and effective use of language, whether for social or for public purposes.  In the Rome of the republic a man of affairs or ambitions required above all things to be an accomplished speaker, and this tradition had not weakened under the empire.  Moreover, for the training of the intellectual faculties as such, the Romans had no better resource than grammatical and literary study.  Science was purely empirical, mathematics was mainly arithmetic and mensuration, and there was no room in these subjects for that exercise of discernment and acumen as well as of taste which was provided by well-directed study of the best authors.  In the secondary education, therefore, the chief object sought was “the knowledge of right expression,” and the acquirement of “correct, clear, and elegant diction.”  This was to be achieved by the most painstaking study of both the Greek and the Latin poets; and it is worth noting that the Romans had the good sense to begin with the best.  Every boy must know his Homer, and steep himself in the easy style and sound sentiments of Menander; he must also know his Virgil and his Terence.  He must know how to read a passage with proper intonation and appreciation of the sense, and he must learn large quantities of such poetry by heart.  In the early stages the master’s part is first to read aloud a certain passage what he thinks to be the right articulation and expression; he then explains the meaning or the allusions, and does whatever else he considers necessary for the understanding and appreciation of the piece.  It is then the pupil’s turn to stand up and repeat the passage so as to show that he has caught the true sense and can impart the true intonation.  No doubt there were bad and indifferent teachers as well as good ones, and doubtless there was much mere parroting on the part of the learner.  It was then, as it is now, chiefly a question of the sort of teacher.  It is probable that in many schools the action of the mental faculty as well as of the voice became pure sing-song.  Julius Caesar once made the comment:  “If you are singing, you are singing badly; if you are reading, you are singing.”

The more advanced stage of this higher education was that of the “school of oratory.”  The pupil has already acquired a correct grammatical style, and a reasonable amount of literary information; he now trains himself for the actual practice of the law-courts or the deliberative assembly.  He is to learn how to argue a case; how to arrange his matter; by what devices of language to make it most effective; and how to deliver it.  At a later date there were to be public professorships of this art, endowed by the emperor, but there are none of these at Rome itself under Nero.  The “professor of oratory” receives his fee of some L20 or so per annum from each pupil.  At this stage the study of the great prose-writers is substituted for that of the poets; themes are set for essays to be written upon them; and those essays will then be delivered as speeches.  Sometimes