Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/98

70 manner by an oral biography. The modern pronunciation, which corresponds with the accents, is fatal to the ancient metre; all the quantities are utterly set at naught. The Greeks feel this, notwithstanding their claim to have preserved the tradition of the ancient pronunciation, which appears to be a very doubtful pretension. The want of accordance be- tween ancient quantity and accent is, doubtless, owing to the fact that classical poetry was not composed to be read, but to be chanted, with the accompaniment of music. After Homer came a somewhat elementary examination in moral and physical philosophy, and after that mathematics. The pupil stood by the side of an immense slate, on which he drew the geometrical figures, and then went through the problem.

This part of the examination being rather dry, I got somewhat sleepy, and the Archbishop, who had never before beheld a Gibus hat, amused himself with moving the springs of mine backwards and forwards. This invention astonished the venerable old gentleman very much. The sight of the large slate with the diagram upon it, in Greek letters, with the explanation all written in the Greek language, reminded me of the schools of antiquity, where mathematics were probably taught in this practical way, by making the pupil draw the geometrical fiofure on a slate. The examination of the school concluded with the young ladies, who construed St. Chrysostom with great success, and gave biographies of several celebrated characters in antiquity. The tone of delivery was somewhat drawling and