16 



More tlisui this can be said : the wisest and best-informed advocates of the scientific 

 school insist upon linguistic training forming part of the curriculum for youth. lu 

 some cases Latin is expressly required ; commonly French and German are indispensa- 

 ble : and there are gratifying indications that the critical study of the mother tongue 

 is to be promoted with the same thoroughness heretofore exhibited in the study of 

 Latin and Greek. 



DISCIPLINE DEFINED. 



It would be well if all who are interested in the relations of science and of langnage to 

 education would ponder a well-considered and elaborate essay in the North American Re- 

 view for October, 1871, which was written by a scholar who is acknowledged in Ger- 

 many, as well as at home, to stand among the foremost of philologists, Professor W. D. 

 Whitney. 



In reference to the perpetual echo of the word "discipline" in educational discus- 

 sions, he makes the following pithy remarks : " Discipline is a word with which not a 

 little conjuring is done now-a-days by men who fail to understand fully what it means. 

 It is often spoken or written of as if it were itself an end, or at least the means to an 

 end; as if it were something quite unconnected with the acquisition of valuable 

 knowledge ; as if the acquisition of certain kinds of knowledge always gave discip- 

 line, while that of other kinds did not ; and so on. Now, properly speaking, culture 

 and training are the only ends, and the acquisition of knowledge the only means to 

 them, while the position of discipline is rather that of a method. The essence of dis- 

 cipline is simply preparation^ that is a disciplinary study which duly leads the way to 

 something that is to come after. He who sets up discipline and knowledge as opposed 

 to and excluding each other, wholly misapprehends their mutual relations, and casts 

 the advantage into the hands of his adversaries. In reality, the connection and inter- 

 dependence of the two are complete. No discipline \vitliout valuable knowledge 

 acquired; all valuable knowledge available for discipline; the discipline in propor- 

 tion to the amount and value of the knowledge acquired these are fundamental 

 truths in the theory of education. 



" Only, of course, the degree of value of any given knowledge is not absolute, but 

 relative. One kind of knowledge is worth more to men in general, another to a partic- 

 ular learner, in view of his natural disposition, his past studies, or his plans for the fu- 

 ture; one kind is worth more than another at a certain stage of education ; one kind 

 should be taught in a certain manner and extent, another in another. The disciplinary 

 method implies that the instructor, viewing the whole body of knowledge in its con- 

 nections and applications, will bring before his pupils' iniud the right kind, at the right 

 time, to secure the best result in the end." 



He also adds the following remarks upon the relations of science to language in an 

 educational scheme. If such just and enlightened views were generally prevalent, it 

 would be of the highest advantage to the progress of truth and civilization : 



"Nothing, therefore, can well be more unfortunate for the cause of education than 

 that misunderstanding should prevail between the representatives of two depart- 

 ments of study so nearly agreeing in both object and method, which are not antagonis- 

 tic, and hardly even antithetical, but rather supplementary to one another ; nothing 

 sadder than to hear, on the one hand, the works of man decried as a subject of study 

 compared with the works of God, as if the former were not also the works of God, or as 

 if the latter concerned us, or were comprehensible by us, except in their relation to us ; 

 or, on the other hand, to hear utility depreciated and facts sneered at, as if utility were 

 not merely another name for value, or as if there were anything to oppose to facts 

 save fictions. Men may dispute as to which is the foremost, but it is certain that these 

 are the two feet of knowledge, and that to hamper either is to check the progress of 

 culture. Each has its undesirable tendencies, which the influence of the other must 

 help to correct; the one makes for overconservatism, the other for overradicalism ; the 

 one is apt to inspire a too credulous trust to authority, the other an overweening self- 

 confidence, a depreciation of even rightful authority, a contempt for the past and its 

 lessons. Both alike have an imperative claim to our attention, and upon their due 

 combination must rest the system of education, if it would be indeed disciplinary. 



" Into the more practical question of what constitutes their due combination we do 

 not here enter, having undertaken to speak only of some of the principles that underlie 

 its settlement. What part of philological training shall be given through the English, 

 the other modern tongues, or the ancient ; how we arc to avoid cram, and give that 

 which, instead of obstructing or nauseating, creates the capacity and the desire for 

 more; how to adjust the details of a proper compromise between the general and the 

 special discipline and culture ; these and matters demanding the most careful con.sid 

 eration, and sure to lead to infinite discussion, since upon them the differences of indi- 

 vidual taste, capacity, and circumstance must occasion wide diversities of opinion. 



" In conclusion, we will only repeat that those differences themselves have to be fully 

 allowed for in our systems ; that we may not cut out too strait-laced a scheme of 

 study ; to be forced upon all minds that in an acknowledged course of compromise 



