l62 ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE IN SOl'TH AFRICA. 



with ■ that of History. This inter-connexion of Literature and 

 History has been often advocated in England itself. When study- 

 ing a special period of Literature or a special book the student 

 should study the whole historical setting of that period or book, 

 and by history I do not mean merely chronology, but political. 

 social, economic, religious history also. At the present time in 

 our University degree course it is absolutely impossible for an 

 Honours candidate in Modern Languages to take History as a 

 subject. Is not this one of many silly University regulations ? 



(2) Secondly, in Literature teaching there should be a constant 

 reference to illustrated books, such as Garnett and Gosse's English 

 Literature, to pictures and lantern-slides selected with the special 

 object of reproducing the life of the time as graphically as possible. 



For this purpose every College and the larger schools should 

 have good English libraries and be well equipped with such means 

 of aiding the pupils' imagination and stimulating their interest. 

 Let us illustrate our Tennyson, just as we illustrate our Shakespeart- 

 by stage costumes and scenery. We literary people have allowed 

 the scientists to use all the money available in fitting out labora- 

 tories for their so-called practical work. 



A tradition has grown up that Literature can be efficiently 

 taught by means of a shilling text-book, and I fear that our Educa- 

 tion Departments would ridicule an application for a grant-in-aid 

 of an English laborator\^ I am convinced, however, that we 

 shall some day overcome this ridicule and establish a new tradition, 

 that even English is a subject worth spending money on. 



In the advanced study of the history of the Language, or 

 «ven in the Intermediate course, it would be e.xtremely useful to 

 have a good set of gramophone records to illustrate the various 

 dialects. Language study is a history of sounds, and not of written 

 words. 



(3) Thirdly and lastly, we ought to see that the teachers of 

 English in the schools should themselves know English thoroughly, 

 ■both Language and Literature, but especially they shotild know 

 the English Language, the grammatical and idiomatic uses, the 

 real meanings of words, and the standard pronunciation. In 

 view of the contaminating influence of Dutch the teachers of 

 English should have a fair knowledge of Dutch also, so that they 

 may point out to their pupils the differences of idiom, etc., just 

 as when teaching Greek composition to beginners in Greek I should 

 point out the differences between Greek and Latin idioms. 



The teachers should also encourage the reading of good English 

 authors, and the Education Departments should see that the 

 country is well supplied by the booksellers with the countless 

 cheap editions of classical English books. There is much else 

 that I should like to say, but I must not now detain vou longer. 

 May I express the hope that Dutch and English alike will do their 

 best to keep the well of English pure and undefiled, and that 

 English and Dutch will combine to prevent the language of Hol- 

 land becoming contaminated by base imitations of English idioms 

 and words ? 



