It is neither edifying nor entertaining to note the use to which Latin is being put nowadays. The type of "Latin" inscriptions quoted by Carmel Meilak (April 20) and Godwin Drago (April 30) in their letters on the Luqa monument show how far knowledge and appreciation of this noble tongue and its peerless literature have degenerated in Malta today. The Malta Classics Association has been set up to promote the study and appreciation of Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, their literatures and cultures.

If you look beyond the vulgar perception of Latin as a petrified tongue and culture, you could start learning to enjoy the solemn majesty of verses such as: Ultima Cumaei venit iam carminis aestas;/ Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo. Or, if your mind bends to livelier amusements and controversies, learn to giggle at verses such as those which Jove addressed to his wife: "maior vestra profecto est quam, quae contigit maribus... voluptas."

E-mail us on classicsmaltasoc@gmail.com if you want to discover why from the days of Homer to the beginning of the 20th century, acquiring an education meant, primarily, learning the languages of the ancients and reading their immortal works.