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tlioso who iire f-pecially oducatod in the ln-aiK-lies of a bibber education can use 

 intflli.cently the second vocalynlary. Ordinary collo(inial discourse is well 

 ciiouf,'ii in its way. Imt it is only a lie^'inninj; of lanj^ua^'e. Its ol>.iects are 

 simple and undetined and on tlie whole shallow as to thoutiht. The word 

 " knowledge." for instance, expresses in one word all sorts of information and 

 rcllcction. It is a great, undifferentiate*! heap of results of acts of knowing, 

 while science — expressed by the Latin word scientia — expre.sses a systematic 

 organization of facts in such a way that each fact throws light on all the others. 

 Knowledge is for the most part a heap of isolated, undigested particulars of 

 perce]>tion and reflection, mere shallow facts mixed with more or less pro- 

 found observations of all kinds. Science, in the first place, classifies its facts 

 and brings together those which throw light on one another into one branch 

 of science. Then it connects tliese systematically, so as to show their order of 

 genesis from the first to the last. The difference between a dumi)ing heap, 

 where all sorts of things that are of no use are piled in confusion, and a regular 

 and synnnetrical piece Of architecture is something like the difference ])etween 

 knowledge and science. 



This is preliminary to the answer of the question. What kind of language 

 study aids in the mastery of natural science? One can not help thinking as he 

 looks over the names of the divisions in the scientific course of agriculture, or 

 in mathematics, or i)hysics and chemistry, or geology and geography that the 

 pujiirs time must be taken up. in the higher si)ecial courses of study, in memo- 

 rizing technical words of many syllables, unless the pupil has in his earlier 

 prei>aration m;ide the elements of those words significant. If the student has 

 learned (irei-k in his preparatory years, the word " agi'onomy " divides out for 

 him at first sight into the roots of the word " agros." a field, and the word 

 " nonios." signifying a usage or a principle of management : " agriculture " sug- 

 gests the Latin word " ager," a field, and " cultus." from " colere." to sow or 

 plant. A knowledge of the meaning of the parts of a word is a powerful aid 

 to the understanding of the meaning of the whole word and to the retaining of 

 the same in the memory. Thousands and thousands of technical terms occur in 

 botany, all founded more or less on Latin words. A superficial study of Latin 

 will incrt'ase the power of romprehending the scientific technicpie of botany. As 

 long as one does not know the language from which the technical terms are 

 derived, be is forced to make a greater effort to remember them and a greater 

 effort of mere mechanical memory without thought. Compare the difference 

 to the ordinary college-educated man between a term derived from the Sanskrit 

 and a term derived from Latin : " Magnanimous " can easily be understood by 

 the Latin student on recalling the word " magnus." great, and " animus." the 

 soul or mind; the word used in the Bhagavad Glta. " mahatma." frequently 

 used by students of the so-called esoteric Buddhism, is difficult to remember 

 unU'ss one has the s;ime elementary knowledge of Sanskrit, in which case he 

 recognizes the first part "' maha " as meaning great and equivalent to "magnus." 

 and "atma." the soul: or take maharsbi. which is "maha." great, and *' ri.shi," 

 a sage or wise man. Take also the geographical name of the country at the 

 mouth of the Indus River in India ; the territory is called Punjab. The 

 person superficially ac<iuainted with Sanskrit recognizes the first part of 

 the word. " punj." as meaning five, and " ab " as meaning river. The Punjab 

 is the delta land between the five rivers or branches of the Indus at its mouth. 

 An elementary knowledge of Latin and (Jreek gives one the power of retaining 

 and of comprehending technical terms with a fine sense as to the shades of 

 meaning. It is a matter of every-day experience to see students not accpiainted 

 with Latin make a mistake in si)elling or in identifying the parts of a long 

 technic.-U word. and. what is worse, a mist.Mke in getting bold of the shade of 

 meaning indicated. 



This brings us to the insight that liatin and (ireek are very far from being 

 "dead languages." No longer used colloipiially for simi)le conversation.al 

 speech, they are all the more used for preserving the ri'sults of scientific obser- 

 vation and for literary expression of fine shades of feeling and distinctions of 

 thought, and it is very necessary to get the elementary significations of the 

 Latin and (Jreek roots, which one does in bis three years" high school study of 

 Latin, in order to ac(iuire a fine sense of the use of these words in scientific 

 techni(iue. It also makes the technical vocabulary as easy to remember as the 

 colloquial vocabulary. The word "carnivorous." for instance, has the root 

 "earn" and the root " vor." "carnis" meaning flesh and the root " vor " to eat 

 or devour, the whole word meaning flesh eating. The lack of a feeling of the 

 original meaning of these words i)roduces the ludicrous use of language carl- 



