Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1890-02-12
MODERN LANGUAGES.
They Are Now Taught Scientifically
Parts of SchOlarshiD

They Are Now Taught Scientifically rs
Parts of Scholarship.
The real change that has come about
in the point of view from which the
place of the modern languages in edu-
cation is regarded was we'll stated by
Mr.. Lowell, when he said that the mod
ern languages used to be thought Gun
worthy to be taught at all except as
social accomplishment or as a CONNER
cial subsidy" whereas they are now
taught thoroughly and scientifically as
parts of scholarship, and the existence
OF the Modern Language Association,
composed of teachers of them, helps to
show the new basis upon which the
teaching of them has been put. We
are all pretty we'll agreed that Our re-
spected grandfathers, if they were col
lege bred, attached too much Importance
to the traditional "humanities'' and too
little to any thing outside of them.
The restriction was even more marked
in this country than in any other, be-
cause ''the educa ton of gentleman was
less regarded. nobody in this country, at
least in the Northern States, being edu-
Gated with an exclusive view to follow
that pursuit, though the education of a
gentleman in England for nearly two
centuries meant mainly the ability to
read Latin. In New England college
education that would fit man for the
ministry, and this involved the power
of reading the Scriptures in the original
tongues and the standard commentaries
upon them, which were for the most
part in Latin. At present a knowledge
Of German would seem to be important
for a minister, unless he be content to
take his Biblical criticism at second
hand from Robertson Smith, but it's i'm
porta nee has scarcely been recognized
by the theological seminaries, and even
less by the colleges. The English uni
versity training has been said, by man
who has undergone it, to fl the receiver
of it very we'll for the trade of gentle
man, and for no other. If the sheer
means merely that liberal education is
not Industrial, there is not much point
in it. A man who has been educated to
appreciate "the best that has been
thought in the world'' is much more
wort by and capable human being on
3hat account whether the apprecia ton is
directly helpful to him or not in the
wor + Of getting his living. Perhaps
Matthew Arnold's phrase which we
have just quoted is as good summary
def hition of culture as could be made.
A Cd injury ago it would have been taken
to NJ lean tAat a man must know Greek
and Latin. Even generation ago it
mea mt this much moro than it means
this now. Lord Bacon's saying of his
own essays that ''the Latin volume of
the m (being in the universal language)
may last as long as books last" shows a
view of literature that lasted almost to
our own time, ludicrous as it is when
applied to a work that now, nearly three
centuries later, is known to all scholars
as one of the monuments of English
prose, while the version of it in ''the
uni versal language" is known only to
few antiquaries. This view is now
pretty thoroughly exploded. Lord Ma
caqlay's saying that English literature
was of far more value in every way than
all the literature of antiquity may be
an exaggeratian, while Lord Sher-
brooke's insistance upon the advantage
of being able bully French writer
in his own language was greater
than that of being able to read the 1liad
and the Eneid in the original is OBJ
viously perverse. Nevertheless, between
two men, one of whom was familiar with
the literature of France and Germany
and the other of Greece and Rome, in
addition to that of his own language.
there would not now be much question
that the former was the better educated
man, nor can there be any real doubt
that the literature of Europe since the
revival of learning is of more educa-
tional value than all that was extant at
that epoch. The teacher Of modern Ian
guages is now able to assert himself as
scholar, and not as something like q
dancing-master, engaged in intoxicating
social accomplishment" or ''com7
mercial subsidiary" It is recognized
that his employment has to do with
scholarship, and that he is as respecta-
BILE figure in the world of letters as il
he protested GreeF.-N. Y. Times.