any predominating tendency. The subjects taught in our schools would seem to have developed almost independently of one another, and it is left to the skill of the individual teacher to bring home to the pupil the links and bonds that actually connect all studies; succeeding in this, the teacher will produce at least a subjective, psychological unit. When treating the individual subjects we shall draw attention to their interrelation and interdependence so as to prepare the way for the special treatment of this question in chapters XXXIV to XXXVI.

II.

THE PHILOLOGICAL ELEMENT OF EDUCATION.

CHAPTER XV.

Philology as a School Subject.

1. Human speech and the unconscious art of language are products and boons of the social life of man, and antedate by a long time the beginnings of education. The word of conversation, the song that springs from the heart, the wise saying - they all co-operate in laying the foundations of civilization and culture. Long before the schools employed language as an educational instrument and long before the classics gave body and material to education, language had been serving as the vehicle for transmitting intellectual content from one generation to the other and as a means for assimilating men's thoughts and feelings. However, it is only the written form that makes language objective enough to invite attention and reflection, and only such language creations as have been written down become the objects of teaching and learning.

The national classics, which express in matter and form the spirit of a nation, form the oldest subject of teaching and are the basis of the philological element of education. Upon them is based all subsequent literature, whether it be the literature of science or polite literature; and the latter plays so large a rôle in general education for the reason that it is "the expression of life in words of truth and beauty." The classics of literature are the first to quicken the interest in correct and artistic expression; and thus the primitive, unconscious art of language is raised to that creative expression of thought which is at least partly conscious, and which necessitates learning and exercise. This tendency toward the art of language and the need of insuring the correct interpretation of the classics give birth to the science of language.

The science of language has a twofold function: to prove, first, a key to the treasure-house of language and, next, a guide for correct speech. The disciplines belonging to the science of language have each a special function: the science of writing

deals with the symbols of letters; grammar, with the language rules in general; rhetoric, with the rules for strong and clear expression of thought; and prosody, with the rules governing the form of poetic composition. Thus these disciplines deal with symbols, rules, and forms, and, therefore, have a formal character. But they have also an elementary character in so far as they prepare for the artistic use of language and the interpretation of the classics. They are the organon of this whole field of knowledge and creative work; and, though not pursued for their own sake, they are indispensable instruments and demand the first and the most laborious efforts on the part of the pupil.

2. Hence we include in the philological element of education the following subjects: the science of language, the art of language, and literature. In studying a language the pupils must first acquire a knowledge of the language and its technique, next be trained in the use of this technique, and thirdly be made familiar with the classics of the language. Grammar study, composition writing, and reading of the classics have been the means employed in the schools of all times to attain the three ends mentioned.

What has just been said must be modified considerably if the course of language study embraces more than one language and literature. The Greek schools stand alone in this that they developed freely and harmoniously the philological element of education upon the basis of the native language and literature. Homer's poetry marks the beginning of polite literature as well as of the art of language. Rhetoric is the organon of the art of oratorical composition, and the ypaμμarikn (grammar) is the elementary discipline of rhetoric as well as of literature. One part of grammar, ypaμμaтIKỲ άтEλEσтéρa, dealt with reading and writing, and another part, γραμματικὴ τελειοτέρα which was again subdivided into γραμματική τεχνική οι μεθο δική and γραμματικὴ ἐξηγητική or ἀνάπτυξις τῶν παρὰ ποιηταῖς τε καὶ συγγραφεῦσιν — dealt respectively with the technique of speaking and writing and the interpretation of the classics.' The Romans adopted the same system, but dealt with two languages and literatures; and their grammar, too, expanded into a science dealing with encyclopedic knowledge."

1 Wower, De Polymathia, 1603, cap. XIX.

2 Quintilian (Inst., I, 4, 2 sq.) mentions two branches of grammar, “recte oquendi scientia" and "poetarum narratio." To the first were added the

Medieval education, though derived in its main features from the ancients, inverted the traditional order of importance. Too much importance was attached to the formal disciplines, grammar and rhetoric, while literature, for which these branches should prepare, was treated as a subsidiary subject; and in consequence the art of language was deprived of what is its inspiration. The national literatures developed independently of higher learning. Chivalric education, which was based upon the national literatures, was regarded as the antithesis of clerical and scientific training. Thus the Middle Ages divided what should have been joined to form the foundation of a deep and rich culture. Though the Renaissance revived the ancient traditions the science and art of language and the reading of the classics were again correlated with one another, and the power of literary expression was the chief aim of education-yet there was after all only an indirect connection between the schools and the great writers of the day. Nor did the ancient classics hold undisputed sway, since the modern languages were also struggling to secure a place in the curriculum beside Greek and Latin. Modern education attaches due weight to the study of both the grammar and the literature of the ancient as well as of the modern languages; it is also interested more than any previous period in the content of the classics and includes, besides, the history and the science of literature. But, in keeping with its tendency to stress theoretical knowledge to the detriment of practical skill, modern education devotes less attention to the art of language and the power of literary expression.

In keeping with the language and literature studies as pursued at the present time, we shall have to study the subject, not only according to the division given above, but also according to the different languages and literatures studied in the schools. We shall, therefore, treat successively the art of writing, the science of language, the art of language, literature in general; and then deal with the educative content, first, of the ancient languages, next, of the modern foreign languages, and, finally, of the mother-tongue.

"scribendi ratio" and the "emendata lectio," i. e., textual criticism, and the “judicium," i. e., æsthetical appreciation. Encyclopedic knowledge, history, music (prosody), astronomy, etc., were treated in the "poetarum enarratio.

CHAPTER XVI.

The Art of Writing.

1. "Who could," says Diodorus, "worthily extol the art of writing? It alone preserves among the living the memory of the dead; and it alone enables men, though great distances separate them, to converse as though present to each other. The same art excludes all ambiguity from the wording of contracts and thereby guarantees the validity of international treaties. Writing alone preserves to all future ages the sayings of wise men and the oracles of the gods, the sciences and the culture of the forbears. We may therefore truly say that, while we are indebted to nature for life, we owe our humanized life to the mental culture inaugurated by the art of writing.

1

The Greek historian thus connects the art of writing with the boons of social and intellectual life. But Cassiodorus, the Christian scholar and teacher, takes a higher view and shows how it assists in saving and purifying the soul: "O happy undertaking, O praiseworthy zeal, to preach to men with the hand, to open the lips with the fingers, to be silent and yet most active in saving souls, to oppose the power of darkness with the pen; for every word of the Lord written down is a wound inflicted on Satan.... What a glorious spectacle for the speculative mind to observe the pen gliding along and writing the message and the words from heaven, for thus the same instrument (arundo, a reed; also, a pen) with which our Lord's head was struck in His Passion, proves an effective weapon against the malice of 'the Evil One.

2

The art of writing is of such universal need in human life as to admit of as many different evaluations as life itself. All writing is appraised according to what has been expressed through it: the content determines the value of the writing. And thus there is also a great diversity of opinion regarding the educational value of the art of writing, but no one denies. that it must be one of the first subjects to be taken up in school. The art of writing is everywhere regarded as the most elementary of all attainments; and the rudiments of other branches of knowledge are also described as the A B C-a term taken from the teaching of writing and reading of the respective science.

1 Diod. XII, 13.

2 De instit. divin. litt., cap. 30.