of a great force, fundamental to the
arts and expressing itself in the rhythm to which they attain.
Jaques-Dalcroze has re-opened a door which has long been closed. He has
rediscovered one of the secrets of Greek education.

A hundred years ago Wilhelm von Humboldt endeavoured to make Greek
ideals the paramount influence in the higher schools of Germany. He and
a group of friends had long felt indignant at the utilitarianism and
shallowness of the work of the schools. In Greek literature, Greek
philosophy and Greek art would be found a means of kindling new life in
education and of giving it the power of building up strong and
independent personalities. When there came to Humboldt the unexpected
opportunity of reforming the secondary schools of Prussia, he so
remodelled the course of study as to secure for Greek thought and
letters a place which, if not central and determinative, would at least
bring the elite of the younger generation in some measure under their
influence. But his administrative orders failed to impart to the schools
the spirit of ancient Greece. To Humboldt and his friends Greek studies
had been an inspiration because, apart from their intellectual
significance and literary form, those studies had been the channel of an
artistic impulse and had been entered into as art. But this artistic
power was not felt by the greater number of those who undertook, in
obedience to the new regulations, the duty of teaching Greek in the
schools. What was left in Greek studies after this failure of artistic
insight was often no more than another form of purely intellectual
discipline. A new subject had been added to the curriculum, but new life
had not been brought into the schools. The very name, Gymnasium, which
denoted their Hellenic purpose, seemed ironical. They were not Greek in
spirit and they ignored the training of the body. Thus what Wilhelm von
Humboldt had chiefly aimed at accomplishing, he failed to do. It was not
the power of Greek art that he brought into the schools but, in most
cases, merely the philological study of a second dead language. The
cause of his failure was that he had not discovered the educational
method which could effectually secure his purpose. He had assumed that,
in order to introduce the Greek spirit into education, it was sufficient
to insist upon the linguistic and literary study of Greek.

In time, attempts were made to remedy what was defective in Humboldt's
plan by insisting