Some time ago I had the honour to meet a statesman who had been in charge of a great portion of the Empire. He was an old man, trained in the old school, and, talking about this very subject, he said something like this: “All I took away from school and college was the fact that there were once peoples who didn’t talk our tongue and who were very strong on sacrifice and ritual, particularly at meals, whose gods were different from ours and who had strict views on the disposal of the dead. Well, you know, all that is worth knowing if you ever have to govern India.”
I have never had to govern India, but I quite agree with him.
A certain knowledge of the classics is worth having, because it makes you realise that all the world is not like ourselves in all respects, and yet in matters that really touch the inside life of a man, neither the standards nor the game have changed.
From an address entitled ‘The Uses of Reading’, given to the late Mr Pearson’s House at Wellington College, May 1912, as reproduced in ‘A Book of Words: Selections from Speeches and Addresses Delivered Between 1906 and 1927’ (1928).