322 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINN^US 



book on science easier than an Englishman who knows 

 no Latin. Every French and German book worth reading- 

 is translated, but into a language founded altogether 

 on Greek and Latin, and only the words of one syllable 

 are changed. Never have Latin and Greek been more 

 useful than now, if not absolutely essential : the first 

 chapter of any scientific book will prove this. Latin 

 and Greek represent less the language of the classics 

 than the language of science. And for this we have to 

 be grateful that the great nomenclator of science was 

 a Swede, whose language does not pass current out of 

 Sweden. Had so great a man been either English, 

 French, or German, he would have tried to impose his 

 own language on a rebellious world, and science would 

 have had no neutral ground. A confusion of tongues 

 would have been an infinite loss to science. What term 

 would have had exactly the same shade of meaning in 

 another tongue ? There was never a time when Greek 

 and Latin were more needful to be learnt than now ; not 

 as grammatical exercises, but for the words themselves. 

 Without them one must be dumb or childish, asking the 

 meaning of every other word. Without them one can- 

 not add a word to the scientific vocabulary. The lan- 

 guage of learning is studied not so much to read ancient 

 lore as to understand and create modern science. The 

 dead languages were never more alive than now since 

 Linnaeus began the resurrection of the dead languages. 

 ' Of all professions, the medical profession is most 

 scientific, but if you read a modern medical book you 



