The Value of Greek and Latin in English Literature by Arthur Quiller-Couch

But let us begin with the first word, "Value" -- "The Value of Greek and Latin in English Literature. " What do I mean by "Value"? Well, I use it, generally, in the sense of "worth"; but with a particular meaning, or shade of meaning, too. And, this particular meaning is not the particular meaning intended (as I suppose) by men of commerce who, on news of a friend's death, fall a-musing and continue musing until the fire kindles, and they ask "What did So-and-so die worth? " or sometimes, more wisely than they know, "What did poor old So-and-so die worth? " or again, more colloquially, "What did So-and-so ‘cut up' for? " Neither is it that which more disinterested economists used to teach; men never (I fear me) loved, but anyhow lost awhile, who for my green unknowing youth, at Thebes or Athens -- growing older I tend to forget which is, or was, which -- defined the Value of a thing as its "purchasing power" which the market translates into "price. " For -- to borrow a phrase which I happened on, the other day, with delight, in the Introduction to a translation of Lucian -- there may be forms of education less paying than the commercial and yet better worth paying for; nay, above payment or computation in price.7

No: the particular meaning I use today is that which artists use when they talk of painting or of music. To see things, near or far, in their true perspective and proportions; to judge them through distance; and fetching them back, to reproduce them in art so proportioned comparatively, so rightly adjusted, that they combine to make a particular and just perspective: that is to give things their true Values.