Mr.Hare justly refuses him the character of an exact scholar,or technical proficient at any time in either of the ancient literatures.
But he freely read in Greek and Latin,as in various modern languages;and in all fields,in the classical as well,his lively faculty of recognition and assimilation had given him large booty in proportion to his labor.One cannot under any circumstances conceive of Sterling as a steady dictionary philologue,historian,or archaeologist;nor did he here,nor could he well,attempt that course.At the same time,Greek and the Greeks being here before him,he could not fail to gather somewhat from it,to take some hue and shape from it.
Accordingly there is,to a singular extent,especially in his early writings,a certain tinge of Grecism and Heathen classicality traceable in him;--Classicality,indeed,which does not satisfy one's sense as real or truly living,but which glitters with a certain genial,if perhaps almost meretricious half-_japannish_splendor,--greatly distinguishable from mere gerund-grinding,and death in longs and shorts.If Classicality mean the practical conception,or attempt to conceive,what human life was in the epoch called classical,--perhaps few or none of Sterling's contemporaries in that Cambridge establishment carried away more of available Classicality than even he.
But here,as in his former schools,his studies and inquiries,diligently prosecuted I believe,were of the most discursive wide-flowing character;not steadily advancing along beaten roads towards College honors,but pulsing out with impetuous irregularity now on this tract,now on that,towards whatever spiritual Delphi might promise to unfold the mystery of this world,and announce to him what was,in our new day,the authentic message of the gods.His speculations,readings,inferences,glances and conclusions were doubtless sufficiently encyclopedic;his grand tutors the multifarious set of Books he devoured.And perhaps,--as is the singular case in most schools and educational establishments of this unexampled epoch,--it was not the express set of arrangements in this or any extant University that could essentially forward him,but only the implied and silent ones;less in the prescribed "course of study,"which seems to tend no-whither,than--if you will consider it--in the generous (not ungenerous)rebellion against said prescribed course,and the voluntary spirit of endeavor and adventure excited thereby,does help lie for a brave youth in such places.Curious to consider.
The fagging,the illicit boating,and the things _forbidden_by the schoolmaster,--these,I often notice in my Eton acquaintances,are the things that have done them good;these,and not their inconsiderable or considerable knowledge of the Greek accidence almost at all!What is Greek accidence,compared to Spartan discipline,if it can be had?
That latter is a real and grand attainment.Certainly,if rebellion is unfortunately needful,and you can rebel in a generous manner,several things may be acquired in that operation,--rigorous mutual fidelity,reticence,steadfastness,mild stoicism,and other virtues far transcending your Greek accidence.Nor can the unwisest "prescribed course of study"be considered quite useless,if it have incited you to try nobly on all sides for a course of your own.Asingular condition of Schools and High-schools,which have come down,in their strange old clothes and "courses of study,"from the monkish ages into this highly unmonkish one;--tragical condition,at which the intelligent observer makes deep pause!
One benefit,not to be dissevered from the most obsolete University still frequented by young ingenuous living souls,is that of manifold collision and communication with the said young souls;which,to every one of these coevals,is undoubtedly the most important branch of breeding for him.In this point,as the learned Huber has insisted,[6]the two English Universities,--their studies otherwise being granted to be nearly useless,and even ill done of their kind,--far excel all other Universities:so valuable are the rules of human behavior which from of old have tacitly established themselves there;so manful,with all its sad drawbacks,is the style of English character,"frank,******,rugged and yet courteous,"which has tacitly but imperatively got itself sanctioned and prescribed there.