But he would no doubt have repeated this feat for the fifth time, had not his father given him a solemn assurance that he would keep him at monastic work for twenty years, and sworn in advance that he should never behold Zaporozhe all his life long, unless he learned all the sciences taught in the academy.

It was odd that the man who said this was that very Taras Bulba who condemned all learning, and counselled his children, as we have seen, not to trouble themselves at all about it.

From that moment, Ostap began to pore over his tiresome books with exemplary diligence, and quickly stood on a level with the best.

The style of education in that age differed widely from the manner of life.

The scholastic, grammatical, rhetorical, and logical subtle ties in vogue were decidedly out of consonance with the times, never having any connection with, and never being encountered in, actual life.
Those who studied them, even the least scholastic, could not apply their knowledge to anything whatever.