84 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



or s}Tnbols to decipher, not the utterances of genius. . . . There are 

 certainly not five in a hundred of those who learn Latin in our schools 

 who can read with ease an unconned piece of Latin, or write off-hand a 

 Latin letter on a familiar subject. I need not say a word about Greek. 

 With all such people, learning Latin has been an arrant failure. They 

 have done worse than waste their time. They have learned to make 

 marks, to take places, to receive prizes, for mere botch-work." 



These are the words of a man who devoted sixteen years of his 

 early life to the dead languages, with a slight mixture of abstract 

 mathematics. He tells us that, when he left Cambridge at the age of 

 twenty-four, he was totally ignorant of the things he most needed to 

 know, while his knowledge of Latin and Greek was " very small, poor, 

 and inaccurate." 



My classical friends must not attempt to refute me by the fallacy 

 of an epithet ; that is, by calling me illiberal, narrow-minded. It is 

 just possible that there is some illiberality on the other side ; it may be 

 that if they knew more English they would think less of Latin and 

 Greek. It is not enough for them to enlarge upon the educating power 

 of classical studies. I am willing to admit what they usually claim for 

 their favorite studies in that direction, but at the same time I hold that 

 the highest and best discipline of mind is derived from a scientific study 

 of English, German, and French ; while the knowledge acquired in the 

 process of learning these modern languages is incalculably more valu- 

 able in the affairs of real life than the knowledge obtained by pursuing 

 the fullest course in the classics. The friends of the old education 

 must meet this position squarely. Fine phrases about liberal culture 

 will no longer be accepted in place of facts. We, too, believe in liberal 

 culture. But if a knowledge of the highest thought of the ancient 

 world, as embodied in words by its foremost thinkers, tends to liberalize 

 and broaden the mind of a student, it must be trebly effective in its 

 liberalizing influences to bring the student's mind up to the level of the 

 highest thought of our own age. TFe are the ancients — " the heirs of 

 all the ages." Our young men know vastly more than the wisest in the 

 old time knew. Thev will, therefore, get most profit in knowledge, and 

 equal profit in discipline, from the study of modern languages. After 

 learning these, if they have leisure and inclination, they will amuse 

 themselves by learning Greek and Latin. 



Latin and Greek, being: almost valueless in the work of fitting one 

 for the duties of modern life, and by no means indispensable in the 

 work of mental development, are, therefore, relegated to the position 

 of pleasant accomplishments, or that of professional helps for ministers, 

 teachers, and specialists. The student who is rightly trained in the 

 study of modern languages will in a very short time — one or two years 

 — learn the grammatical forms and acquire facility in the translation 

 of Greek and Latin. So far am I from accepting the once popular 

 notion — stiU heard of in out-of-the-wav corners of the countrv — that 



