ago or at any other time; and that I do not believe any considerable number of Harvard graduates will sustain Mr. Adams's assertions.

But the question here is not whether Greek is taught or has been taught at Harvard in the manner which Mr. Adams represents, but whether if taught, as all will concede it should be taught in the best practicable manner — it is still a “college fetish.”

Mr. Adams does not state explicitly the objects which he conceives are to be specially sought by the compulsory study of the "fundamentals," though he does say, "The whole experience and observation of my life lead me to look with greater admiration, and an envy ever increasing, on the broadened culture which is the true end and aim of the University." "On this point," he says, "I cannot be too explicit, for I should be sorry indeed if anything I might utter were construed into an argument against the most liberal education. There is a considerable period in every man's life,” he continues, “when the best thing he can do is to let his mind soak and tan in the vats of literature. The atmosphere of a university is breathed into a student's system - it enters by the very pores." "I would not narrow the basis of liberal education; I would broaden it."

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I understand myself, therefore, to be standing with Mr. Adams on this proposition that a broad culture, the broadest culture, a liberal education, the most liberal education a culture and education which shall pervade the mind and spirit as the breath pervades the body – the true end and aim of the College—that is, of the disciplinary training which precedes entrance on the active, responsible work of life. Certainly, I regard this proposition, entirely drawn in spirit, and almost in terms, from

are.

Mr. Adams's address, as a correct and somewhat adequate general statement of the end to be sought by a compulsory requirement of the "fundamentals," whatever they It may, then, be laid down again for the purposes of this discussion, with the concurrence of Mr. Adams, as it has often been laid down, that college studies "the fundamentals " - should have for their chief and controlling object the training, discipline, education of the mental faculties; that the end and aim of a college curriculum — the prescribed and enforced plan of study should be always the general development, direction, inspiration and education of the mental powers. Mental power, the power and faculty to organize and direct the forces of human society-the wants, desires, interests of menis, in the only sense here under consideration, the object of education.

It appears to me perfectly obvious, and it has so appeared to the wisest educators in all modern times, that the foremost means to such an end is the study of language the careful, thorough, long-continued study of the principles, structure and uses of language. The languages and the mathematics-the faculty and art of expression in language, and the habit and power of accurate, systematic reasoning-constitute and have in modern times constituted the means of education, in this sense. Along with these, as a matter of necessary information or knowledge, goes the study of history, geography and something of what we call natural science; but language and the mathematics are the chief disciplinary agents. Beyond a very narrow limit of mere utility for the commonest wants of life, the aim and value of the study of language and the mathematics, in schools and colleges, are disciplinary. Now, one seldom, if ever,

hears the study of the mathematics opposed or derided. They stand generally unchallenged,-why? Not because, beyond a very narrow limit, they are used or are expected to be used in the work of life. Like the use of the physical gymnasium and its appliances, the further study of the mathematics is left to the leisure, the taste or the sense of duty of the individual man when engaged in the active pursuits of life. There can be no doubt that a life-long pursuit or study of the mathematics would promote the strength and facility of the mental powers, just as a frequent or regular recurrence to the gymnasium or the athletic sports of youth would continue to give strength and endurance to the body.

Why, then, do the mathematics stand unchallenged in all our prescribed courses? I suppose no other answer can be given than that the mathematics are held valuable, essential for intellectual training; and that the fact of their almost complete disuse in after life is not held to affect their value as means of mental discipline in schools and colleges.

Now, I do not think the reasons why the study of language and the art of using it are held to be essential to the best mental training, are hard to understand. Language is the universal medium of thought, the chief, almost the only vehicle by which thought in all its forms is, or can be communicated. In a strict and very high sense, language is thought. Reason, reflection, emotion - all the highest powers of human nature - must seek language for expression and for influence on men. The tones of music, the tints of painting, the forms of sculp-ture are indeed modes of expressing thought, but ordinarily a man's power, his mental power, his power to influence other men, is measured by his power to express thought in language.

If, then, language is the vehicle of thought, the condition of making thought and the mental faculties, influential, the study of language-its nature, its structure, its uses, its capacities, its highest manifestations, its noblest and most powerful forms - is necessarily the first and highest instrumentality for developing, training, educating the mental powers absolute in its necessity, first in order of time, highest in the scale of importance.

The study of language is, therefore, in no sense a mere prescription of the schools, an ancient educational superstition, a "college fetish." It is a primordial necessity for the exercise of the human mind and reason, for the unlocking, the development of one's own powers of mind, for influencing, guiding, and controlling the minds, actions, and lives of other men.

We are now, I think, at a point where the question becomes simply, what languages what forms, what growths and developments of language, are best suited for instruction and training in the knowledge and art of using language?

In answering this question, certainly no language, no literature can be put aside because remote in time; no language, no literature which in itself is of high value for its structure, its power or its beauty, can be described, as Mr. Adams has described the Greek language and literature, as "bearing no immediate relation to any living speech or literature of value." I hold it to be obviously a matter of little or no moment in answering this question, whether the language selected as a "fundamental," is now spoken on the continent of Europe or of America, or whether it disappeared as a spoken language two thousand years ago. The only consideration is, what can a given language, what can the study of a given language,

do for us to-day in the training of our mental faculties and in teaching us how to use the language to which we are born? In the matter of the choice of a language for this purpose I might appeal for what I confess I should. consider a conclusive answer, to the opinions and practice of the learned and wise in these matters of all ages. For, without important exception, it might be said that in all times, and in all cultivated lands, since the conquering Roman eagles were planted on the Acropolis of Athens, and Greek national life expired, and her language in its ancient purity and prevalence ceased to be the spoken language of a powerful and independent nation, the Greek language has been regarded as the most perfect form of human speech, and its study has been regarded as the best means of intellectual training, and of teaching the art of using language.

But I am not quite willing to pause with this answer. Those who call the study of this language a "fetish," I am afraid, might still say that other superstitions, too, have survived all the mutations of time, and are still flourishing to-day.

In what, then, it may be useful to ask, consists the superior value of the Greek language as an instrument of educational training or a means of teaching us the best and most effective use of our own tongue?

No

I cannot pause here to attempt to explain how the great fact of the Greek language, the Greek literature, the Greek nationality, the Greek character, came about. subject could well be more interesting or more important in some aspects of this theme. That on the little triangular peninsula of Greece, a region for the most part rocky and mountainous, a soil in general thin and poor; while Asia on the East presented only vast despotisms.