Excerpt from The Aberdeen University Review, Vol. 9: 1921-22 Greece and Rome are so serviceable, why not modern France and Germany, Italy and Spain? The question whether modern studies can afford an education equivalent to the best classical training can, the Modern Languages Committee says, he answered only by put ting it toithe test. The equivalence cannot be denied by the wise until the experiment has had a full trial with all favourable conditions throughout at least a whole generation. Thus a formidable rival to the traditional Humanities is to be found in modern Humanism. Nor are the claims of the latter exhausted by modern foreign languages, for the Mother Tongue is itself for us the greatest of all the Humanities. It was at the very period when the literatures of England and other countries of Modern Europe were taking form that the sway of the Classics began seriously to be dis puted. Up to that time, the literature of the world had been classical. The whole record of human thought, human effort, man's achievements in political life, in legislation, colonization, arts and letters was con tained in the Classics. The more distinct decline of classical studies in our time and country has been almost concurrent with the emer gence into importance of English studies in school and university. The simultaneous introduction of modern foreign languages into the curriculum has somewhat obscured the part played by English itself. But the crucial fact is that the essential elements of humanistic cul. Ture are in great measure available without resort to unknown and difficult tongues, either ancient or modern. It happened most unfortunately for the Classics, too, that the attainment of literary rank by English and other modern languages was also coincident with the rise of modern science. Bacon, who may be regarded as the father of modern science, was a contemporary of the scholars who produced the Authorized Version of the Scriptures, a work which has done more than any other to give dignity and status to the English language as a literary instrument, and to impart to it a sanctity which is no small part of its influence. Bacon, it is true, still wrote chiefly in Latin, and so did Newton half a century later. But the fate of Latin as the language of sciencehad already been sealed. Bacon himself illustrates the transition from ancient to modern. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.