ho spoke Greek ill or not at all might still be a man of rank
and become senator and consul. But a change was already taking place.
The internal decomposition of Italian nationality had already,
particularly in the aristocracy, advanced so far as to render the
substitution of a general humane culture for that nationality
inevitable: and the craving after a more advanced civilization was
already powerfully stirring the minds of men. Instruction in the
Greek language as it were spontaneously met this craving. The
classical literature of Greece, the Iliad and still more the Odyssey,
had all along formed the basis of that instruction; the overflowing
treasures of Hellenic art and science were already by this means
spread before the eyes of the Italians. Without any outward
revolution, strictly speaking, in the character of the instruction
the natural result was, that the empirical study of the language
became converted into a higher study of the literature; that the
general culture connected with such literary studies was communicated
in increased measure to the scholars; and that these availed
themselves of the knowledge thus acquired to dive into that Greek
literature which most powerfully influenced the spirit of the age
--the tragedies of Euripides and the comedies of Menander.

In a similar way greater importance came to be attached to instruction
in Latin. The higher society of Rome began to feel the need, if not
of exchanging their mother-tongue for Greek, at least of refining it
and adapting it to the changed state of culture; and for this purpose
too they found themselves in every respect dependent on the Greeks.
The economic arrangements of the Romans placed the work of elementary
instruction in the mother-tongue--like every other work held in little
estimation and performed for hire--chiefly in the hands of slaves,
freedmen, or foreigners, or in other words chiefly in the hands of
Greeks or half-Greeks;(4) which was attended with the less difficulty,
because the Latin alphabet was almost identical with the Greek and the
two languages possessed a close and striking affinity. But this was
the least part of the matter; the importance of the study of Greek in
a formal point of view exercised a far deeper influence over the study
of Latin. Any one who knows how singularly difficult it is to find
suitable matter and suitable forms for the higher intellectual culture
of youth, and how much more difficult it is to