on to all civilised
nations.

To most of us, however, there is an insurmountable barrier surrounding
them, the matter of language. The knowledge of Greek and Latin that we
acquired at school has become painfully rusty. Is it worth while slogging
away laboriously with grammar and dictionary at the expense of valuable
time which might otherwise be devoted to the more modern classics in our
own tongue? Candidly, it is not. If we have retained sufficient of our
Greek and Latin to read it at sight with but an occasional reference to
the dictionary well and good; but otherwise it is a painful waste of
time. Hamerton recommends that we read the ancients with the help of
literal translations beside the original, in which way, he says, we 'may
attain a closer acquaintance with ancient literature than would be
possible by translation alone.' But to many, an English version must be
the only door by which they may enter Attica and Rome.

After all, it is for each one of us to decide how widely our time and
opportunities shall permit us to wander on the slopes of Mount Parnassus.
'The best time-savers are the love of soundness in all we learn to do,
and a cheerful acceptance of inevitable limitations.'[23] Yet it is
better to have wandered on the lowermost slopes of the mountain than
never to have entered ancient Greece at all.

Who nowadays, outside the universities, reads these ancient classics?
Where will you find a business man of thirty years of age whose delight
in his leisure time is the reading of Horace or Homer? Here and there,
perhaps, you may come across a man of classical education who still
retains the love of ancient Greece and Rome, instilled into him in his
youth, sufficiently to influence the course of his reading; but he is a
rarity indeed. Among the many thousands of young men employed in business
in the great cities, most of whom have learnt something at least of the
classics in their youth, scarcely will you find one who will confess to
having time for such literature. Yet all these thousands read many books
each year, and can always find time to devour the latest popular novel.

It is chiefly a question of recreation _versus_ education. Tired and
jaded with the day's business, the young man of to-day has little
inclination to devote his leisure time to study. Light frothy literature
removes his thoughts from worldly cares, and by a complete change of
subject stimulates a mind that has been enervated by conc