564 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



learned directly our stock of knowledge would be pitifully small. At 

 the utmost, we can make an immediate inspection of the merest frag- 

 ment of the immense domain of nature and life, while the entire past 

 has for the most part been transmitted to us through many hands. 

 If we purpose to acquire a language for itself alone there is nothing 

 gained by approaching it in a roundabout way. But there is no doubt 

 that if we wish to lay the foundation for studies of a similar character 

 we can not do better than to begin with Latin. A person who knows 

 Latin well will have far less difficulty in acquiring the Komance lan- 

 guages, barring the pronunciation, than he had with the Latin. The 

 great body of the vocabulary of these languages is derived more or less 

 directly from the ancient tongue. Most words, however, which desig- 

 nate modern objects are formed in various ways. Those words that 

 have their roots in the Latin have merely been modified according to 

 phonetic laws that are now well understood. On the other hand, it is 

 admitted by most teachers who can speak from experience that a 

 knowledge of Latin as gained in our schools is of small service in 

 acquiring French, the Romance language most generally taught. With 

 few exceptions the pupils fail to see the connection between the older 

 and the younger vocabulary and teachers have virtually to begin at 

 the beginning. It is only a small minority of learners that acquire 

 French more rapidly because they have studied Latin previously. It 

 is not too much to say that nobody fully comprehends what is written 

 in those languages now called dead. Part of the difficulty is due to 

 variations in the manuscripts, or to their defective character, but it is 

 also largely owing to the impossibility of ascertaining the meaning of 

 many words. To be convinced of this one needs but to examine the 

 copious notes with which most authors have been provided. A few 

 months ago I had occasion to read some of the later Books of the 

 ^Eneid, a work that I had not had in hand for a number of years. As 

 long as I had only the text before me I thought I understood the author 

 except in a few passages. But after consulting a profusely annotated 

 edition I was in doubt whether I had got the meaning of more than one 

 verse in ten. So many possibilities and probabilities were suggested 

 that nobody could tell who was right. There is always some difficulty 

 in comprehending a profound thinker. But if we know exactly what 

 he said we can usually come pretty close to an understanding of his 

 meaning. If we are uncertain as to the words he wrote we encounter 

 preliminary obstacles which no amount of ingenuity and intellectual 

 acumen can overcome. It is doubtful whether the mind can be most 

 profitably employed in seeking for something which in the nature of 

 the case can not be found. On the other hand, the effort to acquire 

 the facile use of a language, whether ancient or modern, is always a 

 striving towards an attainable goal. We can obtain expert testimony 

 as to whether we have reached it. There are hundreds of persons now 



