Word: old
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Dates: during 1870-1879
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...followed at Harvard, and thinks the object should be to point out to us "the beauties of idea and expression." He likens the present system to that Mr. Ruskin prescribes for the cultivation of the artistic taste, and objects to this, both because it upsets our faith in our old ideas of art, and because, if I understand, it is a system...
...Ruskin's system accomplishes the first of these things, it is able to do some good at least; for, in all probability, our old ideas are wrong. And why should we not study art systematically? If I place a picture of Albert Durer's before an ignorant person, he will doubtless feel none of the beauty which is certainly there. Nor will my saying to him, "This is a beautiful picture," do good. We must all have education in art, as well as in everything else requiring knowledge and judgment; and, in my opinion, this education is best secured...
...late, however, the system has been gradually changing. Literary Ruskins have begun to turn their attention to the education of the classic world, to revolutionize the old system of reading and enjoying works of ancient genius, to replace it by their new method of parsing and dissecting them...
...easy and familiar old pronunciation is done away with, in favor of a new, foreign-sounding style. The pages of the old writers seem no longer to be regarded as mines of beautiful and lofty thought, of fascinating and exciting story, but rather as quarries whence to pry unheard-of subjunctives and rare optatives...
...leisure, are hardly as applicable to the student. They forget that the critical care with which they search the intricacies of works, to themselves familiar, is hardly appreciable, and certainly not enjoyable, to the student who for the first time opens these pages. They do not remember the good old-fashioned education which gave them their fondness for the life they now pursue, but only call to mind their new theories, and apply them practically to the rising generations of students...