The Russellville Democrat., 1878-03-14
Written for the DEMOCRAT. LANGUAGES.
BY PROF. CARL JoNITz, A. NJ.

Notwithstanding the improve ments that have taken place within the last few years in the mode of conducting the study of foreign lan- guages, the field of improvement has been ny no means exhausted. Ap- proximations have been made to the true method, rather than the true method attained. It may be said that at the commencement of the present century this branch of study only existed in its chrysalis state. Not to speak of the immense ad- vances, which Philology has made since then in the hands of German scholars and others, the diffusion among the people of practical ac- quaintance with the language of other nations has been parallel with the modern development of thought and activity in other departments of life. During the last fifty years this movement has become, as it were, general and the study of languages been add d as a common branch to the Curriculem of schools.
 The application of steam to inte- rior and oceanic navigation and the introduction of railroads opened up a new era for the study of languages, as we'll as for commerce and SO for many other things. The knowledge of several languages has already become necessity of life for peo- pie whose habits are, every day, more and more those of travel aud an extended interest in the affairs of mankind; besides it is fact ac- knowledged by Professors of Philol- ogy, that the more diligently one studies one or more foreign languag- es the more he becomes acquainted with his own. Gothe, the German Shakespeare said: "Who knows not foreign languages, knows not his own."
 If there Is this pressing and grow ing need for the understanding of foreign languages what are the con. ditions under which the best results are to be looked for? What is it which is to be learned, and how is the knowledge to be attained? We will endeavor to give an answer to these questions. A thorough ac- quaintance with language involves both science and an art. Those who are yersed in the science of language are called Philologists, and those who possess the practical art or ability to speak several languages are called linguists. These two branches of knowledge are so differ ent, that the most learned philologist may not excel as linguist, and that the lingnist distinguished for the extent of his requirement in Ian guages may know very little of philoiogy.
 The philologist is man of science, the linguist is an artist One ac- quires his knowledge by the exer- else of reason and reflection of the principles, which governed the growth of language, the other chiefly by imitation and ready genius for seizing the usage or habit of speech, without troubling himself So much with rules or reasons.
 The American merchant or trav- eler who wishes to understand Ger, man for business purposes, or even the man of letters who desires to know that language chiefly as a vehi- cle to the treasures of literature, which are embodied in it may have very little occasion to plunge into the depths of mental philosophy which lie at the base of all human language One might as we'll require of Tim to inform himself of the prin- cilles which regulate the construc-