to learn Greek, should begin where
Greek literature, where all profane literature begins--with Homer
himself. It was thus, not with grammars _in vacuo_, that the great
scholars of the Renaissance began. It was thus that Ascham and Rabelais
began, by jumping into Greek and splashing about till they learned to
swim. First, of course, a person must learn the Greek characters. Then
his or her tutor may make him read a dozen lines of Homer, marking the
cadence, the surge and thunder of the hexameters--a music which, like
that of the Sirens, few can hear without being lured to the seas and
isles of song. Then the tutor might translate a passage of moving
interest, like Priam's appeal to Achilles; first, of course, explaining
the situation. Then the teacher might go over some lines, minutely
pointing out how the Greek words are etymologically connected with many
words in English. Next, he might take a substantive and a verb, showing
roughly how their inflections arose and were developed, and how they
retain forms in Homer which do not occur in later Greek. There is no
reason why even this part of the lesson should be uninteresting. By this
time a pupil would know, more or less, where he was, what Greek is, and
what the Homeric poems are like. He might thus believe from the first
that there are good reasons for knowing Greek; that it is the key to many
worlds of life, of action, of beauty, of contemplation, of knowledge.
Then, after a few more exercises in Homer, the grammar being judiciously
worked in along with the literature of the epic, a teacher might discern
whether it was worth while for his pupils to continue in the study of
Greek. Homer would be their guide into the "realms of gold."

It is clear enough that Homer is the best guide. His is the oldest
extant Greek, his matter is the most various and delightful, and most
appeals to the young, who are wearied by scraps of Xenophon, and who
cannot be expected to understand the Tragedians. But Homer is a poet for
all ages, all races, and all moods. To the Greeks the epics were not
only the best of romances, the richest of poetry; not only their oldest
documents about their own history,--they were also their Bible, their
treasury of religious traditions and moral teaching. With the Bible and
Shakespeare, the Homeric poems are the best training for life. There is
no good quality that they lack: manliness, courage, reverence for old age
and for the hospitable h