Morning journal and courier., 1883-08-27
SINGLE COPIES THREE CENTS.
Monday, August 27, 1888.
A REFORM THAT Is MUCH NEEDED

REFORM THAT Is MUCH NEEDED.
 Charles Francis Adams, jr., recently pitched into" the dead languages in most refreshing way, and what he said attracted much attention and excited much discussion President Robinson of Brown University in his report to the corporation, which has re- gently been published, has something to say about the study of Hive" language which ought to attract quite as much attention as AEr. AdRms Ufation did, and give rise to g reform that is much needed.
 The most radical defect to-day in our American colleges, says President Brown, is want of attention to rhetorical studies, meaning by these studies not only practice in the arts of composition and of speech, but the patient acquisition of that correctness of lit erary taste. that knowledge of English litera- ture and that appreciation of it's richness, without which facility and skill in the use of our tongue are never sttainable. Years and years of closest study are given to other tongues, both ancient and modern, tongues which only fraction of educated men are expected to use in after life, while only incl dental and comparatively superficial atten- tion is given to that mother tongue which all are compelled to use in speech or in writ ing every day of their lives, and on skillful use of which with many depend, to no small degree, their success or failure in life And, in saying this, it is not forgotten that for the enlargement of one's knowledge of English words, and for the cultivation of that nice discrimination between synonymes, which only the most careful study of language can impart, nothing has yet been discovered, or is ever likely to be discovered, that can take the place of the critical study of the classical literature of the Greeks and Romans. But the facts cannot be disguised that many an excel lent Latin and Greek scholar writes wretched English, while admirable English is written by many who know neither Latin nor Greek. What our colleges most need is not neglect of the classics of the ancients, but more at tention to the classics of our own tongue; an attention that shall consist not merely in 8 study of it's best authors, but of that unre- mitted and critical practice without which, in literature as in everything else, no high de- gree of excellence is ever attained.
 Never, in our opinion, were truer words
 
 who at the end of 8 college course can ex- press their ideas well, or even respectfully, in speech or in writing is painfully small. This ought not to be so, and would not be so if proper attention were given to the matter Instead of being compelled to write few Compositions" a year and ''speak" 8 few times during the course the student should have daily exercise in such work and it should .be made us interesting as possible As it is now about all the really valuable training of this kind which college students get is fur nished by the college papers and debating societies, and only few take advantage of it. A graduate of 8 college in this country should at least be able to write and speak the Eng fish language with reasonable duency and proprietty.