Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-06-12
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.

Schools. BY h. G. LATHAM d. FRS. New York
d. Appleton Company. 1852.
The study of our mother tongue, in its sources
genius, and idiomatic forms, is, we are glad to OBJ
serve, beginning to occupy the place in liberal
education which its Importance demands, and we
hail with pleasure therefore, every publication which
indicates and measures this progress in right d.
rection Without rating very highly the Anglo
Saxon erudtion of Mr.. Louis +. KIpstein, we were
pleased to receive few years ago. from the press of
country, an American contribution to this branch
of scholarship in the " Anglo-Saxon Grammar"
edited by that gentleman, who, though European
by birth and education, is countryman of ours by
residence. The scholarly and philosophical work
of Prof. Fowler on the English Language was also
another American addition for this department of
study, the value of which can only be duly appre-
ciated by those who have informed themselves of its
contents But in all that relates to the critical his
tory of the English tongue, in its origin, elements
and grammatical FORMS Mr.. Latham is tacile pria-
cops. We have but to compare his first publications
on this subject with his late elaborate work, of
which that named above is well-digested compend,
In order to ascertain how grossly the study
neglected, and how much it owes to his thorough
research and philosophical analysis In 1910, as he
himself remarks, so little had been done by English
for the English Language, that, in acknowledge
ing his great obligations to foreign, and especially
to German and Danish scholars, he only able to
speak Of what might be DONE by his own coun-
trymen. Since that time, however, much has been
accomplished by such able philologists Bosworth,
Kemble, Garrett, and Guest, insomuch that the re-
ferences to these authorities in his latest publication
show that the masters of Teutonic philology are
nor as much English as German it is no longer
reproach to English literature that the sole
Of information for the critical analysis Of the Ian
guage had to be sought in the pages of Lappenberg,
in that exhaustless repertory of facts the Deutche
Granamatk of Grimm, and in the Anglo-Saxon
labors of Erasmus Rask
Profound AngloSaxon scholarship is not likely
ever to prove a very marketable commodity in the
republic of letters nor do we think it desirable, in
the present short and crowded curriculum of our
academic and collegiate institutions that any consi
derabe space should be assigned the critical study
of this tongue in its original and native elements
But IN natural science it is found impossible to
acquaint the popular mind with the ratiocinative
processes which conduct to its brilliant discoveries
and wide concentrations, though all may comprehend
and master Its concrete facts so in English philoo-
gy, while comparatively few may possess either the
patience or leisure for the profound research it
exacts IN order to trace and coordinate the linguistic
afhnities OF our tongue, yet every one may fami-
Iarize himself with the great leading principles and
conducted. We venture accordingly to predict that
the day is not far distant when it viii be considered
disreputabe for any liberal American or English
scholar to leave the walls of his alma mater in
contented Ignorance of the logical grammar and his
torical relations OF his own tongue. 1t was not, we
think, of the least valuable of the regulations
incorporated by Mr.. Jefferson in his system of
studies for the University of Virginia, by which
provision is made in that Furnishing institution for
the study of AngloSaxon, though we have to regret
that few of its students have thus far manifested
the least desire to avail themselves of the facilities
thus afforded We may expect, however, no pro-
found scholarship either in the scientific investigation
of our own vernacular tongue or in the aesthetic
culture of the classic languages Of Greece and Rome
until the young men of our country shall content
themselves to remain in the High School or Academy
two three years longer, until they shall have
acquired the requisite discipline and education to
qualify them for admission to the q Junior Class"
with the usual grade of scholarship prescribed for
this class in most American Colleges then let the
present standard of junior studies be made the
Lttle-Go" of examination for admission to
what is called the Freshman Class and if, after
four years of intellectual discipline with this prepar
atory training, all under competent instructors, the
order of talent would not be indefinitely raised among
the educated youth of country, then there
De no connexlon between cause and effect or means
and end. The standard of education in our country
can never be elevated by increasing the number of
studies this only increases the number Of notches
into which it is graduated, and in fact the number
of studies in our day has been multiplied (the time
prescribed for educational course meanwhile re-
naming the same) until they almost run into each
other leaving the mind of the student to be crammed
with infntesimal quantities Of knowledge de onlni
bus reJus et guibualam aliis without imparting to
him thorough and distinct comprehension Of any
thing under the sum- If the scholars of our country
are to make the detestable excrements of hundred
isms and ologies the pabulum of their intellectual
life, need expect nothing better than the shallow
and pretentious sciolism which at present charac-
terizes so many "beardess youths" and rising
men" of the present generation. Need we wonder
that fanaticism is abroad in the land, when edu-
cational systems, by the halfknowledge and dan
gerous little learning" which they impart, become
the hotbeds for its culture!
Our readers, we are sure, will not understand us
as Directing to the present prominence given in the
study of languages to the incompatible tongue of
ancient Greece and the majestic speech of old Rome
We believe with DIR. Arnold that the suspension Of
their study would throw the world back five centu-
res. For their intrinsic superiority, and especially
for the consummate perfection Of the former as well
as for their adaptation to the purposes Of educational
discipline, think their study is wisely retained in
our Schools and Colleges: we would not have them
studied less, but English more; nay, further, we
would make the still more thorough and exhaustive
study of the classical tongues but the basis and