Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/182



one of the works of Xenophon is usually the first Greek prose book that is put into the hands of the schoolboy; but it is for the sake of his language rather than his matter that Xenophon is read in our schools and colleges, and thus he is read in a fragmentary way, and comparatively few people have anything like a complete knowledge of his writings. It has indeed been too much the fault of classical education in England to think exclusively of the language and style, and to disregard the study of the actual life and ideas of the ancients, as treasured up in their books. But in bringing, as in this little volume, an ancient classical author to the notice of English readers, there is no longer the temptation to rest contented with an admiration of the words; the matter must stand forth, as it were, en deshabille, and the question must be asked, What is this famous author worth for all time, when his sentences have been robbed of that perfection of form which undoubtedly entitled him to be appreciated as an artist of style?