Padraic P. McGuinness, The Australian, April 14, 1989, p. 2.
In these days of argument about Budgets, wages policy and what is going to happen next week, it is pleasant to learn that the study of classical Greek and Latin is making something of a comeback.
Although talk about the importance of the humanities is often the first defence of lazy, overpaid academics, it should not be totally discounted for that reason. There is no doubt that the study of literature, history and language is important — and no true university can exist without it, any more than a university that does not teach philosophy.
Without these things, an educational institution is no more than a technical college; which is not to denigrate that function, but simply to stress that the awareness of a wider context is essential to real intellectual endeavour. The study of physics these days presents philosophical problems of such enormous importance that the physicists look for philosophical guidance.
Unfortunately, this is often not forthcoming on account of the ignorance of the humanities departments. The profound indifference of many people in the humanities and social sciences to the extraordinary intellectual achievements of the “hard” sciences is a standing disgrace.
However, the study of Greek and Latin, which in the last century was considered a necessary part of the education even of scientists, has withered away, too, in the fact of the invincible ignorance of the “modernists” of the humanities. This is a pity, since it means that the foundations of much of our modern culture are no longer widely understood.
The compulsory study of these dead languages at school often, it is true, involved abuses. To force little boys or girls to construe Latin verse or construct Alexandrines never made much sense.
But, having been fortunate enough to have studies both Latin and Greek at high school (and some Greek even in primary school, thanks to a teacher who was a true classicist), I have increasingly realised the benefits. Not that I could write a complex correct sentence in either language now.
But these languages give one a feeling for the origins and richness of the English language (to draw on the other great sources, one of the Germanic languages ought also to be studied), which greatly increases the pleasures of reading. And the history of the two culture is, of course, the history of Western civilisation.
It is not, of course, to denigrate other great cultures (it ought to be said, for the sake of the “relativists”, that not all cultures are equal) like those of Asia to stress the special importance to native English speakers of Greek and Latin and the associated history.
The study of the languages, and especially Latin, has the initial advantage for learning purposes that it introduces very clearly the concepts of formal grammar.
This is, of course, anathema to many teachers and perhaps not of great importance to those children who do not intend to go on to further education or to study other living languages.
The inability of many teachers to handle formal grammar is not a valid argument against it being taught, nor is the fact that some children are not inclined towards academic as distinct from practical subjects.
The fact is that the clarity of Latin grammar, and the terminology of grammar, are of very great importance when learning a foreign language beyond the stage of elementary grunts — even languages like Chinese or Japanese, with totally different grammatical structures.
It is necessary to have a vocabulary in which to describe language structures and in English this derives from Latin. However, the learning of Latin and Greek need not progress much beyond elementary instruction to be beneficial.
What is more important after the notions of grammar are understood is the fact that these languages introduce us to the history of our culture and to two of the great ancient literatures. These days there is nothing of any importance in either language which is not available in translation and some of the translations are of high quality indeed.
You do not have to know Homeric Greek to gain enjoyment and instruction from reading what remains one of the monuments of human culture, the Iliad. I must admit that as a schoolboy, in the days when pornography of any kind was in short supply, I and others got a bit of a thrill from reading Chapter 14 of the Iliad in the original with the help of a lexicon.
But even then it was more sensible to read the book in (expurgated) translation. There are numerous translations, of which the workmanlike Penguin version by E.V. Rieu was the most useful but not the most inspiring. Penguin have now produced a new translation which is absolutely superb.
Similarly, few people would need or want to read Plato in the original, since there are plenty of good translations and excellent commentaries and analyses.
However, this did not stop the great American journalist I.F. Stone from studying Greek after his retirement and writing an analysis of the “Trial and Death of Socrates” which even the scholars had to take seriously.
The notion that translation should not be a major source of appreciation of literature is one of the myths of the language professors. The fact that most of the world’s great literatures are now translated into English and enjoyed by educated people discredits this pretentiousness.
Translation, especially from dead languages, is, however, a difficult and taxing skill. And it is totally false to pretend that it is a skill which has to be fostered by public subsidy and the maintenance of tiny cabals of classic scholars who feel themselves remote from the marketplace.
One of the more remarkable aspects of the revival of interest in classical studies, and classical languages, is that the best scholars are able to command high salaries in fee-charging universities, which are of course selling intellectual achievement as much as practical skills.
So the fact that more and more people are studying Latin and Greek is to be praised, but it is not a reason for opposing university fees. By all means let people have the most esoteric hobbies, and even hobbies which are of the greatest intellectual significance — but teaching and learning ought to be as much in the marketplace as Socrates was.
