28 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE TEXAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 
best of American institutions of learning, it has fallen to a very subor¬ 
dinate place in the opinion of the educational world. 
Were this the only result of this disastrous policy it would need to 
call forth no comment, but the results have been more widespread. 
Every educational institution of the South has been looking up to that 
for years, and has modeled itself more or less on the same false plan. 
The consequence has been that we have had no institutions of learn¬ 
ing worthy of the name, and our whole people have become impreg¬ 
nated with wrong conceptions of what is good and what is bad in edu¬ 
cation. 
The South is an old country, relatively speaking. It was settled 
and populous before the West was thought of as a possibility. There¬ 
fore we have received but little immigration from other States or coun¬ 
tries of men of intellectual attainments. 
The West, on the other hand, has been built up by such men. They 
have established factories, metallurgical w r orks, industries, etc., such 
as these same men were accustomed to in the land of their birth. Con¬ 
sequently the West is far beyond the South in progress and prosperity. 
It is time that we should have a change. The South needs a new 
order of things before she can compete with the rest of the world. I 
believe the day is not far distant when we will drop our false ideas and 
take up those more in accordance with the requirements of the age. 
The first place in which this movement must be inaugurated is the 
university. Already is the change in progress. Every young man 
who leaves the South for study abroad and comes back to live brings 
with him ideas that must influence those with whom he comes in con¬ 
tact. 
We have to dispossess ourselves of the idea that Latin and Greek 
are the sine qiui non of education and learning. I have nothing to say 
against the study of these two languages. They are useful in training 
the mind, as is every other study. But to say that they are an educa¬ 
tional necessity is saying that which can not be demonstrated and 
which is contrary to common sense. It is no doubt well, or even neces¬ 
sary, that one should know more than one languagebut German or 
French can be used as substitutes for Latin and Greek as intellectual 
training, while for practical purposes there is no comparison between 
them. 
Because most educated men have studied Latin and Greek is no 
reason why they should still be considered a necessity. We must re¬ 
member that it has only been a few years since it became possible to 
study other things than the ancient languages, mathematics and phil¬ 
osophy in institutions of learning. But since these other things have 
become possible, there has been growing a demand that other studies 
should be considered as at least equivalents to the ancient languages. 
I wish to emphasize the fact that this demand does not mean the 
