Milford chronicle., 1904-12-30
A souAesLE in LATIN.
odd Dispute Born of the Kaiser's
Message to the President.

tMA DAHE4AG n1AA VI AAI --@-~N-~
Message to the President.
One Of the sad, sad things in this
beautiful world is the way scholars
latin scholars-fight with one another.
latin, as everybody knows, is a dead
language. Not subject to the mouth
Angs Of the vulgar, classic Latin has re-
mained unaltered and unchanged for
thousands Of years. Thus. If a Span
gard knows his Cicero, his Horace and
his Virgil, but not Danish, he can make
himself ineligible to the Dane who
Knows no Spanish, but does know his
Virgil, Horace and Cicero. Latin is
therefore used as the medium in which
20 write abstruse scientific works. Be
fng in Latin, they are ineligible to
the men of science of the whole world.
Being in Latin, they are not subject to
the fluctuations in the meanings of
words to which all spoken languages
are subject. Such is the pretty theory.
But in practice the case stands differ
emily. In practice no two Latinists are
ever able to agree on a single Latin
sentence. Let a scholar crawl painful
1y up a shaky ladder to inscribe on the
facade Of q public building a Latin
motto, and all his scholastic brethren
begin to hurl at him hard rocks Of crit
icism and vegetables Of contempt. You
can bet on it, 1t never fails. And the
kaiser's message to the president is a
fine case in point AS the scientists
say, 1T is a beautiful specimen" What
the kaiser wrote was "Tuum quod bo-
mum felix faustumQue sit populo Amer
ican." Instantly the word sharps leap
ed upon it with unhOly joy. Professor
a. A. Sill of Cornell devoted half col
umn in the New York POst-practically
the organ of the universities-to an ex-
egesis. Professor N. w. H., in the
same journal, says that the word tuum
puzzled him considerably. Professor
James G. Croswell contributes a stick
full of meaty comment and remarks in
conclusion, Il fOrbear to translate, feel
ing that there are too many dangers in
ambush" Cautious man! Professor V.
V. Of Brooklyn writes, "It is evident
that the slightly altered form Of the
we'll known Roman formula has led
many of our minds astray as to the i'm
perial meaning" He suggests that
comma be placed after bOnum and that
est be supplied. Professor Charles
n. Ward of Columbia wants to know
''why all this pother about the kaiser's
Latin? 1t is perfectly good and simple,
May that be thine which is well, hap
py and fortunate for the American
people?" Professor H. thinks Profess
or Wards translation is mot good
sense" and suggests the addition of
I'd, est, a comma, the transposition
of quod and the alteration of Ameri-
can to Americana. And, finally, the
Rev. Theodore G. Williams remarks,
"How hard it is to write good Latin"
We quite agree with him in view Of
the exhibits.
This sort of thing happens every
time. Even Secretary Hay was caught
mapping the other day. He said in
speech on Roosevelt that many great
men besides the hero of San Juan
have been soldiers. Even Horace
could say, "Militavi non sine gloria"
But a gentleman in the rear rises to
remark that it was in no bloody affray
AheN AOAASO AOh6nL3 nOL WAthOuL 6AbASg
but in the sweet wars of love. The
couplet runs:
Wiki puellis nuper idoneus
Et militavi non sine gloria,
and Michael Monahan neatly construes
it:
have been a slick fellow with the girls
And have fought with glory in the wars Of
Venus.
So apparently there are pitfalls ev-
erywhere for the feet of the Latinist.
And what a commentary on scholar
ship when a dozen Of the "Gelehrte"
quarrel and jabber over a single sim
pie sentence! After all, is it any won
der that the plain man ofaffairs views
the SCHOLAR w@5h a trace of contempt
and all his ways with more than
trace of superior and satisfied amuse-
ment?-ArgOnaut