The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-06-20
The Mastery of One Language.

Il
The victory of education, so far rs
words bring information, is to be gained
not in the study of many languages,
but in the mastery of one. The soul
casts but one shadow of itself. 1t has
but one image of its deeds and feelings
and thoughts. The English language,
the German language, the French Ian
guage, are each the picture of one
thing, man and though we may know a
hundred names for friendship" they
all indicate one and the same sentiment f;
hundred names for Slavery we
have learned in all these only one fact
Hence the chief aspiration of each stu
dent should be to master some one of
these three great languages, in which
the worlds past is Ill treasured MP,
without loss of thing or thought. If 9th
er languages are studied, it should be
that additional light may be shed upon
the single one in which we are to live,
move and have our being. Many beau
tiful girl comes from our seminaries
able to speak the word FRIEND" in
French, italian, Spanish and English I;
but the meaning of the word friend as
revealed from the days of Christ down
to the bosom of her own mother, has
escaped her inquiry. Coming from the
classical college, we can express the
word Liberty IN Greek and Latin and
Sancrit; but we are strangers to all that
import which the human race has seen
in the term, regardless of vowels and
consonants. Whether the word termi-
mates in "tas with the Latins, or
"tad with the Spanish, is an investi-
cation of small import compared with
the deep study of the idea in the suffer-
ings and longings of the human race.
The deepest study of the mind seeking
development can never be found in the
acquisition of many tongues, but of
many ideas within the same tongue.
To express one thought in ten Ian
guages is not so desirable as in some
one language to express ten thoughts.
To possess knowledge of many forms
of speech from Greek to the French, is
only to have gallery all the portraits
in which are of one hero or Madonna.
We ask you if You have a portrait of
Caesar aud Marcus Aurelius, and Pliny
the younger and elder, and your answer
is, " No but I have five portraits of
Socrates :" an interesting fact, but not
the best form of fact. Ten tongues are
ten photographs of the same face. The
highest education will always be found
in developing the resources of some one
of the three vast instruments of the
apirit, English, French, German. They
may be all studied indeed, but only
that the one into which the soul hap
pens to have been born may reveal all
It's treasures, and become medium Of
the mind in relation to itself and TO its
fellow-men, an atmosphere in which the
soil can fly to and fro to all the accessi-
BILE heights and depths of its vast world.
Inasmuch as the nineteenth century
surpasses all before it, and inasmuch as
language must be faithful picture Of
the soul, it follows that the English
and German and French tongues are
each more expressive, as TO quality and
quantity, than the tongues that lay like
a beautiful vesture upon Athens and
Rome. Each one of these modern
tongues includes Greece, and then
reaches beyond. The soul having grown
larger, larger is the shadow it casts,
larger is that drapery the enwraps it.
Each language possesses a few individ-
ual traits but look into tho mighty
English alone, and there is the record
and picture of humanity up to this
hour, in all its Joy and sorrow, strength
and beauty.-Ldkeside Monthly.