ANSWERS TO SOME COMMON OBJECTIONS TO THE STUDY OF LATIN I. "It's too hard" Perhaps it's not so hard as you think. Perhaps you are lazy and do not like to do anything that does not immediately interest you and so calls for an effort of your will. Anyone who has had much experience in life will tell you that very few things that are really worth while come easily. Do you know Herbert Spencer's famous definition of education: "to accustom myself to do the thing I know I ought to do at the time when I ought to do it, whether I feel like doing it or not"? 2. "It takes too much time" This depends upon how much you think it is worth and the price in time and labor that you are therefore willing to pay. If you believe in it, you will not grumble at spending a fair amount of time upon it. If you are putting an exorbitant amount upon it, it is likely that you are not well prepared for it and ought to go back, or that you have not really learned how to concentrate your mind when you are studying. 3. "You forget it all, anyway" This really is not an argument against Latin, unless you believe that education is solely a matter of learning facts which may be used in after life. Whether you remember the facts you learn in high school or college, does not really matter. Very few men and women in middle life could pass an examination on the facts of physics, chemistry or mathematics which they studied in school. (Ask the teachers on your faculty how much they remember about the actual facts of work in other departments.) But they may be none the less "educated" people because, while they were receiving "information," they were really going through a process of "formation," e.g., their faculties were being so trained that they can not only acquire knowledge when necessary, but make the most intelligent use of their powers in the various situations of life. 4. "It's a 'dead' language; nobody speaks it now" You mean that nobody actually speaks it in the form used by the Romans of Caesar's day. But does anyone today speak the English as it was used in the time of King Alfred? If you read the Lord's Prayer in the English of that day you could only understand six words. We do not speak the English of Chaucer's time either. And yet English today is not called a "dead" language. We only say that it has changed greatly since the days of King Alfred and Chaucer. In the same way Latin has changed since the days of Caesar, but in its modern form (now called Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Roumanianthe latter a direct survival of the language of the Roman legions quartered in that country)—it is still 90 per cent Latin. Moreover, it is actually spoken to some extent in the Catholic Church of today. It is a much greater fallacy, of course, to say that Greek is a "dead" language when modern Greek is still so largely spoken. 5. "It isn't practical; it doesn't help you to earn money" This sounds as though you thought that only the things which have a money value are worth having. But if you were to make a list of the things in life which are really fine, such, for example, as matters of character-loyalty, bravery, honesty, reliability, right habits of work, etc.-or a liking for beautiful music, a taste for good books, an admiration for great deeds or a reverence for things that are holy, you would at once realize that money plays a very small part, after all, in the real "riches" of the world; for some of the men who have had almost no money have had these treasures. The mere fact, then, that you cannot trade Latin for money, would not be an argument against it except in the case of the boy or girl who is pressed by immediate necessity of earning a living. If you are in this position, you are right about thinking that Latin is not a "practical" study for you. I See Introduction to "A First Latin Book," William Gardner Hale, University of Chicago. 6. "I haven't time to take much Latin and a little of it isn't worth while" But even a little will help you to guess the extent to which English words are indebted to Latin; it will give you, too, a training in grammatical relations which will help you in English expression and other language work and start you in habits of accurate thinking which are universally valuable; it will make Rome more than a mere name in your mind and will make you better able to profit by reading English translations since you will have some slight knowledge of the original language as a basis for your understanding. 7. "It's easier to read the translation and it's just as good" Do you think the wrong side of a piece of embroidery is as effective as the right, or that you get as much from hearing Caruso on the Victrola as when you listen to him at the opera? Do you enjoy looking at a photograph of your friend as much as you do seeing him? And yet, except in a few cases, there is about the same difference in vividness between the translation and the Latin original. But you will not realize this until you have learned to know Latin well. LETTERS TO HIGH-SCHOOL BOYS AND GIRLS IN ANSWER TO THE QUESTION, "IN YOUR OPINION, IS THERE ANY PRACTICAL VALUE IN STUDYING "In my opinion the study of the Latin language and literature, if pursued in a living way, is an admirable training for the powers of perception, judgment, and imagination. It makes one of the best possible foundations for higher culture or for a professional education. I think that the change in the conditions and tone of modern life has made classical study not less but more important for everyone who wishes to have a well disciplined and efficient mind."-Henry van Dyke, Professor at Princeton University, February 3, 1913. "I wish sincerely that my engagements made it possible for me to discuss the relation of Greek and Latin to practical life, but it is literally impossible for me to do so. I can only say that I have always felt that Greek and Latin underlay all genuine culture."-Woodrow Wilson, Princeton, N.J., February 5, 1912. "In my judgment, a classical training is as important today in fitting a man for the affairs of life as it has been at any time since the sixteenth century: in some respects, I believe it to be more important."-Bliss Perry, writer and literary critic, formerly editor of the "Atlantic Monthly," February 5, 1913. 'Replying to your favor of 6th instant, I have a very strong belief that a thorough knowledge of elementary Latin is of much practical value to everybody in whatever walk of life he may be engaged. My own observation and experience has confirmed that impression very strongly. As a matter of fact, I very frequently have occasion to regret that I did not keep my own. knowledge of the classics more actively brushed up."-George W. Wickersham, Attorney-General of the United States, Washington, D.C., January 18, 1913. "I can only send you a brief and insufficient reply to your question by telling you a little of my own experience. I am a writer, and naturally have found a knowledge of Latin very useful 119 NOTE.-Students and teachers should co-operate to secure personal letters from many sources. |