ON SCIENCE AND ART 159 



have his mind disciplined in the various directions the 

 teaching of those topics would have necessitated, then, 

 assuredly, he will be able to pick up, on his road through 

 life, all the rest of the intellectual baggage he wants. 



If the educational time at our disposition were suffi- 

 cient there are one or two things I would add to those 

 I have just now called the essentials; and perhaps you 

 will be surprised to hear, though I hope you will not, 

 that I should add, not more science, but one, or, if 

 possible, two languages. The knowledge of some other 

 language than one's own is, in fact, of singular intellec- 

 tual value. Many of the faults and mistakes of the 

 ancient philosophers are traceable to the fact that they 

 knew no language but their own, and were often led 

 into confusing the symbol with the thought which it 

 embodied. I think it is Locke who says that one-half of 

 the mistakes of philosophers have arisen from questions 

 about words; and one of the safest ways of delivering 

 yourself from the bondage of words is, to know how 

 ideas look in words to which you are not accustomed. 

 That is one reason for the study of language; another 

 reason is, that it opens new fields in art and in science. 

 Another is the practical value of such knowledge; and 

 yet another is this, that if your languages are properly 

 chosen, from the time of learning the additional lan- 

 guages you will know your own language better than 

 ever you did. So, I say, if the time given to education 

 permits, add Latin and German. Latin, because it is 

 the key to nearly one-half of English and to all the 

 Romance languages; and German, because it is the key 

 to almost all the remainder of English, and helps you 

 to understand a race from whom most of us have sprung, 

 and who have a character and a literature of a fateful 

 force in the history of the world, such as probably has 

 been allotted to those of no other people, except the 



