Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/723

 much to say on this subject, which has been more clearly said elsewhere; but he says plainly this one thing, which is often only hinted at or taken for granted: "The modern languages do not contain material out of which to construct a logical grammar like theirs" (the ancient languages). "What does English, French, or German grammar amount to? Simply débris of the classical languages, mixed with barbaric elements."

If this be true, we had better give up the study of Greek, and emulate the method of the Greeks, who made their language what it is by studying the Greek alone. They wrought upon it till it served their nicest uses. If our English be but a mixture of "débris" and "barbaric elements," it is high time for us to leave off studying other languages, both dead and living, and work upon our own until we make it somewhere nearly equal, as a thought-conveying medium, to the languages from which we are compelled to translate; for it is intellectual suicide to translate from a fine language into an incompetent one.

But this statement in regard to the English is not only not just, it is utterly false and misleading. We do, indeed, need to go to work upon it to realize what an incomparable language we have. Hear Jacob Grimm, prince among philologists:

No one of all the modern languages has acquired a greater force and strength than the English, through the derangement and relinquishment of its ancient laws of sound. The unteachable (nevertheless learnable) profusion of its middle-tones has conferred upon it an intrinsic power of expression, such as no other human tongue ever possessed. Its entire, thoroughly intellectual, and wonderfully successful foundation and perfected development issued from a marvelous union of the two noblest tongues of Europe, the Germanic and the Romanic. Their mutual relation in the English language is well known, since the former furnished chiefly the material basis, while the latter added the intellectual conceptions. The English language, by and through which the greatest and most eminent poet of modern times—as contrasted with ancient classical poetry—(of course I can refer only to Shakespeare) was begotten and nourished, has a just claim to be called a language of the world; and it appears to be destined, like the English race, to a higher and broader sway in all quarters of the earth. For in richness, in compact adjustment of parts, and in pure intelligence, none of the living languages can be compared with it—not even our German, which is divided even as we are divided, and which must cast off many imperfections before it can boldly enter on its career.

Yet, while foreigners are writing thus of our language, we are telling each other and our students—who happily do not always believe us—"that the Greek is more perfect; that the Latin is more polished; that the German is stronger; that the French and Italian are more musical; and we seem to be studying other languages, not to train ourselves to see and use the beauty and strength of our own, but only to cultivate a contempt for it.

Pursuing this idea of the claims of modern languages, Professor Newton quotes various authorities as to the great philological importance of their more systematic study, and he gives a strong passage from Max Müller in which it is declared that "before the tribunal of the science of language the difference between ancient and modern languages vanishes.&hellip;Where, except in these modern dialects, can we expect to find a perfectly certain standard by which to measure the possible changes which words may undergo, both in form and meaning, without losing their identity?&hellip;where, again, except in the modern languages, can we watch the secret growth of new forms, and so understand the resources which are given for the formation of the grammatical articulation of language?" Professor Newton says: "I have brought forward these arguments to show that there are reasons to be adduced for studying the modern languages, other than that they are so 'easy'; that there are reasons per se; and that in every college for either drill or culture the modern languages should have a respectable space and a respectful recognition. As it is now, every young man who elects the one term of French, or even the three terms of German, must count over against their being 'easy' the popular estimation that they are 'boarding school' studies."

Professor Newton is of opinion that the tenacious adherence to classical traditions in regard to the study of