, 1865-02-25

/ ss5oa,c.t;on. Why not teach 1t, then: we
-. that branch IL not taught In any Of
an Studying Latin and Greek We arc
I ,,.ro;nr The grammars Of five modern
| lnueuaccs." This, In our Judgment, is not
correct The Eranma<s Of oil languages
| must posss certain points Of similarity, just
rs The sounds which proceed from The human
voice in all parts Of the globe must posseas
similarity. But all who are familiar with the
Greek grammar will agree that 1t IL as little
Ike the English grammar as our prouuncla-
ton Of Greek Is like that Of the. Greeks
themselves, which Professor Felton tells Us
is ye,y little indeed. .--..
Sd. sslfEhristiam were ignorant Of Hebrew
and Greck, ,inf1dels would overthrow religion" )"
Christians, rs sucb, am ignorant Of those lam
cuagcs. Only Professors and Dirines Feed
fhcm. Even these, iq. pur- Western States,
would serve their cau1 etter II thsy. could
p,caeh IN German, which is, tnn many yflaces,
thesanguage of one-third Of the people, than
by reading Hebrew.
4."As means Of mental training and cul-
ture the ancient languages are as good as
any other branches not Immediately neces~
sary in one's duties in life" In.this we re-
spectfuly differ from President Blanchard,
We think that the mathematics; {thc branches
higher than common ari1hmeAc), arc decid-
cdly superior, ASA means Of. mental training,
10 The Latin and Greek languages. The
study Of the mathematics does lead to con-
secutiveuess Of thought. 1t does 50 neees-
snrIy and In remarkable degree. Wo
d. db! whether the same can be said Of the
study Of the classics, or whether nJthing 80
commeudahle can be said.
S. Two-1hjrds Of the vocabularies Of law,
mtdicine and the natural sciences, are Latin
and Greek botany and agricultural chcmis-
try included+'' Thisssis undoubtedly true, but
VIC infer that it constitutes the least Of Pres
sdsnt Rlanchard's reasons for advocating the
clEssic course in American study.
6. " He who studies Latin and Greek learns
the meaning Of English words faster than he
who studies IN English dictionary and. .histo-
r., as fast as from chart" We can hardly
admit all this, but II 1t were true it would
furnish an equal argument for TIC study OF
the e.ancient Saxon, Norman and Danish He
who studies Latin and Greek learns that q
vast number Of English words are derived
from Latin and Greek, hut it does not follow
that he learns the meaning Of those words by
the same process faster than the meaning can
be leaned In other ways. The English word
pagan II means heathen, but the corres.
| pending Latin word signifies 3 dweiler in a
| village The English word "yindicatc" means
to defend; the corresponding Latin word
mcans to avenge. Many other instances
might be cited showing that the Latin and
Greek would be unsafe guides to the meaning
OF English words. The various circumstances
OF accidents which have led to these changes
Ct meaning constitute m agreeable study,
and go to make up the sum Of human knowl
edge. bnt it is not safe to affirm that the
mtaning Of English words In the nineteenth
century can be learned faster by the study o.
Latin md Greek, or even By the study Of the
English as spoken in the time Of Henry II
than by the study Of the English dictionary