[Ari]

I'm not so sure about that, although really if you had the money any way to send off your annoying spawn to a school to be raised out of your hair was ideal. The enlightenment of the 18th century was part an obsession with anything and everything greek and to a lesser extent roman. If it was greek, it was good, so philosophy, math, and arts become noble and pure goals to follow. To walk in the footsteps of the great masters and wear an onion on your belt was the in thing at the time.