Latin and Health for Old Age

LATIN AND HEALTH FOR OLD AGE* WALTON BROOKS McDANIEL\ Inthedays when even in our Ivy Colleges the anti-classicists were doing their best to remove the studies of Greek and Latin from their traditional and, admittedly, sometimes unfair position in the curriculum and even to expel them entirely from the requirements for the A.B. degree, circumstances forced me to play an active part in opposition. As a defender of the old, I am sure that there are no conceivable arguments pro or con that I did not have to hear, or read, or write; nor can I believe that in any educational dispute was prophesying ofdire results from change or failure to change ever more popular among protagonists or less convincing to opponents. The classicists lost the battle, and the great revealer, Time, has told us much about the consequences ofthat defeat. Now decades later, when education in our country has again come under sharp and severe review, and we can contemplate philosophically the outcome ofthat demotion ofclassical studies and weigh fairly the results ofvarious other innovations which were then being made in the name ofprogress, we Cassandras might well cry out in many cases, "I told you so," did not courtesy forbid. But even in this Age ofScience, this Atomic Era, which certainly favors materialism and emphasizes practicality, the old cry against "useless subjects " from proponents ofa "bread and butter education" is now less loud in the land. Schools responsible for the education ofyouth who look forward to success in business, engineering, medicine, or the arts ofwar pay increasing heed to Felix Schelling's favorite maxim, "A sword is best whetted on that which it is destined never to cut." * Reprinted with permission from The Classical Journal (March, 15)67). (Editorial note: The author, a distinguished scholar and teacher, first appeared in print in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology for 1900. After two years on the faculty at Harvard, he went in 1901 to the University of Pennsylvania, where he taught until his retirement in 1937. Early in March, 1969, he began his ninetyninth year.) t Present address: 4082 Malaga Avenue, Miami, Florida 33133. 445 What interested me greatly in the long struggle was to note on which side various men ofintellectual standing lined up. Support was strong for the old-fashioned education among leaders in the learned professions, lawyers, doctors, the clergy, etc., weak or totally missing among specialists in the social sciences, business teachers, professional educators (particularly those who were most glib in their ownpeculiarlanguage ofpedagese), and notably among certain almamatriotic alumni, who, with enough admission barriers away, looked for an incursion of eager matriculates who would increase greatly the size and importance oftheir alma mater. Rarely in those days did any fostering mother seem eager to reduce. Many a struggling institution depended largely upon the fees of its students, so that decrease in numbers could be ruinous. All this scramble is now unnecessary. Among our most determinedantagonistsat theuniversity was, strangely enough, a distinguished biologist. I often wondered what Latin had done to him or failed to do for him in his youth to make my friend so hostile. It is he and such others among specialists in the natural sciences as sided with him who are prominent in my recollection as I compose this peaceful essay. The reader will see why, as he nears its end. Our immediate task is to consider to what use a Latinist or a Hellenist after retirement from his duties as a teacher of the classics can put his knowledge ofthe ancient languages and civilizations to enrich the decline of life. Like other persons of classical learning who have given up their profession or business he now has leisure to reread in fond repetition his favorite Greek and Latin authors. Or he may go far afield from the usual and delve into ancient literature that piqued his curiosity but would require time to read that he could not spare during his active service. Or he may at last find time for research and publication that was once largely denied him. All this is obvious, but in my opinion there is something better than such sedentary occupations for any intellectual senex...