DEAR SIR,--I look for your sympathy when I say that I regard the abolition
of compulsory Greek at Oxford as tantamount to the collapse of the last
bulwark of British Culture. It is idle for the advocates of this act of
vandalism to protest that the spirit of Ancient Hellas can be adequately
conveyed in the form of translations, and to illustrate this futile
argument by reference to the authorised version of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Admirable as that version may be, is it for a moment to be supposed that it
can take the place of the original as a source of spiritual education? or
that our appreciation of Holy Writ would not be a hundred-fold increased if
it were fortified by a knowledge of the first principles of Hebraic syntax
and by an elementary acquaintance with Hebraic composition. It is
impossible to estimate the influence of such knowledge in tending to endear
the Bible to our youth. To me indeed it has always been incomprehensible
that our Prelates, who presumably have the welfare of the Church at heart,
have never insisted on making Hebrew a compulsory subject for Responsions.
And now Greek has gone and Oxford is the home of one more lost cause. The
gods (of the gallery) may be with the winners, but it is the losing side
that still appeals to
Yours incorruptibly,
CATO.
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"_THE TIMES'_ FLIGHT."
DEAR MR. PUNCH,--His many friends (among whom I take leave to count myself)
will heartily sympathise with Dr. CHALMERS MITCHELL on the engine troubles
he has passed through, culminating in the enforced curtailment of his
scientific expedition. It is gratifying to think that the pure and lofty
spirit of research which animated the great newspaper-proprietor who sent
him forth on this mission has been vindicated by the Doctor's discovery of
an unmapped volcano. Regrettably the conditions under which he observed it
precluded him from making an expert survey of it, and even from securing
specimens of its geological structure. The possibility of such an
unfortunate contingency, which may have escaped the consideration of the
promoter of the expedition, was recognised by other scientists. But it was
confidently expected by his Zoological _confrères_ that his voyage of
exploration would add largely to our knowledge of the habits and customs of
the fauna of Africa, and notably of the giraffe, as coming, by the
exceptional development of its neck, within closest range of his vision as
he flew through the vast inane.
Even better opportunities for the observation of animal life would, it was
thought, occur during the occasional intervals spent on _terra firma_ for
purposes of repose or repair. And indeed one is greatly intrigued by the
following terse and airmanlike entry in the log for February 20th: "Much
disturbed by lions." Nothing is said of the actual capture of one of these
interesting denizens of the jungle, but reference to such a feat might well
have been omitted out of regard for brevity. Is it too much to hope that
the enterprise of _The Times_ may yet be rewarded by the addition of a live
lion to the Zoological Gardens?
In any case, by the exceptional opportunities he enjoyed for a careful
study of leaking cylinder jackets, insulating tape, red-leaded joints and
missing engines the intrepid Doctor must have added largely to his
knowledge of mechanical science, to say nothing of the botanical
discoveries he made when his machine came within a few inches of contact
with a banana-tree.
I, for one, look forward eagerly to his return, when he will be able to
narrate his experience with a fulness and freedom of language impossible in
cabled despatches.
Yours faithfully,
STANLEY LIVINGSTONE JONES.
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