412 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



>* CmmCH-ANB-STATE'' FUNCTION OF 

 DEAD LANGUAGES. 



THE partisans of classical studies 

 had a Godsend a couple of years 

 ago, in the shape of a report emanat- 

 ing from the professors of the Univer- 

 sity of Berlin, and corroborated by the 

 action of other universities, which it 

 was claimed ended the controversy on 

 the question of modern against classical 

 studies. It was represented that the 

 Germans had tried out the issue in the 

 fairest way, and on an extensive scale. 

 They had two systems of schools which 

 prepared young men for the universities 

 — one the gymnasiums, devoted mainly 

 to classical studies ; and the other the 

 real schools, modern in origin, and de- 

 voted chiefly to modern and scientific 

 studies : and it was said that, after an 

 ample trial of the two modes of mental 

 preparation, the unanimous verdict of 

 the faculty, including the scientific pro- 

 fessors, was in favor of the classical 

 preparation as superior to the scientific 

 preparation of the young men. The 

 statement as it appeared was very tell- 

 ing. The New York " Evening Post " 

 gave an account of the report soon aft- 

 er its appearance, and said : " It will 

 hardly fail to be regarded as the most 

 powerful plea ever made in behalf of 

 classical studies," and Mr. Charles Fran- 

 cis Adams, Jr., has been reproached 

 from all the classical quarters for ven- 

 turing to open his mouth in criticism 

 of our dead-language studies after the 

 German universities had given to the 

 world their conclusive judgment upon 

 the question. 



We confess to having had no little 

 distrust of the case as it was thus pre- 

 sented. It was sufficiently obvious at 

 the time that we were not in possession 

 of all the facts necessary to form an 

 intelligent opinion on its merits. We 

 know enough of the spirit and tactics 



of the classical party, in this country 

 and in England, to justify some suspi- 

 cion of the impartiality of their proceed- 

 ings in Germany, and we accordingly 

 deferred any discussion of the Berlin 

 report until more information should 

 become available for the purpose. Many 

 questions arose of decisive significance 

 to which answers could not be obtained, 

 and it seemed futile to debate a ques- 

 tion while in the dark regarding its 

 most important conditions. 



But the information wanted is now 

 forthcoming, and it well pays for wait- 

 ing. An American gentleman, both in- 

 terested in the subject and very com- 

 petent to investigate it, himself a culti- 

 vated classical scholar and educated in 

 Germany, has made the subject a mat- 

 ter of special and careful inquiry, and 

 gives the result in the opening article 

 of the present " Monthly." He has been 

 in Germany during the past year, ex- 

 pressly to study certain aspects of its 

 university system, and has visited a large 

 number of its great educational institu- 

 tions, and conversed with many of the 

 professors in relation to the nature and 

 actual significance of the real-school 

 controversy, and the action that has 

 been taken upon the subject. The Ber- 

 lin report is also itself published in 

 English by Ginn & Heath, of Boston, 

 so that both sides of the case are now 

 open to all who care about the ques- 

 tion. Those who read the paper of Pro- 

 fessor James — and none can aff'ord to 

 pass it by — will find that the uses to 

 which that report has been put in this 

 country are entirely unjustifiable. It 

 turns out, as we suspected, that there 

 is a good deal more to be taken into 

 consideration than has been represent- 

 ed, and that the German document is a 

 thoroughly one-sided affair. 



We have to remember, in the first 

 place, that partisanship on this question 



