, 1874-02-08

cost. If q young man can begin his studies ear
and continue them till his 21st year, by all NEAR
let him study French and German. But in l,
case would We have him study those tongues {
the expense OF utter ignorance or tho meres
| surface-knowledgo OF his OWL language aud i!
| liternture, and Of the physical sciences. Thz
| the two latter branches Of knowledge are
! FAR MORE ESSENTIAL
| than the former to both his success and happi
! neBs, wo cannot doubt Unfortunately, the ma
jority OF our young men are compelled to plung
into business 60 early that they are compelled t
elect between the two acquisitions; they canno
have both. For such persons to choose the
French and German, and neglect the scienceI
and their own noble tongue and it's liternture, il
| as absurd as it would be for laborer to stin
himself all tho year in meat or bread TINT ht
may enjoy few baskets Of Strawberries in April
We yield to no one in our admiration Of Mon
taigne, Pascal, Moliere, Couvier, and sainte
Bouve, or Of Goethe. Schiller, Leasing, Richter
and Hcino but wo do, nevertheless, echo most
heartily the words Of Thomas De Quinccy,-
himself consummate lnguist,-when he de-
clares that
IT IS a P1TAnLE SPECTACLE
to man OF sense aud feeling, who happens to
be really faniliar With the golden treasures Of
hls own ancestral literature, md spectacle
which MOVES alternately scora and sorrow, to
see young people squandering their time and
painful study upon writer's not fit to unloose the
shoes 1archets of many amongst tlelr own COM
patriots; making painful and remote voyages
after tho drossy refuse, when the pure gold lies
neglected Mt their feet.''
We are fully convinced that even the literary
man, though he cannot dispense With q farniliur-
ity with the modern languages, pays high
price for his knowledge. Hero, as everywhere
else, the law OF compensation holds. Familiari-
ty with foreign idioms almost invariably
injurea an authors style. We know that the
Romans, in exact proportion to their study of
Greek, paraiyzed some Of the finest powers of
their own language. Schiller tells us that he
was in the habit OF reading as little as possible
in foreign tongues, because it WIS his business
to write German, and he thought that, by read-
ing other languages, he should
LOSE HIS NICER PERCEPTIONS
Of what belonged to his Own. Thomas Moore,
who WIS fine classical schoIar, tells Us that the
perfect purity with which the Greeks wrote their
own language was justly attributed to their
entire abstinence from any other. It II noto-
rious that Burke, after he took to reading the
pamphlets Of the French terrorists, never
wrote go pure English as he did before. Glib
bon, who boastod that his Essui SUR T Etude
de Ia Literature was taken by the
parisians for the production of one Of their own
countrynen, paid for the idiomatic purity Of Ills
French by the Gallicianas that deform the "De-
cline and Fall"
Our young men might be pardoned for mixing
some sacrifices to acquire knowledge OF the
modern languages, if such knowledge we're
necessary as key to their Iteratures;
BUT IT IS NOT.
Nearly all the masterpieces have been trans
lated into English. We are aware Of the objec-
tions to translatlons; they arc, 1t best, as
Cervantcs said, but "the reverseEside Of tapes
try;" but how many Of our young men and
women: who lavo not time or money for liberal
are likely to enjoy tho originals better
han tho traaslations that are executed by accom-
,1islled linsuists Noto in fifty. II man Of SO
exquisite taste as 11r. Emerson prefers, Us he
ellis us, to read foreign works in translations, is
t at al likely that ''Youns America" With Lis
almost utter Ignorance Of the niceties and deli
:acies Of the modern languages, will lose much
y initiating his example2 II you cannot enjoy !
1arlyle's Wilhelm Meister, Cotton's Montdigne,
II Lonsfellow'a Dante you must be either pro-
iigious scholar or prodigious Ounce. We say,
hen, in conclusion, II you are 4 man OF leisure, |
II 1ave time and means for liberal education,
y all means study French and German, and, if |
ou can, Spanish and Italian; but, if you are to |
'egin life at 16 or 20,
LET sp1EEs AND ADLER ALONE /
When you hnye mastered the giants who !
Erote in your mother-tongue when the great |
FORKS of Chaueer, Shakespeare, Hooker, Bacon,
hlton, Swift Wordsworth, Byron, Mill, Tenny- !
on, and all our other representative authors
ave passed like the iron atoms Of the blood !
ato your mental constitution, it will be ti1no to
Q abroad after s fresh fields and pastures now."
'ut do not, We beg Of you, indulge the foolish
mbition of becoming polyglottist when you
annot write grammatical letter in your
and have never read = page in
a1f OF its best writer's.