176 D. S. MAKGOLIOUTH, D.LITT., F.B.A., ON THE FUTURE OF 



commencement and maintained throughout. India is on the way 

 to have a national language in that idiom which is ordinarily 

 called after Hindustan, and is understood over a large portion 

 of the peninsula. The difficulties which stand in the way of its 

 general adoption and recognition as the language of India 

 appear by no means insurmountable ; and the introduction of 

 this language into the curriculum of English schools would bring 

 India far nearer to the inhabitants of this country, and render 

 them at home in that peninsula, which, with the increased facihties 

 of communication after the war, is likely to be more frequently 

 visited. The series of closely printed columns in the Ency- 

 dopcedia Britannica devoted to Hindustani Literature show 

 that it is by no means an illiterate patois, and as the dominant 

 dialect of India it is likely in future to contain many monumental 

 products of the Indian mind. It is noticeable that in his recent 

 monograph on Akbar, Mr. Vincent Smith designates the author 

 of a Hindustani classic as the greatest Indian of Akbar's time. 



One other of the great languages of the British Empire for 

 which some room might be found in the curriculum of the schools 

 is Arabic, whose literary metropolis has long been Cairo, and 

 which is also the language of Syria, Mesopotamia and Arabia, 

 all three countries wherein Great Britain has interests and 

 wherein she has responsibilities. There is indeed room for 

 unification of the vernaculars dominant in the different countries 

 of which Arabic is the mother-tongue, and this the growth of 

 the newspaper Press will perhaps some day achieve. If the 

 study of a language merely as the expression of thought be good 

 discipline for the'mind, the claims of Arabic for this purpose are 

 vastly superior to those of Greek, Latin, and probably of any other 

 language, for there is none which gives more the appearance of 

 being an elaborately thought-out mechanism, perhaps none 

 which combines in equal degree simplicity with subtlety, few 

 which are as copious and as forcible. The key to the mentality 

 of vast populations in Asia and Africa, it records in its long 

 series of faithful chronicles and biographies the experiences of 

 these nations and their predecessors before the civilization of 

 Europe was forced upon them. For the correct estimation of 

 what Europe can do and has done, these records are of great value. 

 While, then, for the educated European practical acquaintance 

 with French may be regarded as indispensable, if time can be 

 spared for other foreign languages, some of it may be claimed for 

 those most widely spread in the British Empire. 



