If Greek and Latin
had not been 'given' in that convenient manner, Dr. Arnold, who
had spent his life in acquiring those languages, might have
discovered that he had acquired them in vain. As it was, he could
set the noses of his pupils to the grindstone of syntax and
prosody with a clear conscience. Latin verses and Greek
prepositions divided between them the labours of the week.
As time went on he became, he declared, 'increasingly convinced
that it is not knowledge, but the means of gaining knowledge
which I have to teach'. The reading of the school was devoted
almost entirely to selected passages from the prose writers of
antiquity. 'Boys,' he remarked, 'do not like poetry.' Perhaps his
own poetical taste was a little dubious; at any rate, it is
certain that he considered the Greek Tragedians greatly
overrated, and that he ranked Propertius as 'an indifferent
poet'. As for Aristophanes, owing to his strong moral
disapprobation, he could not bring himself to read him until he
was forty, when, it is true, he was much struck by the 'Clouds'.
But Juvenal, the Doctor could never bring himself to read at all.
Physical science was not taught at Rugby. Since, in Dr. Arnold's
opinion, it was too great a subject to be studied en parergo,
obviously only two alternatives were possible: it must either
take the chief place in the school curriculum, or it must be left
out altogether.
Pages:
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267