2IO 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. X. No. 247 



thought. In many cases the English text has been retranslated 

 orally into Hebrew. A thousand students in a single year have 

 been engaged in this study, and the Semitic languages are now 

 subjects of study in this country to an extent unknown before. 



The modern languages are far from full recognition in the 

 courses of study in the greater number of colleges. The demand 

 for their study as part of a liberal education is not emphasized by 

 their position and the amount of time devoted to them. They are 

 tolerated rather than regarded as essential. Out of sixty-four rep- 

 resentative colleges, fifty-eight require neither French nor German 

 for admission to the course in arts, four require French, and two 

 either French or German. The colleges are thus reduced to the 

 necessity of giving elementary instruction in the modern languages ; 

 and the college does not to this extent imply advanced instruction, 

 but simply the teaching of the rudiments. A knowledge of French 

 and German is necessary for the highest scientific as well as classi- 

 cal study. The use of French and German works, the consultation 

 of authorities found only in these languages, is impossible if their 

 study is postponed until late in the academic course. The colleges do 

 not reap the fruits of a knowledge of the modern languages in their 

 subsequent instruction. The philological study of Latin embraces 

 law Latin and the forms that have survived in French and the other 

 Romance languages. A critical knowledge of early English is not 

 possible without a study of the French element in English derived 

 from the Latin. Thus the advanced study of the classics, as well 

 as our heritage of the English tongue, is dependent upon an ac- 

 quaintance with French. The study of Anglo-Saxon is promoted 

 by a preliminary knowledge of German. Our colleges are thus 

 fettered in their work by the lack of the elementary knowledge on 

 the part of pupils essential to its successful prosecution. An intelli- 

 gent acquaintance with modern European literature is not possible 

 when the time which should be devoted to it is occupied with 

 elementary study. The time which is devoted to the modem lan- 

 guages forms in most institutions but a small part of the regular 

 college course, necessitating imperfect and hasty study. In sixty- 

 four colleges conferring the degree of bachelor of arts, the amount 

 of time required to be spent in the study of French and German is 

 seven and three-tenths per cent of the entire four years' course. It 

 is required that less than four per cent of the entire time of the stu- 

 dent shall be devoted to one of these languages. It is not to be 

 assumed that this low amount adequately represents the entire time 

 devoted to the modern languages, for through electives in the best 

 colleges the study can be greatly extended ; but it represents the 

 current estimate of college faculties of the value of these studies, 

 and the amount required to enable the student to prosecute his later 

 work. During the same period, at least twenty-five per cent of the 

 student's time is consumed, by compulsion, in classical study, in 

 addition to the preliminary knowledge required before entering 

 college. The revised curriculum which has been adopted at Yale, 

 and other colleges where the strict classical requirement has not 

 been retained in full force, is very encouraging. Several Western 

 and Southern institutions, as the Universities of Michigan, Indiana, 

 and Virginia, exhibit a thorough and extended course in the 

 modern languages. The scientific and technical schools recognize 

 the indispensable character of a knowledge of French and German 

 for purposes of all advanced investigation in science and engineer- 

 ing. The most recent discoveries in these and allied branches are 

 published in monographs and reviews, and it is safe to say that the 

 highest expert testimony on a question of engineering cannot be 

 secured except from one familiar with the constantly increasing 

 results of foreign investigation. Such results are not immediately 

 attainable except in the language itself ; and the final word which 

 has been uttered in discovery is often of priceless value in all 

 industrial enterprises. There is a loss in the equipment of every 

 scientist or engineer who cannot at once obtain from original 

 sources the knowledge which he needs. There is an additional 

 reason why the instruction in modern languages in our scientific 

 courses should be increased rather than diminished. The require- 

 ments for admission to these courses are less than to the classical. 

 An exclusively professional or technical course, unless conceived in 

 a broad spirit, fails to give a view of the connection and relation of 

 the physical sciences. No branch of study stands alone, and can be 

 built up from itself. Geology embraces paleontology, and paleon- 



tology demands a knowledge of animal and plant forms, hence of 

 zoology and botany. Chemistry touches, on the one hand, organic 

 forms, and, on the other, inorganic, and involves the laws of physics. 

 The highest results in every field of learning demand the highest 

 preparation for them, and the student going out into life will find a 

 sphere corresponding with his highest fitness. It is a misfortune 

 to educate men out of sj'mpathy with other fields of knowledge. 

 The scholar whose work will be confined to a single branch needs 

 the broadest attainable culture, which would be impossible for him 

 later. Knowledge loses half its value when it cannot be communi- 

 cated clearly, forcibly, and persuasively. Thus the student with an 

 exclusively practical life before him cannot dispense, even for suc- 

 cess in his own department, with the culture which springs from 

 a linguistic training. The scholar with a clear insight into the 

 meaning of words, and the power to marshal his thoughts 

 effectively, can make his knowledge useful to himself and the 

 world. Any course, whether technical or scientific, which sends 

 out graduates without that literary training which will give a com- 

 manding weight to their views in any community, is to that extent 

 defective, and fails to prepare them for the widest usefulness. 

 Minor defects in subordinate, technical matters can be more readily 

 repaired by experience than a lack of linguistic training, which will 

 give clearness and definiteness to their thinking, and make the 

 publication of the results of their experience a contribution to the 

 world's knowledge. 



The experiment by which in certain courses the modern lan- 

 guages are substituted for the classical, is one of extended applica- 

 tion in the colleges of this country. In many institutions the 

 students in courses in philosophy and literature are more numerous 

 than the classical students. 



We conclude that the elementary study of French and German 

 should be begun in the public schools ; that there are years in 

 youth in which languages are acquired with unusual facility, which 

 should be improved in any system of education. 



This would enable the instruction in the modern languages in 

 colleges to be advanced in character, so that by their use the full 

 value of a literary, scientific, or historical course could be realized. 



By requiring French or German for admission to technical 

 courses, the benefits of a thorough knowledge of these languages 

 would be attained without crowding the strictly professional 

 studies, and some literary study should accompany the whole four 

 years' course in such schools. W. T. Hewett. 



BRITISH UNIVERSITIES AND THE TRAINING OF 

 TEACHERS. 



There is no professorship of education at any university of 

 England, Wales, or Ireland. At the universities of Cambridge 

 and London there are special examinations for teachers, on the re- 

 sults of which certificates or diplomas are granted ; but there are 

 no educational degrees. Technically speaking, therefore, education 

 is not a university subject in these countries. At Cambridge, 

 under the auspices of a teachers' training syndicate appointed by 

 the university early in 1879, lectures on teaching have been given 

 for eight years past ; but they are not permanently established, and 

 may come to an end at any time. They are, as a rule, fitfully and 

 poorly attended, and cannot as yet be pronounced a decided suc- 

 cess. Except in the training-colleges and at the College of Pre- 

 ceptors, there is no other systematic course of lectures for teachers 

 outside Scotland. In Scotland there are two chairs of education, 

 established in 1876 out of funds left by the well-known Dr. Bell, — 

 one at Edinburgh, and the other at St. Andrew's. Both these 

 chairs are very ill endowed. In 1886 a school-masters' diploma was 

 established at the University of Edinburgh. 



I shall not attempt to criticise this state of things, — looked at 

 from any point of view, it is far indeed from satisfactory, — but I 

 shall endeavor in the space at my disposal to describe what is ac- 

 tually being done for the training of teachers by these various 

 agencies. 



I will begin with Cambridge, and first as to its courses of lec- 

 tures. They usually consist of one set on psychology in its bearing 

 on teaching, delivered as a rule by Mr. James Ward of Trinity Col- 

 lege ; another set on the history of education ; and a series of dis- 



