i 5 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of the cases stands a rigorous scrutiny, and they are not relied upon 

 as the main justification of the continuance of classics. A new line 

 of defense is opened up that was not at all present to the minds of 

 sixteenth-century scholars. We are told of numerous indirect and 

 secondary advantages of cultivating language in general and the 

 classic languages in particular, which make the acquisition a reward- 

 ing labor, even without one particle of the primary use. But for 

 these secondary advantages, languages could have no claim to ap- 

 pear, with such enormous values, in the Civil Service scheme. 



My purpose requires me to advert to these alleged secondary uses 

 of language not, however, for the purpose of counter-arguing them, 

 but rather to indicate what seems to me the true mode of bringing 

 them to the proof. 



The most usual phraseology for describing the indirect benefit of 

 languages is that they supply a training to the powers of the mind; 

 that, if not information, they are culture; that they react upon our 

 mastery of our own language, and so on. It is quite necessary, how- 

 ever, to find terms more definite and tangible than the slippery words 

 " culture " and " training ; " we must know in precise language what 

 particular powers or aptitudes are increased by the study of a foreign 

 language. Nevertheless, the conclusions set forth in this paper do 

 not require me to work out an exhaustive review of these advantages. 

 It is enough to give as many as will serve for examples. 



Now, it must be freely admitted, as a possible case, that a prac- 

 tice introduced, in the first instance, for a particular purpose, may be 

 found applicable to many other purposes ; so much so that, ceasing 

 to be employed for the original use, this practice may be kept up for 

 the sake of the after-uses. For example, clothing was no doubt pri- 

 marily contrived for warmth ; but it is not now confined to that dec- 

 oration or ornament, distinction of sexes, ranks, and offices, modesty 

 are also attained by means of clothes. This example is a suggestive 

 one. We have only to suppose ourselves migrating to some African 

 climate, where clothing for warmth is absolutely dispensed with. 

 We should not on that account adopt literal nudity we should still 

 desire to maintain those other advantages. The artistic decoration 

 of the person would continue to be thought of; and, as no amount of 

 painting and tattooing, with strings of beads superadded, would an- 

 swer to our ideal of personal elegance, we should have recourse to 

 some light, filmy textures, that would allow the displays of drapery, 

 colors, and design, and show off the poetry of motion ; we should also 

 indicate the personal differences that we were accustomed to show by 

 vesture. But now comes the point of the moral: we should not main- 

 tain our close, heavy fabrics, our great-coats, shawls, and cloaks. 

 These would cease with the need for them. Perhaps the first emi- 

 grants could keep up the prejudice for their warm things, but not so 

 their successors. 



