Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1881-01-28
''Par.ez veus Francois I
From an Essay by David swins.l

"Par,ez veus Francois /
jrFrom an ESSAY by David swingl
The prevailing idea among the upper
American classes that even their little
children must learn French, and to that
end must speak it at the table, Is highly
blanable. for reasons more than ono. IL
is based upon entire Ignorance OF the tact
that it will require the lifetime OF ench
mortal to master the language OF his
birth and country. All the young years
given bv Americans TO the study of
French are wears turned away from the
greatest language yet known TO man. All
the ACQUISITIONS of the human race, all
the sciences and arts and histories and
sentiments of humanity have passed INTO
the English tongue. Each word stands
for an idea. and in each great modern
dialect all ideas re-appear. He that has
| perfectly mastered his own language has
a store OF information immense IN bulk
and rich i'll value. To excayate many
channels for a river is to lessen the unity
and power of the stream otherwise ma
iestic. 1t will always be proof of some
| blunder of Judgment or OF some Stub
born vanity when Americans Will be found
using little French and German and
| Italian, who have not mastered the Eng
lish of William Writ or of Tennyson OF
of the eloquent Ruskin. 1t Is not Ian
cuares man needs. but language. 1t Is
not room full of violins. but tho power
to make music 1t is therefore simply
! painful to hear a fashionable elrl or wo-
man or man combining several languages
/ in conversation when the listener KNOWS
well that this bright talker could not by
any possibility compose an essay IN the
| English of Washington Irving or Charles
Sumner or the poet Whittier. While they
have trifed with grammars and lexicons,
or have said elegantly this or that com.
pliment of the season their own grand
| English has moved away from their mind
| and heart lust as husband and home at
| last disappear from the world of the art
! ful beauty. leaving in her possession the
old faded bouquets and the Old yellow
cards OF invitation to dinner or 10 dance
invitations sent and accepted long ago,
when the forehead was smooth and the
lips red.
A modern language Is prodlglous
affair All Will admit that as a system OF
sounds for expressing truths the Greek
language has no equal, but 1t comes short
in this particular-that the Greeks had
not rs much 10 express as the Germans
and French and English now have IN
their keeping. An island has become
continent, Il river has widened INTO sea.
Each OF these three modern tongues holds
in its embrace universe, while the Greek
held only star. To master one OF these |
new forms of speech Is the task OF a life, |
and happy the American who shall ever
reach in his own tongue the ease and
skill reached in their own tongues by
Chateaubriand and Lamartine and 10y
Castelar, in his dialect or by Schiller IN
The rich German. Such result cannot
be reached by attempts to study the
words cf Iamartine and Goethe, bat by
studying the same universe as that which |
enveloped them, and by compelling our
own English harp to play for us all our |
sincere and passionate music. 1t must |
be that the popularity of French comes |
from Z forgetfulness of the absolute I'M
nensitv of the English language-an I'M !
menseness which asks for many years OF
early and late study, and which should |
so captivate each one born into its con- |
fines that like the contented soul, one |
should never care to wander away from |
home
The chase after French must Gene |
from the want of thought as to the great
ness of our own speech, and must be one
of the popular delusions of the age, but |
there lies against this worship OF French |
a separate objection. In our generation |
that nation is not coming to us rs Greece |
came, laden with deep and inspiring |
thoughts. Greek speech was once the |
speech Of the worlds greatest minds. We |
recall Plato and Aristotle and Thucydiies, |
and that type of manhood These were |
the men who projected Greek into the old |
courses of study But that old type OF
manhood is now standing in England and
Germany and America, and tho French
verbs and nouns and "Iiectives are COM
ing to us only i'll the name OF fashion and
Paris. .Parlez Won. Francais." simply |
means, Have you seen Paris 2 Have
vou some of her dresses, her dramas, her |
wallpaper her furniture, her luxury? A
language which sets us all wild for ele- |
CANT clothing and for handsomer furni- |
ture, and for new shapes Of wedding |
cards. and which 50 delights us at the |
drama, can never come i'll the dignity OF
those old classic verbs which never men
toned ANYTHING except the great emo
tons and exploits of the soul. The
Greek showed man human life in its wars
and travels and rhetoric and logic and
liberty and aesthetic yearnings, but the
French of our boarding schools does
little for the average student, except en-
able him or her to read the bill OF fare at |
a fashionable hotel, and TO call by the |
charming name of buffet what once was |
a side board, and to buy and enjoy as an |
escritoire what had once been known as |
writing-lesk, ard TO feel Wise over that !
progress which removes from lady her |
workable and places before her chill |
oniera So far us the study Of this mod |
ern dialect inilames the young heart III |
the direction Of bills Of fare and novel |
ties for the pallor OF dining room, 1t can |
hardly compare favorablv with the study |
of those classic forms which ignored the |
hotel-keeper and the cook, and intro
ducad the student to Homer and Cicero. |
Even when Il whole life is given to ones |
native English or native French, SO IN |
adequate still is that language to express |
the soul that it seems n form of wicked |
ness to divide the heart between many |
masters, and to have no supreme friend. !
Chateaubrlnnd, the greatest master OF /
the French tongue, when he stood near |
the niagara Falls almost hundred years !
ago, and saw evening coming down from |
the sky upon all the sublime scene; saw |
the woods growing gloomy in the deep |
shadows, and heard the sound Of the !
waters increasing its sOlemrlty as the |
little voices died away i'll the nights re-
pose, said at is not within the power /
Of human words to express this grandeur |
Of nature" Skilled as he was III the |
most rich md sensitive form Of speech, I
that speech all of whose resources he |
knew 81 we'll, Row failed him, and his |
spirIt had 10 remain imprisoned. there |
being no gateway by which its sentiments |
could escape to the hearts of his country |
men. What are YOU and To do then, II
We have not loved early and late and deep |
lv our own English that English which |
is now the leader in literature and all
learning il We have not mastered itA
words its cl.gancic=. its power OF loeIc
aul humpr and pathps and rhythm ami
ha... not permitted our minds To become
nth Ia It's associations # We have i"r
years gone along with heart divided III
its love. or with nind that has studied
words more than i has thought and
PRAYED and laughed and vept amid the
sublime scenes of nature OF themO I'M
pressive mysteries Of mankind ''Parlez
vous Francais = Not well not at all
would to heaven $. could even learn 10
speak English.
"p'ill Il Ee Elfsrteii"