Excerpt from Methods in Greek Now the literary value of any language, of any literary pro duction. Is something which cannot be demonstrated; _it must be felt. The relative literary value of Greek and of any other tongue may be stated; but. The. Statement can be supported by indirect evidence alone. The evidence of' English men of letters, who are familiar with both English and Greek, is practically unanimous in favor of the great literary superiority of Greci. The evidenc' of litcrarv men of other nationalities, who understandboth their own language and the ancient tongue of Greece, is practically unanimous in favor of the literary superiority of the latter. Their testimony has greater weight from the fact that their necessarily greater familiarity with their native tongue must enable them to appreciate more fully its literary value; and their estimate of the literary value of a foreign tongue, however carefully mastered, must always be an under rather than an over - estimate. In this connection it is hardlynecessary to state that an estimate of the comparative literary value of two languages is worthless, unless coming from one. Who is a' fair, master of each, and that a bias in favor cf the language with which the critic is more familiar must be expected, a bias which should be. Directly proportioned to the difference of degree of fam1l ar1t To the above consideration must be added the undoubted fa ti at Greek literature has most powerfully influenced all modern literature. The connection be tween the literatureof Greece and that of any modern European nation is more intimate and'direct than any connection between the respective literatures of any two modern nations. The unifying aetus of all that is greatest and most enduring in modern litera ture is found in'the literature of ancient Greece. The temptation is very strong to dwell upon this point, and to marshal the host of evidence which may be adduced in its support, but as the last argument is seldom disputed, space may advantageously be em litillllzctl h 1 allowing the unsupported statement to stand. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.