28 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the civilized world to seek his fortune, if he does not find it at home. 

 The instruction in these languages, which, being living languages, must 

 be treated accordingly, can properly aim only to teach the pupils to 

 speak, read, and write them. Without neglecting the practical con- 

 siderations, the pupils may be exercised in logical thinking by means 

 of the grammars of these languages, and in the upper classes their 

 lingual facility may be increased by free translation into German. 

 Surveys of the literatures of the two peoples, with specimens, will 

 incite talented pupils to devote themselves to the thorough study of 

 these literatures at the university." 



Americans who had given adequate attention to modern languages 

 would be able to read such valuable documents as the " Berlin report " 

 and Dr. Hofmann's address, without understanding the word "wissen- 

 schaftlich " in a much-quoted passage to mean " scientific," relating to 

 natural science, when it really means relating to knowledge, scholarly. 

 Die schoenen Wissenschaften are not a class of natural sciences, but 

 polite literature. The complaint that modern languages are too easy 

 to afford valuable mental discipline should not be urged by writers 

 who make such slips in German. 



The postponing of Latin grammar until the pupil's mind approaches 

 maturity is thus emphatically indorsed by Jean Paul Richter : " It 

 pleased me to hear you state that you would have French come before 

 Latin, speaking before grammatical rules (i. e., the go-cart before the 

 theories of muscular action), and have the ancient languages taken up 

 later, because they are taken in more by the reason than by the mem- 

 ory. Latin is so hard partly because it is brought on so early ; in his 

 fifteenth year, a boy accomplishes in it with one finger what he would 

 take the whole hand for earlier." In full agreement with Richter's 

 view is the following passage from Paul Pfizer : " Or is it maintained 

 by the majority of our philological and humanistic instructors that in 

 them antiquity is alive ? And what is not the case among the teachers, 

 will that be among the pupils ? It is maintained that there is nothing 

 more alive than the writings of the ancients. But in order to enter 

 into this life, to become at home in a strange world, and to awaken 

 the past again in one's self, a fullness of creative power is required, 

 and a maturity of spirit and insight, such as are never to be found in 

 youth." 



I have known young men who did not decide to go to college until 

 they were eighteen or twenty years old, and then accomplished in two 

 years or less the preparation in Greek and Latin which drags over four 

 to six years in the ordinary preparatory school. Students at Harvard 

 learn enough German during the freshman year to be able to translate 

 three pages at a lesson from such a book as Schiller's " Thirty Years' 

 War." When students elect Hebrew or Sanskrit they make propor- 

 tionate progress, hence it must be admitted that the knowledge of 

 Greek and Latin required by the man of general culture, not che spe- 



