now surpass myself, that my lectures were always excellent, but that there is more in them now. You surely cannot fancy that you are better judges than they are, though you do insult them by your indifference to their excitement.'

Libanius, it will be seen, is not afraid of speaking plainly, nor of sounding his own trumpet. It may be doubted if Professors have ever scolded their pupils more freely than he did, though perhaps he had good reason, if what he says of them is true that they tried to hinder freshmen from coming to his lectures, and were overjoyed when they saw their fellow-students going off to other Universities.

As

There is evidence indeed that in earlier times the scholars of the Sophists were often turbulent and rude, and had to be dealt with like unruly boys. has been already noted, it was specified as an unusual thing that in the second century, Proclus kept at Athens such strict discipline in his own circle, and would not let his pupils hiss, or play any of the

Even in

earlier ages there is like

evidence of

rudeness or

inattention.

pranks which, adds Philostratus, are so usual in the Phil.ii.106. classes of the schoolmen.

Philager too was a strict martinet, for he even

struck a sleepy hearer on the head when it was nod

ding, and once when on a visit to Herodes Atticus, ii. 84.

he fired up because he thought a student whom he

met was looking at him disrespectfully, 'What is

I

Question among the

Sophists as

to the use of the rod.

Himerius relies on love.

xv. i 2.

your name and country, Sir,' he asked, like a Proctor of our times, but he ended with a threat not so terrible perhaps to modern ears, see that you do not think of coming to any of my lectures.' ' And who are you, Sir,' was the answer, which made the Sophist still more angry, as he thought that all the world must know him. Some local vulgarism escaped him in his passion, which the student gravely noted, asking what good author he could find it in. Philager, wounded in his self-respect, sent an indignant letter to Herodes, to complain of the unseemly conduct of his pupils, who revenged themselves, however, on the hot-tempered stranger by hissing him off the scene at his first lecture, and afterwards exposing him for passing off some old speech known by heart as an extempore harangue.

Many of the students were mere lads, away from all control of parents, and such discipline as could be enforced among them could only come from the Professors. It was a disputed question seemingly among them whether they should rely on the influence of fear or love. Himerius, the last of the great holders of the Chair of Rhetoric at Athens, would only hear of the attractiveness of gentle words. He begins indeed on one occasion to rebuke plaintively the idle scholars who would not come and hear him, as foolish and ungrateful to the Master who treated them so fondly. Fain would I question them and

6

say,

what voice can charm your ears like mine, what gestures be so winning in your eyes, what birds of spring can sing so pleasantly as I do, what choral harmony, what blended sound of flute and pipes can touch your souls like the simple accents of this Chair. I detest those guardians of youth who cannot lead their flock, like shepherds, by the music of their pipe, but threaten them with blows and whippings. My sheep, my nurslings-may I never scare them with a frown-are to be guided by my eloquence to the groves and meadows of the Muses. To lead them I require no rod, but only melody. Music strengthens our mutual affection, and harmony gives the tone to my authority.' Such language, even from the Chair of Pastoral Theology, might be scarcely thought appropriate in these prosaic days.

used the

rod,

Libanius did not rely so much on the persuasive Libanius power of love, and used the rod at times, we read, to say nothing of the hard words with which he freely pelted his refractory young pupils. Yet he speaks of himself in the same lecture as by far too tender hearted, as naturally prone to be patient rather than to punish. And so he shrinks from the final penalty of expulsion. I have friendly relations with their parents, and the cities of their birth. I fear that if they hear their sons have been expelled, they will grieve as for their death, or even more, thinking such

but shrunk

from ex

pulsion.

i. 207.

ignominy even worse than death, knowing that the stigma is more to be dreaded than the sentence of a court of law. The latter indeed may be reversed, but the former can never be effaced. It will cling to them from youth to age, for they may at any moment be silenced with the taunt, Shameless reprobate, were you not thrust out of the Holy Place of Learning, as defiling the temple of the Muses?' There was something more than inattention to complain of often. They did not always pay their teacher's fees, even when the money was sent them by their parents for the purpose. They pressed no longer, as in olden times, to lay their fees at the Professor's feet before his chair, when the calends of January came round, while the private tutors also came with the free will offerings, which showed their love. We may hear Libanius again upon this point. It is enough to enrage a lecturer or make him give up teaching altogether, when the money forwarded by the father for himself is spent on wine-parties, or gambling, or immoralities still worse, and in defiance of the law.' For himself, he adds, it is no new thing for him never to be paid, and he is too much used to that to close his lecture rooms in pique, though perhaps it is no kindness to be so lenient, and they who do not pay suffer in the end, as much as the Professors who are defrauded of their fees.

Certainly to the honour of the teachers of that age

be it said that they had too much enthusiastic love

The

Professors

were often ready to forego their

dues.

of their profession to think mainly of its money value. Eumenius had felt so keenly the fatal blow to learning when the schools of (Autun) Augustodunum were closed because of the ravages of war, that he was ready Paneg. Vet.

6

Eum.

Soph.

to forego the salary which the favour of Constantius allotted him, if it might be spent on necessary buildings for the ruined University. The speeches of the later schoolmen show that they were generous enough in remitting fees when it was needful, and helping the poorer students to get on. Themistius indeed Themist. was so liberal to the more indigent among his scholars, that some malicious gossips said he paid them to come and swell his class. I find,' he answers, recompense enough for what I do in their sense of honour, in their orderly and modest ways, in seeing that they are neither awkward, nor silly, nor ungrateful . . . None of them follows me about as if he were my servant, nor walks beside me clinging to my gown, though it is the practice of the Sophists such harvests from their trade. So far indeed am I from getting any gain out of my class, that even those who call me Sophist do not dare to add that taunt, but on the contrary they say that I put up with loss, and give them food and money to stay with me, and to keep the flock together . . . Some, they say, get a mina, others two, others as much even

to

reap