LEARN AND SEARCH. 447 



an element of weakness. For the classical writers of Rome were 

 far behind those of Greece in their achievements ; indeed, the best 

 among them owed their culture to Greek predecessors, and the 

 schools of Athens always held the first rank in the esteem of men. 

 Their teachings constitute the background of all literary achieve- 

 ment. Our Western civilization has received its most peculiar 

 moving thoughts, its current forms, from Grecian literature. 

 Homer, Aristotle, and Plato have continued to be the teachers 

 of the peoples till our days. 



The balance of decision in this conflict is now swinging hither 

 and thither. Professional interest in the Latin has declined since 

 the Greek writers have been read again in the original, yet the 

 Latin language has remained the principal subject of instruction. 

 Its reach, however, has constantly become less. Since the use of 

 language as such has steadily diminished, we have let rhetoric 

 drop and have limited ourselves more and more to grammar. 

 Indeed, grammatical teaching has gradually become so predomi- 

 nant that even the Latin essay has been reduced to a pious desire. 

 We have thus reached a turning point with the classical lan- 

 guages. Schooling in grammar is not that aid to continuous 

 growth which our youth need. It does not produce that desire to 

 learn which is an essential preliminary to independent advance- 

 ment ; on the other hand, it is evident that it has become an 

 object of aversion to many pupils, and perhaps for more parents. 

 Greek has already been half surrendered. No one expects any 

 longer that the mass of the pupils coming from the schools shall 

 be so far advanced as to be qualified to take up the independent 

 reading and explanation of the Greek writers. Medical men had 

 apparently the most reason for regret, for their science is the only 

 one which has grown up during more than two thousand years 

 uninterruptedly on the basis of the Greek writings. But it can 

 not be denied that Hippocrates and Galen offer so few points of 

 touch with present doctors, although these piously adhere to the 

 Greek terminology, that the study of them is of the least signifi- 

 cance to the understanding of pathological processes. The real 

 value of Greek literature, moreover, lies not in its technical parts, 

 but rather in the philosophical and poetical departments, the influ- 

 ence of which in cultivation is for the moment underestimated. 



An important innovation has meanwhile taken form in the 

 philological department, which we may proudly praise as emi- 

 nently a German achievement : I mean the study of comparative 

 linguistics. With it a properly genetic element became valid 

 even in philology. Wonderful results, of inestimable value in the 

 history of human civilization, are now in prospect. Ever new re- 

 searches keep the probability in view that comparative linguistics 

 will continue to be a regular constituent of the higher education. 



