LEECH AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, SMALL STREET, BRISTOL.

THE SCHOOLBOY SPECTATOR. [No. II.]

Turpe est difficiles habere nugas,
Et stultus labor est ineptiarum.

Mart. 2 Epig. lxxxvi.

'Tis folly only, and defect of sense,

Turns trifles into things of consequence.

I have observed before that my friend Secundus, amidst all his good qualities, has a spice of obstinacy, and that his virtues as well as his imperfections, are as it were tinged by a certain stiffness of opinion, which makes them particularly his own and distinguishes them from those of others. This cast of mind, though generally disagreeable in itself, still renders his conversation somewhat attractive, and more delightful than the same degree of studied compliance would appear in its ordinary colours.

As we were supping together the other night in the study of one of our number, the conversation happened to turn upon a neat version which had been proposed by Primus in that day's Classical lesson; and we good-humouredly rallied Secundus upon the sad failures he had experienced in attempting the same. Now Secundus, who values himself very highly upon the hatred which he bears to Classical learning, immediately took up the point with considerable warmth. "What advantage," he urged, "could arise from being able to turn a few sentences of elaborate Greek or Latin into a few sentences of still more elaborate English. It was a trick, he averred, a mere trick, which could be acquired by anyone who had from Nature intelligence enough to build a card house." Here Tertius broke in, reminding him that what he said might be vouched with equal plausibility against his favourite study of Mathematics. The Mathematician, however, obstinately maintained his point, but finding that he could not bring forward any substantial argument, with no mean tact turned the subject. "And what fool," he said waxing warm, "could fail of getting a great reputation for excellence in scholarship, who chose to shut himself up in his study and commit his grammar and irregular verbs to memory, but what real remuneration would he derive from such sheer mechanical labour? And the absurd folly that you great Classical authorities put forth under the title of comparative philology is astounding. You remark that in Greek μn and uè are pronounced alike, whilst in English I aye have pretty nearly the same sound, so you build a theory

that the Greek is a negational whilst the English is an affirmative language, and you prove that this could not but have occurred from the different climate and national features of the two countries." This was said with so grave a face and with such a serious demeanour, that we could not restrain our laughter, which was heightened all the more by Secundus triumphantly asserting that he had placed us now upon the horns of a digamma. Here Sextus interposed, and said that he was really unable to see what was the gain to be arrived at by grinding (as he styles it) at Classics or at Mathematics either. "Would these enable a man to ride better, or throw a fly better, or shoot better, or would they help him to be at ease in the company of strangers, would they assist him to converse with a partner in a dance, would they tell him whether in visiting a friend he should take his hat with him or leave it in the hall ?" He was, in fact, growing quite eloquent in the enumeration of what he considered to be the all-in-all to a gentleman's education, when we reminded him that it was not for this merely we were at school, and that these were not the sole aim in life, but were additions and refined accomplishments. Aye but, he answered, determined not to be beaten, what are Classics and Mathematics but refined additions and not so useful either as those accomplishments you affect to sneer at." And then ensued a long and, in many respects, senseless discussion in which he upheld his point. Everyone, in fact, pressed his own peculiar pursuit or hobby, as men call it; the Natural-historian glorified insect-hunting, the Mathematician figures, the Classical-swell scholarship, the plodder obedience to rules, and Sextus idleness. But Secundus especially urged his original point and carried his declamations against Classics to such a pitch that after prayers I could not forbear throwing together such reflections as occurred to me upon the subject.

There is no doubt that the study of Classics as it is conducted at present is to any person, who is not gifted with an extraordinary memory, a very laborious and perhaps uninteresting pursuit. The reason of this is that the note book is so much called in request. It would be hardly unfair to say that there is more of critical annotation than of translation accomplished in the hour. In twenty lines of Virgil there are often as many lines by way of reference and parallel passage to be copied down and reproduced at the end of term; then there are various readings innumerable, and emendations to be chronicled together with the names of the proposers.

Now this would not be so unbearable, if the references were apropos of the spirit and subject matter, but to be broken off in the midst of a beautiful description, to turn out