St. Paul daily globe., 1896-04-26
PROF. SPRAGUE-SMITH,S THEORY
OF TEACHING COMPARATIVE
LITERATURE.
HAS PUT 1T INTO PRACTICE.
lT MIST RE STUDIED AS A PRO-
DUCT AND ALSO ITS ENVIRON.
MENT.
EXAMPLE OF THE WORK DONE.
The Professor Has Laid u Broad
Foundation for the Superstruc-
ture of the Future.

Prof. Charles Sprague-Smith whose course
of lectures upon 1.-The Artists Of Barbizon"
has given great delight to all who have heard
them outlined to a representative Of the
Glob yesterday his theory and practice of
teaching comparative literature, as illustrat
ed in the Saturday conferences, which were
among the most popular morning classes in
New York during the Lent just past.
The subject is one which Prof. Sprague-
Smith has made his own, and he has given
tc the making of his theory years of study
and creative thought. He described very in
terestingly the gradual genesis of the idea
of the comparative study of the literatures
of the world in his own mind. In 1875, after
leaving college, he went abroad, with the
idea Of obtaining a broad foundation of gen.
eral knowledge of the European literatures
as a preparation for his chosen work of
teaching and studying English literature. He
lived and studied in Germany, France Italy
and Spain, familiarizng himself not only
with the languages and literatures of those
countries, but also with their history and
with that characteristic and peculiar nation
al spirit, evidenced both in nature and man.
which is the soul of a nations literature.
From the continent he returned to Oxford.
expecting to study English literature there,
but as the courses offered were not of the
best, while there was fine opportunity for
the study of Scandinavian literature he took
up the latter course, following 1t up by resi-
dence and study in Denmark and Sweden.
and, later, in Iceland. AS he was about to
return to America, still with the idea of
making English literature his life work. he
says, looking back over his years Of wander
Ing and study, that out of 1t all had come
to his mind a way of looking at all litera-
lures, but especially those of Europe, as one
literature, and he conceived the idea of teach
Ing these literatures with reference to their
unity, upon the background Of history. re-
garding them both as the products of evolu-
tion and as human documents.
On his return to this country in 1880 Prof.
Sprague-Smith accepted a position in Col
umbia college in the department of modern
language and foreign literature He occu-
pied chair in the faculty of Columbia until
1891, when he resigned to go upon the public
platform. During these years he did little to
forward his ideas in regard to the teaching
Of comparative literature for the organization
OF American colleges at present Is based upon
the analytic method. Each language and
literature is grouped separately and combi-
nation Is hardly possible without infringing
upon the separate departments.
While carrying on his lecture work upon
the platform, Prof. Sprague- Smith was all
the time feeling his way, trying to determine
whether the study could be presented to all
classes and ages. Leading educators had an
proved his ideas, but many declared that the
colleges were not ripe for such an innovation
as he proposed in their methods of literary
study His experience on the platform, how
ever satisfied him that not only college stu
dents, but all classes and ages the young
and uncultivated as well as the mature and
cultured, could take in the ideas which he
desired to present. 1t was merely question
or the method Of presentation.
Last winter for the first time he organ
lied series of conferences for the studv of
comparative literature, which brought the
STUDY and his method before the New York
pubic, and were Intensely successful
The chief objection with which he met in
propagating his theories was the contention
that no one man could command a KNOWLEDGE
of more than one literature, and that it was
presumptious and unscholarly to pretend to
know more. Prof Sprague-Smith claims
however, that to understand literary fart
within certain field, ones knowledge must
go far beyond that field: and the whole
method of study which regards one literature
as something apart from other iteratures.
or literature itself as something apart from
other forms of mental activity, is erroneous.