Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-03-01
A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE.

A want OF knowledge Of a language al
once brings the philosopher and the fool
very much on a par when they both at
tempt to communicate with the foreigner
who speaks that language alone. Also, if a
stupid person speak foreign language well,
and a clever person speak it badly, the
stupid person has the better chance of tell
ing most to the foreigners, while the clever
person is like one who is dumb.
From a very considerable experience in
connection with education, we are con-
WINGED that it requires very small amount
of brain-poTer to be a good linglIist. 1t
requires ear, and a sort of parrot-ike
method Of imitation, but it does not require
reason, nor deep thought; in fact, there are
so many abSurditieS in connection
with languages, so much that is
merely arbitrary both in construction and
in other details, that the reasoner is often
stopped where the thoughtless will advance
rapidly. Let US take a few examples in
connection with masculines and feminines
in French and German. The French have
but the marsuline and feminine, while the
Germans have also the neuter. Now, as
things may be masculine, feminine or neu-
ter, the common-sense appears with the
German; consequently, a student has to
learn, when studying French, what the
French people have chosen to call masculine
and what feminine, and in this there is no
reason to guide him. 1t is true a man is
called masculine and a woman feminine; but
why the sun should be called masculine,
and the moon feminine is explicable on
no reason whatever; and so We may
proceed, finding the most arbitrary
3, Ivno oh, s,f
OF which causes the breaker to become a
subject for ridicule. But, again, if this Sc
lection Of the sexes Of words were univers-
al, there might be some hopes for a student
Of many languages, but what the French
class as feminine, the Germans often put
down as a neuter, and the Italians as mas
culine; thus,the sun in German is feminine
and the moon masculine, for what reason
it is impossible to say; and thus confusion
reigns supreme in this subject, to the total
exclusion of reason. Our own case will,
we believe, be found similar to that of hun
dreds Of thousands Of other people. As
boy, we were taught Greek and Latin,such
an amount as enabled us to read a Greek
Testament with the use occa-
sionally of lexicon, and to read freely
Ovid and Virgil. But our future
career was selected to be one in which Greek
and Latin were not subjects for examina-
ton; but French and German 'paid WE'LL"
consequently, four years were devoted to
the study of the two languages-at the end
of which time we found ourselves in South
Africa, where the only languages Of any
practical use were Dutch and Caffre. To
Dutch and Caffre, consequently, we turned
our attention, and after rather more than
years study, we were able to converse i'm
perfectly in both these. But again were we
on the point of finding these latter labors use
less, for there was every prospect of our ser
vices being transferred 10 India, and we heard
from good authority that we were not likely
to get on there unless we could speak Hin
dustari, and perhaps understood Sanscrit
or Persian.
Here, then, were Greek, Latin, French,
German, Dutch, Caffre, Hindustani, Per-
sian, Sanscrit, all to be learned, in order that
ones own thoughts and wishes should be
made ineligible to another person. In our
judgment this is not only mistake, but it
is mistake which is remediable, and which
is star upon the common sense and civil
cation Of the world.
In music there is but one language. The
of German composer can be
at once read and translated into sounds by
the musicians of the whole world. To an
English musician it is matter of indiffer-
enCe what was the nationality of the COM
poser; there is in music but one language,
and that one simple and ineligible; and
yet, what is the importance of making mu-
steal sounds compared to the Importance of
our thoughts to other people,and
making them ineligible; yet there are a
different ways of doing the latter,
instead Of one, and unless person know at
least four or five of these-that is, unless
he employ some four or five years of his
life in acquiring knowledge of these Ian
guages-he is dumb in many countries.
Unfortunately, also, unless a person keep
practicing language, he soon
forgets it, and all his past labor, or at least a
great part Of it, has to be gone over again.
Journal.