THIS MODERN LANGUAGE QUESTION

The Tower of Babel was something more than the first sky-scraper. It has gone down to posterity an everlasting symbol of the fatal consequences of idiom.

All the great empires, those of Rome, Charlemagne, Henry II, and Charles V have been held together by a universality of language. Even today a community of language and a common literary heritage constitute probably the closest bonds for the unity of the British Commonwealth of Nations and the friendship of the Anglo-Saxon races.

All of which may be execrable history. But it is conceivable that on the lessons it has taught is based the modern language requirements in Harvard College! Despairing of the possibility of ever teaching the American undergraduate to write his mother (or step-mother) tongue, the authorities still retain some hope that by making every student a tri-linguist they will give him at least the veneer of a literary education.

They are to be congratulated on their perseverance. A reading knowledge of a language is a valuable tool in any man's kit--in days of internationalism an essential one. The acquiring of an "elementary" knowledge is an interesting experience. And the necessity of fulfilling the requirements against time is no doubt good for the soul. Especially salubrious is the discipline following failure to comply. A man in good standing at the beginning of his third year might congratulate himself too enthusiastically. If he faces probation for other causes he vails his stomach--and his neighbors prosper. Nor can there be forgotten the opportunities for intercourse with the faculty gained by a student who takes examination after examination. The instructors are friendly, of course, the student eager for learning. Both appear to their best advantage, cordial, disinterested, and sharing an admiration for the language in question.--An admiration the student will carry to his grave

All these advantages are the results (see supra) of perseverance. They are distinct goods for the soul. It is a well known fact that

"Patience and perseverance

Made a bishop of His Reverence."

Perhaps if carried far enough they might have made him an intellectual fella' besides. Though he no doubt preferred the bishopric.

To suggest that the present reading knowledge and elementary distaste should be supplanted by two "reading knowledges" would be far too drastic. To suggest that such knowledge be a requirement for a degree rather than for entrance upon the joys of untrammelled juniority would be too radical.

How much better is the "status quo"! One more fence to climb, qua fence, one more handicap to the assertion of individual initiative, one more necessity for clerks and clerkesses, checks, and counter-checks.

The undergraduate must remain American, unqualified. One who speaks and speaks only the French of "Stratford atte Bowe", the German of Nolen's at a bet.