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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VII. No. 1214 



group of subjects deals with men, what they 

 have thought and what they have done, how 

 they have moved on from one mode of 

 thinking and doing, to other modes of 

 thinking and doing. In the evolution of 

 education, it came about that great im- 

 portance was attached to the languages in 

 which people recorded what they thought 

 and did ; but if we could come to this ques- 

 tion anew, with all modern facilities for 

 getting the things which are recorded in 

 one language into available form in an- 

 other, it is not clear that languages which 

 are no longer in use would be regarded as 

 vitally important for the average student. 

 If it is important to know what was 

 thought and done in the past, as it doubt- 

 less is, there must be scholars who com- 

 mand the languages in which ancient 

 thought and ancient history are recorded. 

 They should be our interpreters, who put 

 into modern language the valuable part of 

 that which is recorded in languages which 

 are no longer spoken. 



I suppose no more conspicuous example 

 of intellectual waste can be pointed to in 

 'all the history of our unintelligent educa- 

 tional development than the waste of time 

 on languages which no longer live. The 

 stock argument that the study of these 

 languages is helpful in the use of our 

 own, is an argument for waste. If half 

 the time were devoted to English, which is 

 put upon Latin for the sake of helping 

 English, the average student probably 

 would advance much farther in the use of 

 his own tongue. 



What the people of long ago thought 

 and did is of importance chiefly in its 

 bearing on modern life. This bearing 

 should not be belittled, and is a sufficient 

 warrant for the study of ancient history, 

 and of the philosophies and literatures 

 from which our modern philosophies and 

 literatures are descended. Yet it is easy 



to exaggerate the importance of even these 

 things. Some one has told us that "his- 

 tory is always interesting, but rarely in- 

 structive." Such epigrams, and this one 

 is as true as most, warn us of the futility 

 of depending too much on the past for 

 guidance. "While history helps us in some 

 measure to understand what is happening 

 in the present world-crisis, yet all history, 

 ancient and modern, plays a trivial part 

 as compared with geography, chemistry 

 and physics, in explanation of the course 

 of the present war. History will in the 

 end be invaluable in the interpretation of 

 the war, but its importance in the crisis 

 is slight. The dictum that history repeats 

 itself can hardly be taken literally, or even 

 very seriously. If it does, it repeats with 

 variations so extraordinary that they are 

 more prominent than the theme which they 

 accompany. Nevertheless, that which peo- 

 ple have thought and done is likely to re- 

 main an important element in education, 

 and it is perhaps the sociological and eco- 

 nomic aspects of history which are of 

 greatest moment. 



In human affairs, the past is important 

 chiefly as a setting for the present. It is 

 the present in which we live and move and 

 have our being, and it is the future for 

 which we are planning. In so far as study 

 of the past helps us in the present, it should 

 be cultivated. Is there adequate basis for 

 going farther, in the average case? I be- 

 lieve that the most serious criticism of the 

 old curricula, some of which still persist, 

 is the undue proportion of time given to 

 the languages and events of times so dis- 

 tant that they have little bearing on the 

 problems of the present. 



There is another class of subjects which 

 deals with the present, with facts and con- 

 ditions of to-day, and with what people 

 are now doing and thinking. Current 

 thought, cun^ent political, social, and in- 



