SOME OF THE STRONGEST CHAMPIONS OF LATIN

ARE TEACHERS OF ENGLISH

"To the serious student of English some acquaintance with Latin is not merely convenient, not merely valuable, but quite literally indispensable. At every onward step toward the mastery of his own language and literature, he must use his Latin lamp if he have one, or stumble and go astray in the darkness if he has not a man may as well try to reach England without a boat as to attain proficiency in English without Latin." Dr. S. P. Sherman, Professor of English, University of Illinois, "English and the Latin Question," a pamphlet published by "Home and School Education."

"As a teacher of English I have found students trained in Latin better than others for at least two obvious reasons: Until very lately, and I should say still, hardly anybody has written in the English language memorably who has not studied Latin at school; and nothing but a tolerable familiarity with Latin roots can prevent stupid misuse of words derived from Latin, such as 'prominent identity.' History and common sense, then, combine to make Latin the only sound foundation of literary English."-Barrett Wendell, Professor of English, Harvard University. Letter to student, March 10, 1913.

"We like to have our girls trained in the classics. There is an observable fineness of fibre and intellectual discrimination in students so trained."-Head of the English Department in a leading college for women. Quoted in Latin as a Practical Study, by Albert S. Perkins, "Classical Journal," April, 1913.

"Every English-speaking student should give himself at least one year's honest trial in the study of Latin. Latin is the best available training in general grammatical concepts. The grammatical dexterity slowly acquired through Latin study is of direct and immediate use in English. Latin also widens English vocabulary and makes for accuracy and truth of statement. Latin literature furnishes the key to the understanding of the great body of English literature. The ideas embodied in Latin literature are the ideas that engaged the attention of those who wrote English literature up to very recent times. Acquaintance with some of these ideas in the language in which they were originally expressed enables the student to get the right feeling for them."-J. V. Denney, Professor of English, Ohio State University. Letter to author, February 10, 1913.

"I am the fullest believer in the study of Latin for him who seeks the best sort of education. So far as my own observation has gone, whenever the acceptance or rejection of the language has lain in the choice of students, those taking it have invariably included far the larger proportion of the best students. It is one of the best instruments to train educated men. It will even train them to make money, which some people seem to regard as the main object for which education was devised." -T. R. Lounsbury, Emeritus professor of English, Yale University. Letter to student, January 29, 1913.

LATIN IS THE FOUN

DATION OF FRENCH,

ITALIAN, SPANISH,

PORTUGUESE,

AND ROUMANIAN.

IT IS ALSO A GOOD

BASIS FOR THE

STUDY OF

LANGUAGE IN

GENERAL

LATIN IS NOT A "DEAD" LANGUAGE; IT HAS ONLY CHANGED ITS NAME

34

Map of the Roman Empire in the first century A.D., showing the extent to which popular Latin was at one time spoken.

"Popular Latin has never ceased to exist. It is the language of France, Spain, Italy, Roumania, and all the Romance countries of today. Its history has been unbroken from the founding of Rome to the present time."-Professor Frank Frost Abbott, "The Common People of Ancient Rome," p. 73.

"Their original progenitors (Roumanian) were a colony of Roman soldiers established on the banks of the Danube by the Emperor Trajan in A.D. 106. Their language descends from the rustic Latin of these soldiers, and in spite of long isolation, surrounded by Slavonic tongues, it retains its Latin characteristic to a remarkable extent, so much so that anyone reasonably familiar with Latin will be able to read a Roumanian newspaper with but little difficulty."-Kenneth McKenzie, "National Geographic Magazine," December, 1912.

"In our Romance department here we should not think of accepting a student for graduate work who has not studied Latin. For intelligent advanced study of either the languages or the literatures, it is indispensable, and the wider and deeper the Latin preparation, the better the chance that the student will develop into a sound and effective Romance scholar."-Edward C. Armstrong, Professor of Romance Languages, Johns Hopkins University. Letter to author, May 14, 1913.

NOTE.-A Roumanian newspaper called "Amicul Poporului" may be obtained at 1505 Girard St., Chicago.