446 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and the child is also led to a consideration of genetic and causal 

 relations, attention should be directed to historical events. With 

 right that instruction which points at most to a more formal 

 transmission of precepts religious instruction is not limited to 

 mere dogmatic teaching, but seeks in sacred history a means of 

 learning. But nothing is so highly adapted to such teaching as 

 what is called natural history, in which real objects are dealt 

 with, and genetic processes may be immediately demonstrated. 

 Our Folk schools are making daily progress in observational in- 

 struction, and it is only to be desired that the application of mere 

 pictures may be supported by illustrations from real objects. 



In the higher schools teaching of the languages has had the 

 lion's share from the beginning. As the gymnasia grew out of 

 the Latin schools of the middle ages, the preference of Latin has 

 remained their constant inheritance. The Greek, the introduc- 

 tion of which is due to the humanists, has taken a place by its 

 side. This circumstance has had the happy result, we thankfully 

 recognize, for enlightened Europe, of gaining for all those peoples 

 who have had a part in it a common basis of cultivation which 

 has contributed more than anything else to promote mutual un- 

 derstanding and the feeling of fellowship. During a long time 

 the general use of the Latin language by the learned has in the 

 most opportune manner facilitated the intercourse of all literary 

 men. 



The condition has now become different, very different ; and 

 even those who, fully recognizing the highly beneficial influence 

 of the classical languages upon European civilization, desire a 

 continuance of their study, must grant that it is impossible to 

 restore the old relations. The national languages have come into 

 their natural right, and much as we may deplore the increasing 

 polyglot character of learned works, and evidently as it concerns 

 us that we are not qualified to read a multitude of excellent trea- 

 tises in the original, we must still recognize that no power in the 

 world is competent to produce a change within a conceivable 

 time. Our literary schools only exceptionally furnish graduates 

 who can speak Latin or write a fluent Latin essay ; and the uni- 

 versities have been forced, contrary to their inclination, to re- 

 move the Latin language from their courses of instruction and 

 from practical use. The confusion of tongues has entered the 

 learned world and secured its sanction. 



It was from the beginning on the weak side of the humanistic 

 institutions that they preferred Latin. It must be conceded that 

 they could not do otherwise. They found the Latin the univer- 

 sal language of the Church and the land. They were Latin 

 schools. They simply continued what had been the general praxis 

 through a thousand years of exercise. But they received with it 



