Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-03-02
The Study of the English Language.

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should be its primary purpose.
Very few of our American schools land
the same is true of the British schOols)
appear to think study of the English
tongue of any particular consequence.
True, they do not object to it indeed,
they make it generally one Of the branches
Of the course, though, on the whole, it is
treated rather as incidental than essential.
In the public schools, mathematics is
usually chosen as the standard by which
to measure the capacity and progress of
the pupil, and very inaccurate, not to
say false, standard it. is for general capac-
ity or progress. The boy or girl who shows
a special aptitude for mathematics seldom
has an aptitude for any study not of an
abstract nature. He or she is apt TO pos
sess little imagination, slender apprecia-
ton Of beauty, and marked indifference
to harmony or form. By such a pupil,
language is either disregarded, or de-
spised the graces are neglected, and the
personal amenities disesteemed. AT the
end of the year, he who can demonstrate
with ease any theOrem of Euclid, or who
has parabolas or asymptotes at his fingers
ends, is likely to be ignorant Of history
and belles-lettre5 generally, and slow and
awkward of speech.
In our colleges, as everybody knows,
mathematics and Latin and Greek are
held to be all-important, and everything
| q a G n o. or VT IN &c
| by no means uncommon for a youth 10
graduate with distinguished honors who
| could not, for his soul, talk with ease
on any subject he might be familiar with
| What is the good OF his knowledge (if he
happen to have it) OF calculus, of Greek
roots, Of the quantity Of EschyIus, of the
best passages Of Livy and Lucretius, if he
cannot use his native tongue to advantage?
1t were far better for him to have such
use than to have his head stuffed with any
quantity Of unavailable lore.
This is a practical age Young men
do not earn their bread, nor rise to dis
tinction, by repeating the odes of Horace
Or by calculating the binomial theorem.
But the age is not so practical as to despise
! ease and grace of expression. Few of us
think Of the power and influence of nicely
| cultured, carefully-disciplined speech.
| We are prone to believe, as is often said,
that any language is good enough which
enables us to make ourselves understood
1t is good enough for barbarians, but ex-
! tremely bad for enlightened people, as we
claim to be, and really are. Language
has far higher purpose than mere intel
Eligibility; and yet it is so poorly employed,
as has been said, that even that end is
often not attained
| n ot only are the schools of our youth
| gravely at fault, but the wider, better and
more thorough school we enter when we
begin our struggle with the actual world
| The benefit Of early training can scarcely
be Over-estimated. What we are taught
to respect and admire during that period,
we are likely, later, to continue to respect
and admire in increased degree Ordin-
| airy education is merely basis to build
upon in after-life; and when that is lack
| ing, it behOOves US to begin anew It is
!
rudiments, nor n the school of expert
| ence, are we instructed in a proper and
pleasant use of our mother tongue Hav-
ing neglected it in the former, we should
try to made amends in the latter. Doubt
less we should, if we had any realizing
sense of its practical Importance; for
this will appeal to thousands who cannot
be moved by any aesthetic consideration
whatever.
have often heard men say, "I'm a
business man. I'm mattter-of-fact. I
don't pretend to talk we'll. 1t isn't my
place. The people [ deal with know
what I'm talking about. That's quite
enough. I've got something else to do
than to dawdle over books to learn how
to say pretty things. Thatll do for scrib-
blerS and women"
Such men are innocent of nice discrim-
nations. They perceive no difference be-
tween speaking English we'll and being
literary. Literature, as a profession, is
too axacting, precarious and unremunera-
tive, to 5e recommended. The last per-
sons to counsel its adoption would be
those who have made it a trade. But there
is no more need that man should be lit
erary, in order to use his own language
| justly, than that he should be an actor be-
| fore he can read understandingly and ac-
ceptably.
The first step toward the attainment of
| proper speech is careful attention to it.
We must think not merely of what we
want to say, but Of how we are to say it.
How very few of us that count ourselves
educated bestow any thought on the mat
ter! We take our English from the daily
rewspaper-oftener warning than an ex-
ample-and from those Immediately about
US. We reproduce their slovenliness,
their slang, their faults. We read scarce
| ly any books, and such as we do read are
more for diversion than instruction. We
are inclined to believe that what is in
structive is invariably dull, when the
really dull is that which only enables US
to kill time. The latter may not appear
at first, though it will ere long-just as
soon, in truth, as our intellect is aroused.
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