And the effect of this severance of the study of the ancient classics from the study of our own is written large throughout the whole domain of education, in the instruction given in schools and institutes, in the monographs, manuals, and “editions” which pour from scholastic presses. In one of the most popular manuals now in circulation, the writer gravely tells us that “the pastoral name of _Lycidas_ was chosen by Milton to signify purity of character,” adding “in Theocritus a goat was so called λευκιτας for its whiteness,” that Comus “the drinker of human blood” revelled in the palace of Agamemnon.[5] Another writer confounds the “choruses” in Shakespeare with the choruses of the Greek plays. Another, commenting on the symbolism of ivy in the wreath of a poet, tells us that it indicates “constancy.”[6] Nothing is more common than to find elaborate critical comments on the _Faerie Queen_ without the smallest reference to its connection with Aristotle’s _Ethics_, and on Wordsworth’s great _Ode_ without any reference to Plato. But such is the confidence reposed in Professor Earle and his theory, and so determined are the legislators for the new School to exclude all connection with classical literature, that it is not admitted even as a special subject. A candidate has, as we have seen, the option of studying the influence exercised on old English literature by French, and on later literature by Italian and German; but the one thing which he has not the option of studying is the influence exercised on it by the literatures of Greece and Rome. Some of our readers may remember that a few years ago a public appeal was made for an expression of opinion on the question of associating the study of our own classics and that of the ancients. Opinions were elicited from many of the most distinguished men in England. They were all but unanimous, not merely in supporting the association, but in deprecating the severance. So wrote Mr. Gladstone, Cardinal Manning, Professor Jowett, Matthew Arnold, Lord Lytton, Mr. John Morley, Walter Pater, Addington Symonds; so wrote the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, the Rector of Lincoln, the President of Magdalen, the Warden of All Souls, and many others. We may add, also--for we are now at liberty to state it publicly--that this was emphatically the opinion of Robert Browning. We cannot, of course, quote these opinions _in extenso_,[7] and that of the late Professor Jowett and a portion of that of Mr. John Morley must suffice. I am as strongly of opinion that in an Honour School of English Literature or Modern Literature the subject should not be separated from classical literature, as I am of opinion that English literature should have a place in our curriculum. So writes Professor Jowett.