460 ROMANCE LITERATURE 



many American students, who acquired there the true scholarly 

 spirit, that is to say, rigid accuracy and thorough dissection of a 

 subject. The influence for good of German scholarship on American 

 professors was incalculable, and raised to a high degree the standard 

 of teaching foreign literatures. Before this introduction of German 

 methods both the teaching and criticism of literature were too vague, 

 too dilettante. The attempt had been made to cover too much ground 

 in a limited time; whole periods were gone over, and the principal 

 authors in those periods were studied in a general way. This w r as 

 changed by the introduction of the German method in graduate 

 work, and it was thought better to study in detail one author or 

 one work, to endeavor to ascertain all possible facts concerning the 

 author and the work. This rigid scientific method was first applied 

 to Romance philology in the United States by Professor A. Marshall 

 Elliott at the Johns Hopkins University, and he has rendered thus 

 an immense service to American scholarship. 



Professor Elliott was also the founder of the Modern Language 

 Association of America, which has been one of the principal factors 

 in the development of higher education in the United States and in 

 the diffusion of the scientific spirit, I'esprit universitaire, on which 

 so much stress was laid in 1900 at the Congress of Higher Education 

 in Paris. At the first meetings of the Modern Language Association 

 there were many discussions about methods of teaching modern 

 languages, but soon the Association declared as its opinion that the 

 chief purpose of teaching modern languages in the United States 

 was to impart the culture obtained by the study of their literatures. 

 This did not mean that the training acquired by the study of lin- 

 guistics was to be abandoned, but it indicated the idea of the Asso- 

 ciation that the literary spirit should be attended to more than it 

 had been in the past. This expression of opinion on the part of the 

 Modern Language Association of America was very important, and 

 the result was that, in our secondary schools and our colleges, much 

 more extensive reading has been done, and therefore a better know- 

 lodge of literature has been obtained. 



In University or graduate work the effect has been felt also, 

 but to a lesser degree. The rigid, accurate work of German scholar- 

 ship was carried to an extreme, and the study of literature from an 

 icsthctic point of view and for the purpose of culture had been very 

 much neglected for a number of years. There has been lately a 

 reaction, and a great demand for a broader and more artistic study 

 of literature has arisen. For many years I have been convinced that 

 the problem could be partly solved by introducing into our American 

 universities some of the French ideals, some of the French art and 

 culture. This could only be done if a sufficient number of Americans 

 were to study in France and be permeated with the French feeling 



