he old Greek was an 'all-round
man' as we say. He sought to praise and give thanks with all his members,
and to tune each to perfection. I think his way worth your considering.

(3) Lastly, and chiefly, I commend these classical authors to you because
they, in the European civilisation which we all inherit, conserve the
norm of literature; the steady grip on the essential; the clean outline
at which in verse or in prose--in epic, drama, history, or philosophical
treatise--a writer should aim.

So sure am I of this, and of its importance to those who think of
writing, that were this University to limit me to three texts on which to
preach English Literature to you, I should choose the Bible in our
Authorised Version, Shakespeare, and Homer (though it were but in a prose
translation). Two of these lie outside my marked province. Only one of
them finds a place in your English school. But Homer, who comes neither
within my map, nor within the ambit of the Tripos, would--because he most
evidently holds the norm, the essence, the secret of all--rank first of
the three for my purpose.

[Footnote 1: From "A History of Oxfordshire," by Mr J. Meade Falkner,
author of Murray's excellent Handbook of Oxfordshire.]

LECTURE X.

ENGLISH LITERATURE IN OUR UNIVERSITIES (I)

Wednesday, November 19

All lectures are too long. Towards the close of my last, Gentlemen, I let
fall a sentence which, heard by you in a moment of exhausted or languid
interest, has since, like enough, escaped your memory even if it earned
passing attention. So let me repeat it, for a fresh start.

Having quoted to you the words of our Holy Writ, 'I will sing and give
praise with the best member that I have,' I added 'But the old Greek was
an "all-round" man; he sought to praise and give thanks with all his
members, and to tune each to perfection.' Now a great many instructive
lectures might be written on that text: nevertheless you may think it a
strange one, and obscure, for the discourse on 'English Literature in our
Universities' which, according to promise, I must now attempt.

The term 'an all-round man' may easily mislead you unless you take it
with the rest of the sentence and particularly with the words 'praise and
give thanks.' Praise whom? Give thanks to whom? To _whom_ did our Greek
train all his members to render adoration?

Why, to the gods--his gods: to Zeus, Apollo, Aphrodite; and from them
down to the lesser guardian deities of