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356 more or less to the natural sciences, whereas the very opposite holds good of the study of literature and history.

In the fifth place we mention the gain classical studies yield to the mother-tongue. This is very important for a thorough and scholarly understanding of the English language, as two thirds or more of the English vocabulary are words derived from Latin. But the principal gain in knowledge of the mother-tongue is derived from careful, idiomatic translations into the vernacular. If translations are made regularly and accurately, there is little need of giving special instructions on English grammar and style. In the Berlin Conference of 1890 some of the leading men, among them Professor Helmholtz, emphasized this point, saying that "good and idiomatic translations are an instruction in the German language, which cannot be appreciated highly enough." The great Prussian schoolman Dr. Wiese had long before expressed himself to the same effect, referring to the example of Dr. Arnold of Rugby, who saw in good translation the best preparation for writing excellent English. "Whenever it is attended to," says Dr. Arnold, "it [translation] is an exercise of exceeding value; it is in fact one of the best modes of instruction in English composition, because the constant comparison with the different idioms of the languages, from which you are translating, shows you in the most lively manner the peculiar excellence and defects of your own." In another passage he writes: "Every lesson in Latin and Greek may, or ought to be made