PLACE OF ENGLISH IN HIGHER EDUCATION. 85 



English is best learned through the study of Latin, that I maintain the 

 opposite view ; namely, the true natural method is to pass from English, 

 which is easy for us, to the study of Latin, which is difficult — to pass in 

 true logical order from the known to the unknown. I apply this great 

 principle in my method of teaching English, beginning with the simple 

 modern forms that are known to the student, and working back grad- 

 ually to older and more complex forms which, if presented at once to 

 the student, would seem as uncouth as Greek or Choctaw. 



I must now say a few words about the method of teaching English ; 

 for, if the study of English is to occupy the foremost place in our insti- 

 tutions of higher instruction, the method of teaching it becomes exceed- 

 ingly important. I am disposed to think that the unfruitfulness so 

 often seen in English teaching is the result of wrong methods. Most 

 destructive of all good results is the theory of the grammar-mongers 

 who, not recognizing the fact that the English language is a language, 

 with facts and idioms worthy of independent study, attempt to bring 

 its facts into conformity with the rules of the Latin grammar. It 

 would of course be just as wise to take English grammar as the 

 basis of a Latin grammar. English is a Teutonic language, with 

 its own independent grammar, and must be studied as English and 

 not as a corrupt form of Latin. It has borrowed words, but not gram- 

 matical principles, from the Latin, Whatever is common to the two 

 languages comes to each alike from their common mother, the Aryan 

 UrspracTie. 



The two great instruments of study are history and comparison. 



The historical method of study is the only road to a critical knowl- 

 edge of our mother-tongue ; but before we can employ this method in- 

 telligently, we must get a clear conception of the continuity of English. 

 We must recognize the fact that in English literature there has been an 

 unbroken succession of authors from Caedmon to Tennyson, a period 

 of twelve hundred years. The language of King Alfx-ed and the 

 language of President Hayes are one and the same Exglish tongue. 

 "In fact," says Mr. Skeat, "there is no difference between modern 

 English and that oldest form of it to which the name of Anglo-Saxon 

 has been given, except such as has been naturally and gradually brought 

 about by the mere lapse of time (occasioning the loss of some words 

 and some alteration in the form and meaning of others), and by the en- 

 largement of the vocabulary from foreign sources. In a word, old 

 English is the right key to the understanding of modern English, and 

 those who will not use this key will never open the lock with all their 

 fumbling " — with all their attempts to use the counterfeit Latin-gram- 

 mar key. No critical student, following the historical method, can stop 

 in the fourteenth century in his search for old English. He can find 

 no resting-place — no distinct break in the continuity of the language. 

 Between the writers of one period and those of the preceding genera- 

 tion, the differences are always slight, even in times of most rapid 



