The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-07-08

means of communication. A knowledge of language which is essentially differ ent from that possessed by me fluent
 speaker of several languages IS apse- lutely essential to the precise and satis- factory interpretation of any language. Language is the! form in whSeh the
 highest expressions of human thought and feeling come to the individual man and to the succeeding generations of men. Language is, therefore, the essen- tial form of what we call literature, in the widest meaning of that word. The interpretation of language is the use of the key that unlocks the treasures of literature. Therefore language must be studied as a training in the science and art of interpretation, or else the accurate and comprehensive knowledge of the best thoughts, feelings and activities of humanity is shut out of the mind.
 To acquire the science and art of Interpretation, the prolonged and care full study of some language is absolute ly indispensable. Such a study of one language is not only indispensable, but it is sufficient for the average college student. For this purpose it is even far better to concentrate upon one language than to divide among three or four languages. He who knows one langu- age in this way knows something which cannot be otherwise acquired about all languages, ,about-language as each. He is prepared not only to ae- quire with largely increased facility any language which he chooses to ac- quire, but to use that language intelli- gently and skillfuly as the key to. un- lock the stores of literature which it may contain.
 Such a. study of language as shall re- suit in a training in the science and art of interpretation cannot easily be con- ducted otherwise than in a language foreign to, the student. Indeed, I very much doubt whether it is possible to i'm part any considerable degree of this kind of culture without compelling that careful attention to words-their mean ing, their position in the sentence, their value, etc,,-which unfamillarity and the consequent compulsion to make a serious attempt at learning, Of necessity bring about. He who is compelled to study a series Of words that at first mean little or nothing to him, must somehow make. shift to discover what they do mean. He must become an in- vestigator, an explorer, an experimenter and diseeverer in this foreign land. The attempt to force this way of investiga- ting ones own familiar and native speech when the way has not already been prepared by traing in some foreign language. is not at all likely to be suc- eessful. English, therefore. can never be substituted for the classical iangu- age. sz8 >s
 Among all foreign languages the classical languages are for us best adapted to use by the teacher for train- ing in the science and art of interpreta- tion. This is due to the very structure of these languages, to the fact that be- ing dead, they are the more foreign. and to the exceedingly elaborate and generally admirable appartts of grammars, lexicons, annotated editions, historical and antiquarian illustrations. etc, with which several centuries of dilligent research and careful scholar ship have provided these languages = Prof c. Trumbali ,Ladd in the For um.