COURSE IN ENGLISH,” INCLUDING THE TOPICS: OUR AIM, THE
LAND, THE PEOPLE, THEIR WRITINGS, THE START, FIRST BOOK IN
GREEK, THE GREEK READER, AND XENOPHON’S ANABASIS.
By ALBERT M. MARTIN, GENERAL SECRETARY C. L. S. C.
1. Q. What is the primary design of the series of books of which the
“Preparatory Greek Course in English” is one? A. To enable persons
prevented from accomplishing a course of school and college training
in Latin and Greek, to enjoy an advantage as nearly as possible
equivalent, through the medium of their native tongue.
2. Q. What is the specific object of the present particular volume? A.
To put into the hands of readers the means of accomplishing, so far as
this can be done in English, the same course of study in Greek as that
prescribed for those who are preparing to enter college.
3. Q. What signal example in the modern world, and what still more
signal example in the ancient, of the fact that extent of territory is
not chiefly what makes the greatness of a great people? A. England in
the modern world, and Greece in the ancient.
4. Q. What was the extent of the utmost area of Greece? A. Two hundred
and fifty miles by one hundred and eighty miles. Greece was less than
one-half the size of the State of New York.
5. Q. In what latitude is Greece? A. About the same as the State of
Virginia.
6. Q. Of what three most famous peoples in the world are the Greeks
one? A. The Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans.
7. Q. Of the three for what were the Greeks by far the most remarkable?
A. For the variety and versatility of their genius.
8. Q. By what name did the Greeks speak of themselves, and what was
their name for the land in which they lived? A. Hellenes, and Hellas
was their name for the land in which they lived.
9. Q. When trustworthy history begins, what were the three chief
divisions of the Hellenic stock? A. The Dorians, the Æolians and the
Ionians.
10. Q. Give the names of four prominent cities of Greece. A. Athens,
Sparta, Thebes, and Corinth.
11. Q. Of all that the Greeks did in the world, what remains to us
recognizably in the form given it by their cunning brain and hand? A. A
few coins, architectural remains and sculpture, and some masterpieces
of literary composition.
12. Q. For what two things is the literature of Greece equally
remarkable? A. For its matter and for its form.
13. Q. What is said of the form of Greek literature? A. There never has
been elsewhere in the world so much written approaching so nearly to
ideal perfection in form as among the Greeks.
14. Q. Under what limitations did the ancient Greeks do their work? A.
They were pagans. They groped for truth, and they missed it oftener
than they found it, at least in the case of their philosophy.
15. Q. In what departments of literature do we have, without reserve,
to acknowledge the supremacy of the Greeks? A. In eloquence, and in the
literature of rhetoric, of taste, and of criticism.
16. Q. What was the golden age of Greek literature, Greek art and Greek
arms? A. The age of Pericles.
17. Q. What is said of the pronunciation of their language by the
ancient Greeks? A. Nobody knows with certainty exactly how the ancient
Greeks pronounced their language.
18. Q. What has been the general rule for scholars in the pronunciation
of Greek? A. To pronounce it somewhat according to the analogy of their
own vernacular.
19. Q. What attempt, only partially successful, has recently been made
to introduce uniformity in the pronunciation of Greek? A. To secure the
common adoption of the pronunciation prevalent in Greece at the present
day.
20. Q. What method, devised at first for facilitating the study of
modern languages, has more lately been applied in various modifications
to both Latin and Greek? A. What is called the Ollendorff method.
21. Q. What two things determine largely what Greek text-books shall
be used? A. The patronage of leading colleges, and the books issued by
leading publishing houses.
22. Q. What four Greek grammars are mentioned as perhaps the best? A.
Hadley’s, Goodwin’s, Crosby’s, and Sophocles’.
23. Q. To what sources of Greek learning do all these manuals
acknowledge their indebtedness? A. To German sources of Greek learning.
24. Q. Who is the most recent of the great German authorities in Greek
grammar? A. Curtius.
25. Q. What two other German authorities, now a little antiquated, were
each a great name in his day? A. Kühner and Buttman.
* * * * *
26. Q. In what dialect are the books chiefly written from which the
selections are taken in making up Greek readers? A. The Attic dialect;
that is the dialect spoken in Attica, of which Athens was the capital.
27. Q. By way of comparison what does our author say Athens was to
Greece in literature? A. What Paris is, and always has been, to France.
28. Q. Where is a singularly beautiful passage found descriptive of
Athens in her imperial supremacy of intellect? A. In Milton’s “Paradise
Regained.”
29. Q. How many chief dialects were there of the Greek language,
and how were they created? A. There were three, created in part by
differences of age, and in part by differences of country.
30. Q. In whose writings is the Ionic dialect exemplified, and how is
it characterized? A. In the writings of Homer and Herodotus, and is
characterized by fluent sweetness to the ear.
31. Q. In what dialect were the most of the greatest works in Greek
literature composed? A. The Attic.
32. Q. What is said of the Attic dialect? A. It is the neatest, most
cultivated and most elegant of all the varieties of Greek speech.
33. Q. To whom are the fables commonly attributed that are generally
found in Greek readers? A. Æsop.
34. Q. When was Æsop born? A. About 620 B. C.
35. Q. What is said of the fables that go under his name? A. They are
mainly the collection of a monk of the fourteenth century.
36. Q. What is said of the sources of the anecdotes found in Greek
readers? A. They are culled from various sources, Plutarch, the
biographer, furnishing his full share.
37. Q. Give the names of some of the eminent persons about whom
anecdotes are usually related in these collections. A. Diogenes, Plato,
Zeno, Solon, Alexander, and Philip of Macedon.
38. Q. What Greek writer of the second century after Christ is more or
less quoted from in the ordinary Greek reader? A. Lucian.
39. Q. What famous dialogues did he write? A. Dialogues of the Dead.
40. Q. Of what have these dialogues been the original? A. Of several
justly admired imitations.
41. Q. In what direction did Lucian exercise his wit? A. In ridiculing
paganism.
42. Q. Mention some of the kinds of other matter that goes to make up
the Greek reader. A. Bits of natural history and fragments of mythology.
43. Q. From what work of Xenophon do Greek readers often embrace
extracts? A. His Memorabilia of Socrates.
44. Q. What was the design of this work? A. To vindicate the memory
of Socrates from the charges of impiety and of corrupting influence
exerted on the Athenian youth, under which he had suffered the penalty
of death.
45. Q. What is the plan of the work? A. It is largely to relate what
Socrates did actually teach.
46. Q. What work by a Christian writer does pagan Socrates in large
part anticipate? A. “Natural Theology,” by Paley.
47. Q. Who was the wife of Socrates? A. Xanthippe.
48. Q. In what way has the fame of Socrates associated the name of
Xanthippe with his own? A. As perhaps the most celebrated scold in the
world.
49. Q. What was the chief characteristic trait of the method of
Socrates in teaching? A. His art in asking questions.
50. Q. Why is it that Greek readers sometimes edit the text of their
extracts from the authors who furnish the matter? A. Because they
sometimes contain expressions such as a strict Christian, moral or
æsthetic judgment would prefer to expunge.
* * * * *
51. Q. What is the book usually adopted in sequel to the reader for
giving students their Greek preparation to enter college? A. Xenophon’s
Anabasis.
52. Q. In what two respects is this work highly interesting? A. First,
as a specimen of literary art, and second, as strikingly illustrative
of the Greek spirit and character.
53. Q. What is the meaning of the word “Anabasis?” A. “A march upward,”
that is, from the sea.
54. Q. Of what is the book an account? A. Of an expedition by Cyrus the
younger into central Asia, and the retreat of the Greek part of his
army.
55. Q. Who accompanied Cyrus on this expedition? A. An oriental army of
about 100,000, and a body of Greeks numbering about 13,000.
56. Q. What was the object of this invasion on the part of Cyrus? A.
To obtain possession of the Persian throne, occupied by his brother
Artaxerxes.
57. Q. When the two Persian brothers finally met in the collision of
arms who was slain? A. Cyrus.
58. Q. What did the Greeks now have for their sole business? A. To
secure their own safety in withdrawing homeward from the enemy’s
country.
59. Q. In what does the main interest of the Anabasis as a narrative
lie? A. Rather in the retreat than in the advance.
60. Q. From what does the whole matter of the famous advance and
retreat of the ten thousand derive grave secondary importance? A. From
the fact that it resulted in revealing to Greece the essential weakness
and vulnerableness of the imposing Persian empire.
61. Q. When was Xenophon, the author, born and with whom was he not far
from contemporary? A. He was born about 431 B. C., being thus not far
from contemporary with the Hebrew prophet Malachi.
62. Q. What did Xenophon’s presence of mind and practical wisdom give
him in the retreat? A. A kind of leadership which he maintained until a
prosperous issue was reached on the shores of Greece.
63. Q. Among the other chief works of Xenophon what one is prominent?
A. The Cyropædia.
64. Q. What is the story of the Anabasis in large a part? A. An
itineracy, that is a journal of halts and marches.
65. Q. What was the starting point of the expedition? A. Sardis.
66. Q. At what time was the start made? A. In the spring of the year
401 B. C.
67. Q. In what supposition does Xenophon say Artaxerxes indulged which
prevented him from suspecting Cyrus of plotting against him? A. That
Cyrus was raising troops for war with Tissaphernes, a Persian governor
of certain parts near the satrapy of Cyrus.
68. Q. During the march the army plundered what city where four hundred
years later the Apostle Paul was born? A. Tarsus.
69. Q. When they reached the river Euphrates what did Cyrus openly tell
the Greek captains as to the object of the expedition? A. That he was
marching to Babylon against the great king Artaxerxes.
70. Q. What was the result of this disclosure when made to the men? A.
They felt, or feigned, much displeasure, but by lavish promises the
majority were prevailed upon to adhere to Cyrus.
71. Q. The remainder of the advance of Cyrus lay along the left bank of
what river? A. The Euphrates.
72. Q. What Persian commander among the forces proved a traitor and met
with a tragic death? A. Orentes.
73. Q. Where did the armies of Cyrus and of Artaxerxes finally
encounter each other? A. At Cunaxa.
74. Q. In what way did Cyrus meet with his death? A. While engaged in a
personal contest with Artaxerxes Cyrus was struck with a javelin under
the eye and slain.
75. Q. During the truce that followed what five generals among the
Greeks were enticed into the tent of Tissaphernes, made prisoners,
and afterwards put to death? A. Clearchus, Proxenus, Menon, Agias and
Socrates.
* * * * *
76. Q. What was one of the first steps now taken to secure the safety
of the Greeks? A. A general meeting was called of all the surviving
officers and new commanders were chosen to take the places of those
lost, Xenophon being put in the place of his friend Proxenus.
77. Q. After this had been done what action was taken as to the rank
and file? A. The men were called together and stoutly harangued by
three men in succession, Xenophon being the last.
78. Q. What was one of Xenophon’s heroic propositions that was agreed
to? A. To burn everything they could possibly spare on the homeward
march.
79. Q. What answer did they return to Mithradates, a neighboring
Persian satrap, when asked to know what their present plan might be?
A. If unmolested, to go home, doing as little injury as possible to
the country through which they passed, but to fight their best if
opposition was offered.
80. Q. Being convinced that the mission of Mithradates was a
treacherous one, what resolution did the Grecian generals take? A. That
there should be no communication with the enemy by heralds.
81. Q. What was the general direction taken by the Greeks in the first
part of their retreat? A. A northerly direction toward the Black Sea.
82. Q. By whom were they followed and almost daily attacked during the
first portion of their retreat? A. Tissaphernes and a Persian army.
83. Q. What hostile tribe of barbarians violently opposed their march
through their territory near the headwaters of the Euphrates? A. The
Carduchians.
84. Q. What Persian governor did they encounter in Armenia? A.
Tiribazus.
85. Q. With what foes in the elements did they next meet? A. Deep snow
and a terrible north wind.
86. Q. In one portion of Armenia at what kind of a village did the
Greeks find rest and food after a prolonged march through the snow? A.
At an underground village.
87. Q. What do travelers tell us at the present time as to the manner
in which the Armenians of that region build their houses? A. That they
still build them under ground.
88. Q. Into what country did the Greeks next advance? A. The country of
the Taochians.
89. Q. With what difficulty did they here meet? A. Great difficulty in
obtaining a supply of provisions.
90. Q. At what mountain did the Greeks get the first view of the Black
Sea? A. Mount Theches.
91. Q. At what place did they reach the sea two days afterwards? A. At
Trebizond.
92. Q. What universal desire did the sight of the sea awaken in the
army? A. To prosecute the remainder of their journey on that element.
93. Q. On what mission did Chirisophus go forward to Byzantium? A. To
endeavor to procure transports for the conveyance of the army.
94. Q. While awaiting the transports how were the ten thousand
employed? A. In marauding expeditions, and in collecting all the
vessels possible.
95. Q. Chirisophus delaying to return, how did they continue their
journey? A. Partly by land and partly by water.
96. Q. When they were finally joined by Chirisophus, what did he bring
with him? A. Only a single trireme.
97. Q. At what place did the Greeks pass into Europe from Asia? A. At
Byzantium.
98. Q. Afterwards whom did the army engage to serve in a war against
Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus? A. The Lacedæmonians.
99. Q. To what number was the army now reduced? A. To six thousand.
100. Q. After the incorporation of the remainder of the ten thousand
with the Lacedæmonian army, where did Xenophon go? A. To Athens.
OUTLINE OF C. L. S. C. STUDIES FOR DECEMBER.
For the month of December the Required C. L. S. C. Reading comprises
the first part of Prof. Wilkinson’s Preparatory Greek Course in
English, and readings in English, Russian, and Religious History and
Literature, studies in Ancient Greek Life, and readings from Russian
Literature. The reading in Prof. Wilkinson’s Preparatory Greek Course
in English is from the commencement of the book to page 124. The
remainder of the reading for the month is found in THE CHAUTAUQUAN. The
following is the division according to weeks:
FIRST WEEK—1. Wilkinson’s Preparatory Greek Course in English, from
the commencement of the book to page 33—Our Aim, the Land, the People,
their Writings, the Start, First Books in Greek.
2. Studies in Ancient Greek Life, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.
3. Sunday Readings, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN, selection for December 3.
4. Questions and Answers on Preparatory Greek Course in English, from
No. 1 to No. 25.
SECOND WEEK—1. Wilkinson’s Preparatory Greek Course in English, from
page 35 to page 58—the Greek Reader.
2. Sunday Readings, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN, selection for December 10.
3. Questions and Answers on Preparatory Greek Course in English, from
No. 26 to No. 50.
THIRD WEEK—1. Wilkinson’s Preparatory Greek Course in English, from
page 59 to page 96—Xenophon’s Anabasis—Introductory, and first and
second books.
2. History and Literature of Russia, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.
3. Sunday Readings, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN, selection for December 17.
4. Questions and Answers on Preparatory Greek Course in English, from
No. 51 to No. 75.
FOURTH WEEK—1. Wilkinson’s Preparatory Greek Course in English, from
page 96 to page 123—Xenophon’s Anabasis—third, fourth, fifth, sixth,
and seventh books.
2. Pictures from English History, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.
3. Sunday Readings, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN, selections for December 24 and
31.
4. Questions and Answers on Preparatory Greek Course in English, from
No. 76 to No. 100.
QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY.
By ALBERT M. MARTIN, GENERAL SECRETARY C. L. S. C.
1. How large is the county of Westchester, in the State of New York,
which is about half the size of Attica? [Page 7.]
2. Why did the Romans give the name “Greeks” to the Hellenes? [Page 12.]
3. Give two examples of Spartan laconisms of speech. [Page 13.]
4. What are the literary tidings from modern Greece that seem to
foretoken close at hand a signal renascence of Greek literature? [Page
20.]
5. Who was blind Melesigenes? [Page 36.]
6. Who was pronounced the wisest of men by an oracle, and by what
oracle, and in what words? [Page 37.]
7. How is the monk Planudes apparently relieved of the imputation
concerning the authorship of the biography of Æsop ascribed to him?
[Page 39.]
8. What are some of the reasons for supposing this biography is a
falsifying one? [Page 39.]
9. What is meant by “the Sacred Hetacomb?” [Page 45.]
10. Describe the ceremony of taking a prisoner by the mantle in token
that he is to suffer death. [Page 81.]
11. Describe the scythed chariots of the Persians. [Page 83.]
12. From what author is the quotation, “When Greek joined Greek, then
was the tug of war?” [Page 88.]
13. Describe the Persian slingers.
14. What is the origin of the familiar expression, “War even to the
knife?” [Page 99.]
15. What occasioned the singular effect upon the men of the eating of
honeycombs as related by Xenophon? [Page 119.]
[NOTE.—Answers are not required to questions for further study. The
questions here given relate to subjects alluded to in the required
reading for the month. After each question the page is given of
Wilkinson’s Preparatory Greek Course in English, on which a reference
is made to the subject. Members who are able to procure answers to all
the questions for further study in this number of THE CHAUTAUQUAN will
receive an acknowledgment if the replies are forwarded to Albert M.
Martin, General Secretary C. L. S. C., Pittsburg, Pa., so as to reach
him by the first of January. Answers will be published in the February
number of THE CHAUTAUQUAN. The answers should be brief, and need not be
sent unless to all the questions.]
C. L. S. C. ROUND-TABLE.[F]
Dr. Wm. M. Blackburn, of Cincinnati, was at once introduced, and
delivered the following address:
“HOW ENGLAND MAINTAINED HER NATIONALITY DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.”
Several persons have asked me in regard to the method of studying
history by maps, that is, by making your own maps as you go along. If
I had time I would like to talk about that, and I will explain it to
anybody who wishes to know more about it. What I would do is this: if
I were studying, for example, the history of Greece, I would read over
some period, some particular part of it, an epoch—no matter what you
may call it. I would get a good map of Greece, lay some thin paper over
it, and trace the map over it in colored inks. Upon that map you put
the events of that period or era, and then make another map of another
period or era; stitch them all together. Perhaps you will never look at
them again, but you have got them in your mind. That is all you want.
Now to the lecture. We have seen in outline how Britain became English,
and how England became Christian; how the Church was unified; and how
the unification of the English people was fairly begun. So we have an
English Church, and an English Nation, with a capital “N.” Now, how
were these to be carried through the Middle Ages? Let that be our main
question to-day.
In general the means were these: wiser kingship, resistance to enemies,
incorporation of new national elements (do not gnash on me if I do
not always “nash” that way), improvement of the constitution, as seen
in the Magna Charta and the House of Commons, and the reforms in the
church. These means I shall treat under seven points, and if I do not
get through the seven I will get through as many as I can.
1. Wider, broader and superior kingship. This begins with Alfred,
the first really great king, and the only Christian king that was
ever styled the Great. All his life was one of illness, yet he always
maintained a cheerful, a devout spirit, and a busy hand. He reminds us
of King David in his various trials and activities.
Now some of the things which Alfred did were these: in national
affairs he tried to rescue, defend, unify, and greaten England. He
was an organizer; he created a navy. He made good roads. He repaired
fortresses. He brought London from the ashes; he started it on its way
to universal commerce. His long-lost and curious jewel bears the words
“Alfred made me.” And this might almost be said of England. Her realms
became one nation, that is the southern realm. The old Britons were in
the west.
Thomas Hughes has written a life of Alfred the Great; this is the best
one you will find concerning him. I presume you have read it. He worked
his way out of ignorance; he gave an impetus to popular education and
literature; I do not believe that he was unable to write. Why, in those
days it was not considered to be the manly and royal thing for a man to
write his own name; he had a servant to do that. Sometimes he simply
put a sign there; the sign of the cross, a mark. Now that is what is
meant by a man signing his name. It does not mean that he could not
write it, but the man who can write subscribes his name.
His schemes of education were vast; they were the last vigorous
attempt at popular enlightenment in the Middle Ages. I have not time
to dwell on all these things, but you will remember that Alfred gave
a great impetus to the study of the Scriptures, and that from him and
his co-laborers came a version of the Psalms and other portions of
the Scriptures. Then his education recognized the supremacy of the
moral law. He believed in the ten commandments and he worked them into
the laws. Labor on Sundays was forbidden. Women of every class were
carefully protected from insult; monks must not be idle and vicious;
they must go to work educating people in the villages. He made out a
rule for his aldermen to attend the schools or resign their offices;
and that was a good thing for the aldermen. If they would not go to
school, they resigned; and that was a good thing for the people. The
clergy must have wives; bishops must visit among the dioceses, visit
and preach to some purpose. In all respects his laws were designed for
the greatest good of the greatest number. Judges must be hung if they
caused the scales of justice to be swayed by bribes. He probably did
not introduce, but probably modified, trial by jury. In those days the
jury was formed in this way: they took the men who knew the most about
an act or a crime, the men who had been eye-witnesses; they called them
together and got what they knew about it, and made up the decision. In
our day they take the men who know the least about it, and the biggest
fools in all the land; (I hope one thing will come, and that is this—I
do not suppose anybody here has been on a jury, or I would not make
this remark—I hope the day will come when we will have such times as
this, that you can get a jury who will not let a scoundrel off and
perjure themselves. Let us reform the jury laws. The Chautauqua Circle
might accomplish much in that way).