III

LATIN AS A UTILITY1

Today in education we are confronted by two spectres which will not down,-two spectres known by the names of utility and efficiency. "Of what use is a given study?" we are continually asked; or again, "What subjects in school or college will produce the highest results in terms of success in after-life?" Nothing but the practical seems worth while. And Latin is not practical, we are told; for at best is it not a cultural subject for the favored few, grounded on the obsolete doctrine of mental discipline? Now, without discussing the rights and privileges of the favored few, or the vexed question of formal discipline, I make bold to ask that Latin be considered in its relation to the native English. For if it can be shown that Latin is the shortest and most direct road to a complete understanding of the English language, what subject in the secondary school or in college may more justly be deemed practical?

In the first place, I utter not one word of criticism of our present-day teachers in English. Without Latin, theirs is indeed an herculean task. The grammar seems simple, but, paradoxical as it may appear, hundreds of people never understand even the elementary principles until they study the more difficult Latin. Moreover, without the Classics a large part of the literature is utterly without meaning. And what shall we say of the English vocabulary? In the first place, suppose we admit that the world of today can not escape, if it would, the idea of scientific efficiency, where does it get its scientific vocabulary?

In this connection allow me to quote Professor Page, of Dartmouth College (Ninth Annual Bulletin of the Classical 1 Read before the New York Classical Club, December 8, 1917.

Association of New England, page 12): "If the bone and sinew of the English language are Anglo Saxon, the brain of it is Latin and Greek. Both the scientifically exact statement of any but the most elementary facts, and the expression of all abstract thought in English depend mainly upon words of Classical origin."

The extent to which our scientific words are taken from the Latin and Greek may readily be seen by looking down almost any page of a modern scientific book. Thus, for example, in Roscoe and Schorlemmer's Chemistry, page 546 of Vol. 1, we find this sentence: "The greater number of the bacteria found belong to a group of micrococci, and many of these are characterized by the production of pigment when grown on culture media." Just below we find such words as sarcina, bacilli, saprophytic, ponderable, pathogenic. Again, take Walker's Physical Chemistry, page 204. Here we find the words ion, anion, cation, cathode, besides numerous others of Latin origin, as initial, radical, aqueous, subsidiary. In the same way, by consulting textbooks in commercial law, commercial geography, or history of commerce, we discover that Latin has been drawn upon for commercial words to as great a degree as in the case of the vocabulary of science. Accordingly, in the new Century Dictionary, Volume III, page 1932, we find the following statement, quoted from G. P. Marsh, Lectures on the English Language, XXVIII: "The vocabulary of literature and commerce contains a majority of words of foreign origin, chiefly Latin or Greek." The vocabulary of commerce, you will notice, as well as of literature. The inference, therefore, seems clear that not only students in literary and scientific courses need Latin for their English vocabulary, but commercial students as well. In other words, instead of dropping Latin from the place it has occupied in literary and scientific education, we should extend it to commercial and other vocational courses. Such were the considerations which six years ago last fall led to the placing of Latin as an elective in the commercial course of the Dorchester High School.

2

Mr. W. L. Anderson, head of the commercial department, had found, from the actual experience of his pupils, that, next to a knowledge of the commercial branches themselves, there could be no stronger asset for a high school graduate, either in getting a position at the start, or in securing promotion later, than a thoro mastery of English vocabulary; while, on the other hand, lack of English vocabulary was an obstacle well-nigh insuperable.

The importance of such a course to stenographers would be generally admitted, I think; but we contend that, even to a greater degree, salesmen and business men generally need the help to be de ived from Latin. Miss Grace Blanchard, at that time teacher of salesmanship in the Dorchester High School, who also had an evening class in business administration composed of employees in Filene's store, goes even farther; she states it was found in the work down town that the chief obstacle to promotion is ignorance of English. To quote Miss Blanchard:

"The success of a salesman or business man is found, in actual practise, to be directly proportional, on the one hand, to ability to understand what the other man has to say, and on the other hand, to ability to convince him of the superiority of the goods offered for sale, or the advantage connected with the business proposition in hand."

In short, other things being equal, vocabulary is the key to success. This fact was recognized by the educational department at Filene's, and, as a result, every night the members of the evening classes brought in for explanation and study lists of words they heard during the day, but had not understood. These words, sometimes amounting to as many as forty, were almost entirely of Latin origin. Thus, you see, we are confronted, not with a theory, but with a condition as it actually exists in the business world of today.

A few years later, Vocational Latin was extended to the domestic art course of the Dorchester High School. Miss Ripley, then in charge of this department, who, as

2 Classical Journal, October, 1914, page 7, November, 1916, page 133. Ibid., October, 1914, page 8.

it happens, has a dressmaking establishment in town, had found that the lack of English vocabulary is a serious handicap in the dressmaking and millinery trades. Women of refinement from the Back Bay section, or from Brookline, who have the most money to spend for costumes and millinery, speak a language the uneducated woman does not understand; and, on the other hand, the uncultured dressmaker or milliner uses words which do not describe the goods or the styles in which they are to be made up, in a way that strikes home to the woman from the Back Bay. Here, too, there is danger of losing the sale. Miss Ripley's conclusion is simple and to the point:

"It has been said that it is only necessary to 'fit' the mind of customers in the sewing trades. Hence, a broad, flexible, discriminating vocabulary is a prime business asset. In my opinion, the time is coming to an end when the crude, uneducated tradeswoman can succeed."

Thus, it happens that of the hundreds of girls who take our courses in dressmaking and millinery, not a few, especially of the more thoughtful sort, have studied Vocational Latin.

During the years that have elapsed since the fall of 1911, when the course in Commercial Latin was introduced, we have had our ups and downs. Three years ago we reached high water mark with seven sections. For the last two years Spanish has increased in popularity at the expense of Latin. This fall, however, we find cause for encouragement in the fact that the study of Commercial Latin has been extended to another Boston High School, and has found lodgment in one of the newly established Junior High Schools. Of the spread of the idea before this year, both in Boston and in the country at large, I spoke at some length a year ago last April (The Dorchester Experiment in Vocational Latin, Classical Journal, Vol. XII, No. 2, November, 1916). With reference to methods, I will not take time in giving details. This I have done on several occasions before, especially in the article to which I have just referred. Allow me to say merely that pupils study Latin for two years in the ordinary way,

but record in an Index Book Latin words which yield English derivatives, and assign such words to a Derivative Note Book, where they are also recorded, this time with definitions and parts of speech. The Index Book, by the way, is obtained at the Woolworth stores, and costs one cent. For the course I have prepared a series of lessons, much like the usual beginning book, except that emphasis is laid upon English derivation, and nearly all words in the vocabularies lead to English derivatives. The second year is given to reading, and English derived words are studied in connection with the Latin roots, as they appear in the text. I have distributed' illustrative

4 SAMPLE PAGE OF PUPIL'S DERIVATIVE NOTE BOOK Quatio, quassum (in composition, -cutiō, -cussum), shake. Quash, v, to beat down or in pieces, to crush, put an end to. Quassation, n, the act of shaking, or the state of being shaken.

Quassative, a, tremulous, easily shaken.

Concussion, n, the act of shaking or agitating, especially by the stroke or impact of another body, state of being shaken, the shock caused by two bodies coming suddenly and violently into collision.

Concussive, a, having the power or quality of shaking by sudden or violent stroke or impulse.

Concutient, a, coming suddenly into collision, colliding.

Discuss, v, agitate, debate, reason upon.

Discussable, a.

Discusser, n.

Discussion, n, debate, argument about something.

Discussional, a, of or pertaining to discussion.

Discussive, n, a medicine that disperses or scatters, a discutient.

Discutient, a, dispersing morbid matter, n, a medicine or application which disperses a swelling or effusion.

Percuss, v, to strike against so as to shake or give a shock to.

Percussion, n, the act of percussing, or the striking of one body against another with some violence, the state of being percussed, the shock produced by the collision of bodies.

Percussional, a.

Percussive, a, of or pertaining to percussion, or a light, sharp stroke, striking against something, n, in music an instrument of percussion. Percussively, adv.

Percussor, n, one who or that which strikes, an agent or instrument of percussion.

Percutient, a, percussive, of or pertaining to percussion n, that which strikes or has the power to strike.

Rescue, v (re, ex, -cutiō), to liberate, release, free from confinement, danger, or violence or evil.

Rescuer, n, one who rescues.