or reads to the class, usually from the
original, other portions of the ancient literature.

The number and extent of such courses in the different institutions
vary according to the strength of the faculty, the plan of the
curriculum, and the number and demands of the students in each. In the
main, however, the list of selections from the ancient literature
presented in such courses in all the colleges is much the same. Many
of these courses deal with one particular author and his works, such
as Sophocles, Plato, Plautus, or Horace. Others deal with some
particular kind of literature, such as Greek tragedy or oratory, Latin
comedy, etc., or with a group of authors of different types combined
for the sake of variety.[81]

=Methods commonly pursued=

The methods as well as the aims of such courses are well exemplified
in the following passages contained in the _Circular of Information_
for 1915-1916 of the University of Chicago, page 211: "Ability to read
Greek with accuracy and ease, and intelligent enjoyment of the
masterpieces of Greek literature are the indispensable prerequisites
of all higher Greek scholarship. All other interests that may attach
to the study are subordinate to these, and their pursuit is positively
harmful if it prematurely distracts the student's attention from his
main purpose."

It is not immediately apparent what distinction is made here, if there
is any, between the "prerequisites" and the "main purpose" of
classical scholarship. What the chief aim of classical teaching is
according to this view, however, is made clear by the two paragraphs
which follow, as well as by the descriptions of the individual courses
offered by the Chicago faculty.

"In the work of the Junior Colleges the Department will keep this
principle steadily in view, and will endeavor to teach a practical
knowledge of Greek vocabulary and idiom, and to impart literary and
historic culture by means of rapid viva voce translation and
interpretation of the simpler masterpieces of the literature.... In the
Senior Colleges the chief stress will be laid on reading and exegesis,
but the range of authors presented to the student's choice will be
enlarged."

=Value of such courses=

The advantage of such courses is that they make the students who take
them familiar with at least some limited portions of the best of the
ancient literature in its original form, and most people are agreed
that this is the only way in which stu