Very Probably
Aristarchus was right in his dislike of Crates's preference of what he
called criticism, to grammar. Very probably he connected it with the
other object of his especial hatred, that fashion of interpreting Homer
allegorically, which was springing up in his time, and which afterwards
under the Neoplatonists rose to a frantic height, and helped to destroy
in them, not only their power of sound judgment, and of asking each
thing patiently what it was, but also any real reverence for, or
understanding of, the very authors over whom they declaimed and
sentimentalised.
Yes--the Cambridge Tutor was right. Before you can tell what a man
means, you must have patience to find out what he says. So far from
wishing our grammatical and philological education to be less severe
than it is, I think it is not severe enough. In an age like this--an
age of lectures, and of popular literature, and of self-culture, too
often random and capricious, however earnest, we cannot be too careful
in asking ourselves, in compelling others to ask themselves, the meaning
of every word which they use, of every word which they read; in assuring
them, whether they will believe us or not, that the moral, as well as
the intellectual culture, acquired by translating accurately one
dialogue of Plato, by making out thoroughly the sense of one chapter of
a standard author, is greater than they will get from skimming whole
folios of Schlegelian aesthetics, resumes, histories of philosophy, and
the like second-hand information, or attending seven lectures a-week
till their lives' end.
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