Page:Report on public instruction in the lower provinces of the Bengal presidency (1850-51).djvu/16

"I have been led into the train of thought which has given rise to these remarks by observing that Omesh Chunder Dutt of this College, who was the first senior scholar of last year, would have re-appeared in the same place, if he had not fallen so far behind his successful competitor, Sreenath Doss, of the Hindu College, in mathematics and natural philosophy. It has been frequently said of late, either ignorantly or maliciously, but at all events very untruly, that for some years an undue preference has been given in our Colleges to the study of science, in discouragement of literature; and this has been attributed to my personal predilection for that branch of knowledge. It may not therefore be useless to explain my views of the function which such studies are meant to fulfil: because the remarks to which I allude, though crude and shallow, have been extensively circulated; and, if left wholly unanswered, may give rise to misapprehension among the real friends of Education in this country.

"The study of foreign languages has ever been a favourite pursuit in almost every celebrated place of Education in modern Europe: and those who are opposed to the particular system of our English schools and colleges, have found ample ground for attack in the inordinate time which, according to their views, is wasted in mastering the difficulties of two dead languages, Greek and Latin. The moderate defenders of that system, admitting that some changes in the plan of study might be desirable, have grounded their defence, not only on the fact that the study of these powerful and elegant languages purifies and elevates the taste and genius of those who become familar with the masterpieces of poetry, oratory, and historical narrative which are enshrined in their literature, but also on this, that the difficulty of mastering the artificial subtlety of their construction affords an excellent mental discipline for preparing a young student for the acquisition of any other kind of knowledge which he desires. But they do not supply all that is needed. Assuredly it would not be to them that we should resort for a code of ethics or of moral and political philosophy: for the minds which should be filled only with the precepts of the master-spirits of antiquity, on such topics, would possess at least as much of error and positive falsehood as of truth, however harmonious and concisely elegant might be its embodied expression. The founders of these institutions, therefore, feeling that the human intellect is never more nobly or more profitably employed than in the search after truth, would have thought their schools very imperfectly endowed, if they had not made some special provision for