The Learned Languages [pp. 557-561]

SOUTHERN I,TTERARY MESSENGER.
To enable us to judge correctly of any system, it is
necessary to be able to form a correct idea of its objects,
and the means adopted to attain them. These two points
I shall touch as briefly as possible.
The objects of the system of education, pursued in
our academies, colleges, and universities, so far as classical learning is concerned, are, 1. To acquire a knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages so as to be able
not only to read and understand them correctly, but to
write and speak them. 2. To relish their beauties. 3.
To be incited by emulation to imitate the noble examples scattered through the histories of Greece and Romeand, 4. To instil into the minds of youth the sublime
principles of morality to be found in their poets.
Having, these objects clearly presented to the mind's
eye, it remains to investigate the means employed to
attain them, and to ascertain whether there is a due
proportion between the means and the end, and whether
the end, in all its amplifications, is worthyof the means
employed for its attainment. To simplify the subject,
I shall, for the present, confine myself to the Latin language. The reasoning wvill apply, with at least equal
force, to the Greek. Let it be observed that I chiefly
refer to the cases of young men intended for active bulsiness, to which they are generally devoted, from the age
of fifteen or sixteen. The reasoning is, in a great degree, inapplicable to those destined for the learned professions.
Lads usually commence learning the Latin at seven,
eight, or nine years of age. But to afford the friends of
the system the fairest chance in the argument, I will
date from nine-and suppose them to enter college at
fourteen. The chief portion of the valuable period between those ages, is spent in the dry, irksome, and revolting task of learning the grammar; and if translations of the authors studied, be excluded, as is the case
in many schools, they are engaged for tedious hours in
hunting in dictionaries for the meaning of the words in
the books they are studying, and, when they find, as
they frequently do, ten or a dozen meanings to one
word, in deciding on the most appropriate one for their
purpose. It is difficult to conceive of a more irksome or
vexatious employment, especially for the lively, jocund,
and merry-hearted lads on whom this penance is imposed.
When the term of probation at school is completed,
the lads are transferred to a larger scene of action-a
college-where they are destined to remain four or five
years more, of which term probably a third part is consumed in the study of the two languages in question;
thus making on a fair computation, four or five years
employed in learning languages of which little use is
made in after life.
To facilitate the judgment on this system, I will venture to assume as postulates,
1. That the advantages of the acquirement of a foreign language may be considered under three points of
view-the capacity of correctly reading-of writing-or
of speaking it.
2. That not one, in one thousand of our citizens, ever
has occasion to write or speak Latin.
3. That not above one in a hundred of those who
learn Latin in this country, is capable, were it necessary, of correctly writing or conversing in that language.
4. That lads ofmoderate capacity and no vcry extra
ordinary application, frequently acquire the French language in twelve or eighteen months, so as to be able
not merely to read it understandingly, but to comprehend it w hen spoken, and to make themselves tolerably
well understood in conversation.
5. That sometimes in addition they acquire the Spanish within that period.
6. That the Latin language is not more difficult than
the French-indeed I believe not so difficult. On this
point I shall rely on the opinion given, and the fact
stated, by Locke, to be offered in the sequel.
7. That the French being attainable in twelve or eighteen months, and the Latin not being more difficult, it
follows that it is an error to consume three, four, five,
or six years in the attainment of the latter.
8. That in the common intercourse of life, which
"comes home to the business and bosoms of men," the
French is more useful than the Latin, Greek, Hebrew,
and Arabic.
9. That except to the members of the learned professions, and men of leisure and curiosity, the learned languages, to the mass of mankind, are of no use whatever
beyond the ability to understand authors, and quotations from them, in those languages.
10. That, therefore, for lads intended for trades or
business, all the time bestowed on learning Latin, beyond the capacity to read and understand it, is literally
thrown away.
Some of these assumptions may be questioned, and,
perhaps, are questionable, without materially affecting
the proposed plan. Be this, however, as it may, I shall
fortify myself with such an array of authorities, as, if
it do not convince the reader of the soundness of the
doctrines here advocated, will shield me from the charge
of empiricism for advancing them.
"Hows many years of life are spent in learning Latin?
Hose inuch labor, pain and imprisonment, are endured by
the boy? tlow much anxious drudgery by the master? How
much disgust of literature is eegendered? How many
habits are formed of reluctance to regular employment?
In short, how much misery has been produced, is being
produced, and will continue to be produced, in teaching
the Latin language? This appears to us to be a very
important questioni, and will, we think, appear so to our
readers, after a little consideration.
"We sometimes figure to ourselves an inhabitant of
another world coming among us, and examining with
an unprejudiced eye the value of our pursuits. If this
idle speculation could be realized, who, we should be
glad to know, would be Quixotic enough to undertake
a defence of the usual course of instruction in Latin?
Nobody, certainly. For, in the first place, not two boys
out of three who follow it, ever become able to read even
the easier classic authors with fluency. Of these, perhaps
one half, from the painful associations which they have
attached to Latin books, never open one after they leave
school. If we add to the account, as Rousseau would,
the numbers who die during the schoolboy age, we shall
find the list of those who use the knowledge, gained
with so much pain to master and scholar, dwindle into
a very small one."-*Essay on Public Education, p. 12.
London, 1822.
"I object to the practice of sending, almost indiscriminately, every male child, whose parents are above the
laboring class of the people) to undergo the painful
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