PLACE OF ENGLISH IN HIGHER EDUCATION 81 



which like the fruit but cannot destroy the seeds. In Asia wild, seed- 

 bearing plantains are usually found growing in groups. In America, 

 which has a much greater area of wilderness, the plantain must have 

 spread far and wide, seeing that it has persisted in the wild state in 

 the far more densely-inhabited East Indies. Therefore, it appears that 

 in America the plantain has always been a seedless, cultivated plant, 

 which can only have been introduced from Asia in preglacial times, 

 through northern zones, for in that way alone was the immigration at 

 all possible. — Aiisland. 



THE PLACE OF ENGLISH IE THE HIGHER 



EDUCATION.' 



Br A. B. STAEK, LL. D.. 



PRESIDENT OF THE LOGAN FEMALE COLLEGE. 



I SHALL begin with an unequivocal statement of my position : the 

 study of the English language and literature should occupy the cen- 

 tral place — the place of honor — in every scheme of higher education 

 for English-speaking men and women. This primacy I claim for two 

 principal reasons : first, the knowledge obtained from this study is of 

 most worth in the practical affairs of real life ; second, the right study 

 of English may be made the instrument of the highest culture of the 

 mind. 



All educators, I believe, are agreed that a thorough knowledge of 

 our mother-tongue is of supreme importance to every educated man or 

 woman. The friends of classical studies urge, among their strongest 

 arguments in favor of Latin and Greek, that through a careful study 

 of these languages is the shortest and surest way to a thorough kaowl- 

 edge of English ; while, on the other hand, the advocates of the new 

 education magnify the importance of studying English. I think it 

 unnecessary to dwell on this first projDosition, and shall, therefore, pass 

 at once to a consideration of the educational value of the study of 

 English. 



In my first advocacy of the importance of studying English — in a 

 quarterly review article printed seventeen years ago — I concede " that 

 the study of the vernacular is almost valueless as a means of education, 

 or as an instrument of intellectual culture and discipline." I hope I am 

 wiser to-day ; I certainly hold a very diflFerent opinion. In that article 

 I reviewed all the important books on the subject then published, and 

 yet all those works, with the exception of Marsh's " Lectures " and 

 Latham's " Handbook," have been forgotten. A course of real study 



' A paper read before the Xational Educational Association, Louisville, Ky., August 

 15, 187V. 



VOL, XIV. — 6 



