LEARNING FOREIGN LANGUAGES 569 
the language of the foreigner he is trying to teach, so much the better. 
But this knowledge is not essential. In this way the most ignorant 
person will soon acquire a few hundred words and phrases which will 
be a nucleus about which he may enlarge his vocabulary as much as he 
pleases. Although his pronunciation will be very faulty, he will be 
able to express himself in a way, and to understand fairly well what is 
said to him. When teacher and pupil are equally in earnest progress 
will usually be quite rapid up to a certain point. This point is difficult 
to pass. For the successful teaching of Latin and Greek to schoolboys 
a much higher degree of pedagogical ability is essential. Here the 
teacher has to deal with complex thoughts strangely expressed and more 
or less above the comprehension of the learner, one of the objects of this 
kind of instruction being to train his mind up to them. The instructor 
should not only have a competent knowledge of the language he teaches; 
he should also have psychological insight, fertility in resources, vivacity 
of manner and a good measure of literary training. When pupils are 
only half in earnest or somewhat defective in verbal memory, and the 
teacher lacks any or all of the above-named qualifications, instruction is 
“up-hill work,” and the results decidedly unsatisfactory. My personal 
observation of the teaching of Latin and Greek leads me to believe that 
there is generally too much grammatical hair-splitting and too little 
reading. A teacher needs to know very little about a language to be 
able to spend day after day with a class discussing verbal niceties. The 
serious student of a foreign language soon discovers the method that is 
best for him, and his progress is usually rapid. In any case the text- 
book ought to occupy an inconspicuous place. 
With the advancing years our educational system will supply more 
and more fully the needs of the rising generation. The time is not far 
distant when schools will be called into being wherein everything will 
be taught that is worth learning. So far as languages are concerned, 
there will always be persons who will study them for their literature 
rather than, for their practical value. There will always be professors 
of Latin and Greek, although it is a misnomer to call the latter a dead 
language. It is more alive than the English of Chaucer. Besides, it 
may be predicted with confidence that those persons whose native tongue 
is English will have less and less need to learn any other, except for a 
more or less permanent residence abroad. 
VOL. LXXVII.—39. 
