Cattoll.] ''•'- [MarchKj 



tlu' scholars of America could do nothing to enlarge the sap- 

 ply, lie then says, "the publication of the inedited manu- 

 scripts which exist in the libraries of Great. Britain only, 

 must depend on the learned of that nation." But let me say 

 that it is an American scholar who, during the past year, has 

 been requested by the Early English Text Society of Lon- 

 don to edit, as one of the series of its publications, the fa- 

 mous Anglo-Saxon manuscript — Alfred's translation of Oro- 

 sius — now in the library of Lord Tollemache ! I need scarcely 

 say that the name of this great American scholar is Francis A. 

 March, whose Comparative Grammar of the Anglo-Saxon lan- 

 guage is a text book in the universities of England and of the 

 continent. The mention of his name leads me also to refer 

 to the recent enlargement of the curriculum of languages in 

 all our colleges by the introduction of the philological 

 study of the English, not as belonging to the department of 

 Rhetoric or of English Literature or of Belles Lettres, but 

 to the department of Language equally with the Greek and 

 Latin, for in this Dr. March has been a pioneer, and the 

 chair which he occupies, uniting in one professorship the 

 study of the English language and Comparative Philology, 

 was the first of the kind established in this or in any other 

 country. 



Let me say further — for the presence of Dr. Gilman, the 

 learned and accomplished President of the Johns Hopkins 

 University, reminds us of the fact — our college graduates are 

 no longer dependent upon the universities of Europe for ad- 

 vanced instruction in the study of languages. Of course, 

 foreign travel and even residence abroad for a limited time 

 are still valuable for the young graduate, and there are great 

 scholars and teachers and magnificent libraries in Europe; 

 but he i< no longer actually compelled to go abroad for 

 post-graduate instruction. All the great colleges and uni- 



