6 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



ment by an entrance examination. But it is not yet practical 

 politics to insist on "a working knowledge" of even one 

 modern language at matriculation. In spite of the years boys 

 spend in " doing " modern languages at school, not one boy 

 in three can translate readily an ordinary piece of French prose 

 when he comes up to the university. The number who know 

 anything of German is far smaller; and 3-et German would 

 be much more useful to most business men than any other 

 language, for several reasons. Hence the wise policy would 

 seem to be to give students an opportunity at college, as part 

 of their commercial course, to learn the language or languages 

 they are likely to find of service. 



One or two general principles may be laid down with 

 regard to the modern language teaching. First, the specifically 

 "commercial" knowledge — by which is meant chiefly the 

 technical terms and the forms of correspondence — should be 

 superimposed on a sound knowledge of the rudiments of the 

 language. And secondly, though the student, when he comes 

 to take his degree, should have reached the point of being able 

 both to converse and to correspond in the foreign tongue, 

 this must not be regarded as the sole purpose of his study. 

 A main purpose, and one that should be kept steadily in mind 

 during the course, should be to enable a business man easily 

 to keep abreast of the foreign literature of his occupation — 

 economic, financial, or technical. It should be as usual for 

 a business man who has dealings with Germany to read the 

 Industrie-zeitung or the Wirthschaftszeitung as the Iron and Coal 

 Trades Review or the Statist, and no more difficult. 



The place of languages in a commercial curriculum cannot 

 be uniformly determined for every student in advance. There 

 will be many who are not likely to have much to do with 

 foreign markets; and for them something may properly be 

 substituted for part of the language requirement. Most of 

 them will probably be entering into manufacturing life ; and 

 for them what is desirable in their curriculum is a strong- 

 infusion of the "science" or "sciences" (in the curious 

 English use of that word) which are directly or indirectly 

 applicable to the sort of manufacture they are likely to enter. 

 This proposal meets with even less sympathy in some 

 academic quarters than the foregoing. This is partly due to 

 the contempt the "scientific" teachers themselves entertain 



