BY REV. RUFUS W. BAILEY.

Language is the motive engine for carrying the thoughts of one mind to other minds-the medium of intercommunication. We embody our thoughts in distinct propositions. These propositions must then be interpreted. Hence the necessity of a right understanding of language. It has been said there is not a sentence in all the writings of the principal English authors that is not susceptible of different interpretations. So defective is language for transferring the thoughts and emotions of one mind to other minds. The same word is often used in many different senses, and sometimes in opposite senses. Then a wrong collocation of words may obscure or pervert the meaning of an author. Then also a false grammatical arrangement may prevent a clear expression of thought. No more than this is necessary to rebuke the theory that an expert in other languages must, as a sequence, be a proficient in his own. The language in which we speak should be accurately and critically studied, and studied first.

How differently, for instance, is the Bible interpreted! a book which has been the light of all ages to God's people, and received the severest study of the greatest minds. Sceptics say that it is the imperfection of the book itself. Let them, then, show a more perfect record, more easily explained with more unity of interpretation. Is it the common law of England, the Constitution of the United States, the statute-book of any State in the Union? All-all are differently interpreted, so differently that if you will listen to two opposite partisans in Congress, or two lawyers in any court in the country you will almost be ready to admit the declaration of Voltaire, that "the use of language is to conceal our thoughts." There is not a law in the land nor in any other land that two men will construe exactly alike. Ten men give testimony to a murder committed in their presence; the lawyers for and against the prisoner will find ground in

the same words for two entirely diverse arguments. Yet we are not to conclude that the gift of speech is a libel on the heart of man degrading him so much beneath the brute, nor that language is designed to falsify the mind. The Bible, in its great and essential teachings, has been, and is, interpreted alike by all candid readers of every religious denomination. The law of God, whether in the decalogue or in the gospel, is so plain that the wayfaring man need not err. It leaves no man in doubt what he ought to do, and what he ought not to do. Fanatics and infidels, therefore, are generally driven from the interpretation of the text to a "higher law" which supercedes it. The common law, derived from recorded precedents, is interpreted and applied with sufficient accuracy. Our statutes are comprehensible, and the language we use is adequate to the intercommunication of thought. Yet the train of remark already introduced shows the necessity of the careful study of language, accurate discrimination in the study of words, and a critical exactness in the construction of sentences if we would desire to speak, and be understood when we speak, “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."

The school, then, that does not teach well and learn well the department of Language, must necessarily be barren, without fruit or flower. Like "the queen of night," perhaps her dim taper may help the star-light, or save from utter darkness, but no healthful vegetation flourishes with bud, and flower, and fruit till the "king of day arise, rejoicing in the East." Without Language, copious, ornate, definite and full of expression, the man of science is a mere "man of the moon." He stares but speaks not, a blasted and extinct volcano.

"Language," says Lord Bacon, "is not only the instrument but the nutriment of thought, essential to the activity of our speculative powers, modifying by its changes the growth and complexion of

the faculties it feeds." This is true whether we consider the necessity of language to thought itself in reflection, or the reflex influence on the mind of the critical expression of its thoughts.

The importance of language, then, is readily perceived in its necessity, its controlling influence and its uses. It is necessary to the interchange of thought, to the heathful action of mind, to its proper development and to cultivation. The language of a nation or of an individual tests the character as accurately as the thermometer tests the temperature of the air, or as the consols of England indicate the value of money in the market.

Thought is the capital deposit of the mind-Language the medium of exchange. The consols of the race man consist of the united stock of all these separate deposits where the value of each is set forth and certified in language, the instrument or certificate of thought. Books written become the indenture of a common partnership. Here, the treas-, ures, "unhedged lie open in life's common field and bid all welcome to the vital feast."

The study of Books, whether on literature or science, increases the growth of the mind and enlarges its knowledge. But the study of Language as a mental discipline is perhaps of greater and better effect than any other study;-not generally so considered because, like the vital air, it is so identified with life itself that the offices it performs are overlooked. We must define the mind's operations in the solution of problems in science or labored results in philosophy before we can detect the nice distinctions required and sought out and discovered in the words and forms of speech we use to define our propositions or elucidate our arguments.

Here is a field for philosophy, for logic, for mental enterprise, for keen analysis and nice discrimination. Here, in the clear exhibition of results to others-re

quiring the logic, the philosophy, the illumination of language—a mental activity is brought into exercise more important to a healthful discipline than in most, perhaps, than in any other profound investigations prosecuted in thought.

The study of words is the study of philosophy, of history, of morals. We may read a nation's history in a nation's words. Mind is there stereotyped in form and feature like the reality of life. There is often more of true history to be learned in a Dictionary, which cannot lie, than in written annals, which may be framed by prejudice, pride, affection, misconception or intended falsehood. Tra'dition is shadowy. Memories may be partial. History even, is often poetic, mixed with fiction. But a nation's language is itself, the record of the day and the hour, and the honest reality of its acting, thinking, speaking. Words are things. In every thing, therefore, which they fairly indicate, they are reliable. The study of words, then, becomes something more than a detail of vocables, a tissue of articulate sounds"'tis food, 'tis strength, 'tis life."

The study of words has never yet had its proper place in the educational course. If pursued at all, it has been a study of definitions merely, disconnected with etymology, the true interpreter of the meaning of words, in which we trace the stream to its sources, then explore its tributaries and its delta, where by a hundred months it brings down accumulated treasures to a common reservoir of human thought-whence, as from the ocean, is exhaled a heathful influence that refreshes the face of the whole earth.

The study of words* contributes eminently to "peace on earth and good will towards men. Mistake a word and you may misunderstand a man. Alienation ensues, dissention, conflict, war. "Word warriors" have caused more bloodshed and misery than have been caused by all the conflicts for principle and truth.

Books have been written, treasures squandered, controversies exasperated, armies brought into deadly conflict and nations revolutionized and destroyed, for a wordmore than this-for an illusion.

One word "interposed

Makes enemies of nations that had else, Like kindred drops been mingled into one."

Theological controversies, political asperities, judicial litigations, personal animosities, have their origin and vitality most often in the misunderstanding of words. This, unperceived by the contending parties, is often obvious to the disinterested observer-sometimes apparent to the combatants themselves after all the mischief has been done past recovery.

That which is so often fatal to truth and to right in social life, is also injurious to the individual mind in all its own habits and activities. We think in words. Hence these words must truly represent their antetypes, else the mind deceives itself and is at war with its own opinions. Thus the mind becomes its own tormentor, biting and devouring itself,- -or urged on to conflict without an object, it builds a man of straw, applies the faggot, and is consumed by the fire it has voluntarily kindled,—or, like the viper, bites itself to death, a suicide without a cause.

Thus, it is not without a philosophical reason the Saviour said-"By thy words, thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." These are the strong expressions of the depths of the soul. As "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," so that speech is the essential portraiture of the mind. And again the Saviour defines the great sin as consisting in the distinct utterance* of a malignant slander against God.

The connection between the words we utter and the moral emotions is palpable to every man who has studied the mental process of his own consciousness. Physiologically, the connection between the

vocal organs and the brain is known to be delicately sensitive and powerfully reciprocal. The same may be true metaphysically between the verbal definitions in our mental activities and the permanent impression of principles on the mental and moral emotions. In the disembodied state of the soul, we may suppose these verbal mental processes place in permanent forms what words, uttered or written, stereotype in vocables. Once admitted, entertained, adopted, they attach to the mind as a part of itself, and become permanently operative. A man's thoughts, which are words uttered in himself, are the record by which he may read himself as truly as his opinions written or spoken, reveal him to others. This truth is recognized by the Saviour where he taught that the gist of crime consists in the designt of its execution. Habits of thinking may be as important, often more important in their influence on permanent forms of character than habits of speaking. Hence the wisdom of that caution-"Be careful of thy words, whether in thought or utterance."

This subject of articulation as connected with the mental processes and moral emotions, I have never seen treated in any philosophical discussion; and sure I am, it opens a field not only of useful speculation but of metaphysical inquiry well deserving a closer attention than it has ever yet received. The reader of Homer will at once recur to a recognition of this relation found almost only in his writings, where he designates man as μeрo avoρwños,‡ articulating man. We can hardly find a characteristic that will better define the race. We may comprehensively designate man as the animal that is distinguished by the power of articulating, which renders him capable of expressing his thoughts in words.

So this department of learning is designated in English by the term Humanities. Humanities, our Dictionaries define as embracing Grammar, the Latin and

Iliad. Lib. I V. 250.

Greek classics, Rhetoric, &c. These are the studies which pertain naturally and first to man-articulating man, and are in their effect humanizing, refining, ennobling. There is no civilization without language, and refined civilization goes hand in hand and advances with the language and literature of a nation. No savage and barbarous nation ever had other than a rude language as a medium of conversation.

*

The subject of Language as a department of learning here takes its position. The study of words, then, belongs to philosophical criticism. Its importance can be appreciated by those only who have pursued it critically. It is indispensable to a correct use of language, a clear expression of thought, and it has contributed essentially to place the few who have attained the highest eminence in scholarship above others of high position. Augustine said of Cicero, Ille verborum vigilantissimus appensor ac mensor—“ a skilful mintmaster, a subtle watcher and weigher of words." Of all masters of the English Language, none perhaps deserves so nearly a comparison with Cicero as Daniel Webster. Those who have ever aided him in placing his thoughts upon record, and he was often obliged to employ amanuenses-can certify how critically he watched and weighed his words; how accurately he discriminated, how he would discourse on the nice shades of distinction when he required the change of a word, how he was capable of showing clearly, etymologically, eloquently and convincingly, a difference where the ordinary scholar had discovered only a simple synonym. This made his definitions and opinions of authority, and will forever place his written discussions in every department among the most cherished classics of English literature.

Words are the types of the mental operations-language, the embodiment of thought, the palpable of intellect. An accurate thinker will, therefore, be an accurate speaker or writer, and the reflex

influence of an intimate knowledge of language will tend to clear the mental ray and direct its aim. A mind of native strength of power may indeed be logical while its language is rude—but there never was a fine and polished scholar without a fine and polished language. From such an one, other giants in intellect differ as widely as the stalwart gladiator from the chivalrous knight, as the croaking owl from articulating man—as mere articulation from mellifluent ratiocination.

The vocal organs, then, are to be educated and disciplined as well as the intellect that lies so near them and acts so closely through them-educated to express what is right and to express it right. The reflex influence is reciprocal and mutually subsidiary. If a man utters for the first time a profane oath or a profane sentiment, his own mind will be shocked as well as others. But his articulating organs, once conformed to the enunciation, will the more easily repeat it, while the mind will be less shocked than before, and soon both become reconciled and familiar with what was once abhorred. So let the mind entertain vicious or profane or sceptical thoughts-they may soon be uttered and finally adopted.

Written language, again, is vocal language daguerreotyped. As a man thinks, he speaks and as he speaks so he writes. So did Homer, if he wrote at all. So did Cicero. So did Webster. So do we.

Thus we magnify, as is fit, the place which language holds in the educational course. We might now proceed to apply the argument more closely to classical learning to the study of the Greek and Roman masters. But here, and after the allusions already made, this would be a work of supererogation.

The value of other departments of learning, we admit as fully and as freely as their Professors may desire. Let the masters in them enter their defence in the most unmeasured terms, and we will accord to all their claims, claiming only for

the department we represent to stand first among equals.

Why, then, it may be asked, are there so few good classical scholars? For three reasons:-Because there are so few close students; because there is so great a deficiency of competent teachers; and because there is so great a deficiency of auxiliary aids.

Application long continued is necessary to make a good classical scholar. Comparatively few, in this country, can devote the requisite time, and still fewer are disposed to submit to the rigid mental discipline required. We have few scholarships that invite the student to the higher seats of learning, and no literati or savans as a class. Then the encouragements, held out to invite those of leading intellect and great acquirement to the chairs of instruction, are so meagre that the learned professions are preferred and our chairs of philosophy are relinquished. This is true without denying eminent talents and large acquirements to many of our professional teachers. Added to this our students suffer from a deficiency in the auxiliary aid of books, co-ordinate with the living teacher.

On this subject, I cannot omit the present opportunity to speak plainly. A few dollars a year should always be reckoned in the expenses of education for books, from the primary school to the University. In the higher stages of education, these are a necessity beyond the simple text-books and the instructions of the recitation rooms. Our young men are not stinted in their food, and there is a manly physical development. They are not restricted in their expenditures for dress, and they appear with decency. They travel, and are acquainted with men. But Books! they are expensive. These are, therefore, withheld, and the young man in his studies becomes a dwarf, deformed and lame. The parent wonders at it. He was sent to college at an expense of one or two hundred dollars per annum, with fifty per cent. for spending money in his pocket, and yet he cannot make a figure in the world. I can tell that improvident parent the reason. The boy wanted only about twenty dollars a

year extra for books, and he wasted that fifty dollars in folly. To be sure flushmoney, with boys at school, is fool's mo ney. Empty his pockets, and store well his table with the aids to learning necessary to give him a taste for his studies, and he may be sent home in due time educated.

No prudent man sends his servant into the field without the necessary imple ments of labor, and the full ear is returned, and the full corn in the ear. But here is a farmer who has bought a field hand for a thousand dollars and a league of land, and sent him out to make a crop without plough or horse or hoe. He is the same man or ought to be, who expects his son to be educated without books. And what will he do? Why to be sure, he is the man who will flog his servant, traduce the college, and vilify its professors. He has given his son spendingmoney enough to acquire habits of extravagance and when that is exhausted, the young man goes into debt. And this is the parent who, when he comes to pay the bills, will repudiate, because, perhaps $5 has been charged for an indispensable book of reference, an English or classical dictionary.

If

But here is another farmer who furnishes his workmen with all the laborsaving and labor-aiding instruments. a new plough is offered, of improved pattern, he buys it and throws the old one away. He is the thrifty and wise farmer. He sends his children to the best primary schools, and submits their education to competent teachers, and when informed that a new book is wanted instead of the old one, he does not grudge a half dollar once in a quarter to rouse the ambition of his child and give him an improved edition or a better instrument of labor. He sends his son to college, and is able to do it, liberally provided. He restri ts his spending money, not from niggardliness but from prudence. He gives him the best advantages and a library such as he needs. The returns answer to the expenditure.

By aids to learning, however, we do not mean aids to inental inactivity. Mental discipline must be acquired by each