of Arts to all graduates and modified their courses of study and requirements for admission accordingly.

The statistics of the enrolment of students in Latin and Greek in the colleges are not complete enough to serve as a safe guide. The numbers given in the Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1900-1901 were 27,219 and 16,218 respectively; in the Report for 1905-6, 31,573 and 16,043. In these totals, not to speak of other omissions, no report is included from Harvard or Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, or the University of Michigan; and it is not clear whether in the case of all the colleges reporting the numbers refer to individual students or to elections of studies.

In many institutions the collegiate student now has so large a freedom of choice among so many subjects that he may, if he chooses, begin to "specialize" soon after he enters. The natural consequence is that, if he is ambitious, he will choose work, so far as possible, in preparation for the career which he sets before himself; if he is not ambitious, he will follow the line of least resistance. In not a few institutions the idea of a "liberal education" in the old sense is almost lost sight of; and as students elect their studies with a view to future utility, where Latin and Greek are not required they tend to be taken in college chiefly by those who purpose to become teachers.

Has the advance of the modern world provided subjects to which the time now spent on Latin and Greek might be devoted with greater profit? If not, are these educational resources being utilized in such a way as to produce the best results for training and culture? These questions are too large to be answered in a word.

CHAPTER II

THE VALUE OF LATIN AND GREEK AS EDUCATIONAL
INSTRUMENTS

The criteria by which the educational value of a study may be estimated are not the same for the different periods of student life, nor for the different classes of subjects. In advanced professional courses, as those of law and engineering, the first place is given to the subjects which contribute most to the knowledge of the working methods and of the data that will be useful in the practice of a profession; utility is the paramount consideration. As we descend from technical training to the primary grades, a consideration of the usefulness of a particular study in immediate preparation for breadwinning becomes of less and less weight; in elementary education those subjects have the largest value as educational instruments which open the mind to the world, bring it into touch with human experience, and cultivate mental alertness and nimbleness; which increase the power of concentration, mold the imagination without deadening it, stimulate initiative in thought and action, and develop power of expression. The goal of education is ultimately the general good, the service of society; but its immediate purpose concerns only the good of the individual, whom educational processes aim to bring to self-discovery, self-mastery, and self-direction.

The acquisition of knowledge as a concomitant of the educational process becomes increasingly important as we ascend from lower to higher grades of instruction; but of greater value than the knowledge acquired, in the

period of adolescence as of childhood, are first, the development of the power to absorb, digest, and fructify knowledge through observation, comparison or co-ordination, and generalization, and secondly, the strengthening of the moral nature through the assimilation of ethical concepts and the stimulation of impulses to right action. The details of the content of instruction at any stage may be eliminated, leaving only general impressions, yet the habits of thought, largeness of view, and shaping of conduct gained by bringing them into a vitalizing contact with the mind may so equip the individual for the solution of the varied problems of life that he will bring all his powers into exercise for his own and the world's good.

There is no study within the grasp of the youthful mind which, in the hands of an intelligent and forceful teacher, may not be made fruitful as a means of training. Yet all subjects do not contribute to the same educational ends, nor are subjects of the same class, as, for example, the foreign languages, equally effective as material of instruction. Since the educational values of subjects vary, only those should be selected for use as educational instruments in any period of training which will yield the largest results in return for the expenditure of time and effort. In this selection, moreover, there must be kept in view not only the age and degree of maturity of the pupil, but also the existence of differences in aptitude and aims. Nevertheless, in the regions nearest the upper and lower limits of our educational system there is slight disagreement regarding the choice of studies. No one will dispute the importance of arithmetic for the child, or of anatomy for the student of medicine; the only question is, how shall these subjects be taught, and how

much time shall be devoted to them? Though there are differences of detail, broadly speaking the studies both of the primary school and of the professional schools are prescribed, with only a minimum of choice allowed to the individual student; but in the middle ground between the two extremes we find a great diversity of views and practice, affecting the selection of studies in the period in which the schooling of students who do not go to college comes to an end, and in which, in the case of those who go farther, the transition is made from general to special or professional studies.

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In this country the break between the primary and the secondary school, and that between the secondary school and the university or college are, in some respects, unfortunately placed. Though the values of Latin and Greek as educational instruments are in a degree affected by the age of the pupil when these subjects are brought before him, as well as by the choice of other subjects pursued at the same time, we cannot here enter into a fuller analysis of the general situation and weigh in detail the considerations which should determine the selection of studies at each stage of the student's progress, or the limits within which his choice should be restricted; we must confine ourselves to a single statement. In the light of the teachings both of a sound psychology and of experience, viewing the four years of the secondary school and the first three years of the college course as an educational whole, we may say that no system of liberal education can be considered adequate which does not in this period bring every normal mind into contact with science studies, as developing power for the interpretation of Nature; mathematics, as training in the handling of fundamental products of consciousness and in abstract

reasoning; historical and economic subjects, as furnishing a background for the interpretation of social phenomena, as contributing to the understanding of man as a unit of aggregate life; elementary philosophy, as conducing to the student's control of his mental powers and resources; foreign languages, as yielding at the same time discipline and enrichment of the mind, as exercising the imagination, cultivating aesthetic appreciation, clarifying moral ideals, and developing power of expression; and finally, the study of English, both language and literature, first as a means of adjusting the English-speaking student to his environment by making him master of a priceless. heritage, then as a training in the use of that instrument by which more than any other his influence in the world will be exerted.

It is probably unnecessary to point out the fallacy upon which rests the popular view that he is well educated who can speak several languages, and that the educational value of the study of a foreign language resides chiefly in oral mastery. Were this belief well founded, the head waiters of the New Willard Hotel in Washington and of the Quirinale in Rome would belong in the class of highly educated men, and children of twelve or thirteen years who can speak three languages (an accomplishment not uncommon in the homes of the higher classes in Europe) would be thought of as completing rather than as entering upon the more important period of their education. In a paper before the Chicago Literary Club David Swing once said, in substance, "You may name a yellow dog in half a dozen languages, and you will have only the same yellow dog, after all." When the body of the child is growing rapidly the cells of the brain which store up impressions of words are, it is believed, easily built