bestellen.

Then, if you care to hear of him in battle—for there also he must have his due—on the day of the fight in which I gained my prize for valour from our commanders, it was he, out of the whole army, who saved my life: I was wounded, and he would not forsake me, but helped me to save both my armour and myself.

εἰ δὲ βούλεσθε ἐν ταῖς μάχαις· τοῦτο γὰρ δὴ δίκαιόν γε αὐτῷ ἀποδοῦναι· ὅτε γὰρ ἡ μάχη ἦν, ἐξ ἧς ἐμοὶ καὶ τἀριστεῖα ἔδοσαν οἱ στρατηγοί, οὐδεὶς ἄλλος ἐμὲ ἔσωσεν ἀνθρώπων ἢ οὗτος, τετρωμένον οὐκ ἐθέλων ἀπολιπεῖν, ἀλλὰ συνδιέσωσε καὶ τὰ ὅπλα καὶ αὐτὸν ἐμέ.

[H]e was the first man who dared to uproot and transform an order of things established everywhere, a usage inherited from their fathers, their constitutional privilege and right as the friends and the allies of Rome.

Now herein, Verres, my first step as prosecutor is to demand why you made any sort of change in a system so long and so regularly maintained. Did your powerful brain detect some fault in it? Were your understanding and your judgement superior to those of all the able and distinguished men who governed the province before you?

hic primus instituta omnium, consuetudinem a maioribus traditam, condicionem amicitiae, ius societatis convellere et commutare ausus est.

qua in re primum illud reprehendo et accuso, cur in re tam vetere, tam usitata quicquam novi feceris. ingenio aliquid assecutus es? tot homines sapientissimos et clarissimos, qui illam provinciam ante te tenuerunt, prudentia consilioque vicisti?

Beauty asked: 'Why must I perish, oh Zeus?'
'Why, I gave beauty', answered the god, 'only to perishable things.'

Warum bin ich vergänglich, o Zeus? so fragte die Schönheit.
    Macht' ich doch, sagte der Gott, nur das Vergängliche schön.

In play, love, music, books, I joy,
In town and country; and, indeed, there 's nought,
E'en to the luxury of sober thought, —
The sombre, melancholy mood, —
But brings to me the sovereign good.

J'aime le jeu, l'amour, les livres, la musique,
La ville et la campagne, enfin tout ; il n'est rien
Qui ne me soit souverain bien,
Jusqu'au sombre plaisir d'un coeur mélancolique.

Voting is compulsory for all in every election, and anyone who fails in his duty and is denounced to the authorities should be fined fifty drachmas and get the reputation of being a scoundrel.

χειροτονείτω δὲ πᾶς πάντα· ὁ δὲ μὴ 'θέλων, ἐὰν εἰσαγγελθῇ πρὸς τοὺς ἄρχοντας, ζημιούσθω πεντήκοντα δραχμαῖς πρὸς τῷ κακὸς εἶναι δοκεῖν.