It will also help to vitalize your work. Just as the work of a minister is more effective if he mingles some with folks outside of his congregation, so a teacher can do better work if she knows something of the community in which her young charges live. A prominent juvenile judge said in his desperation that he wished a thousand men would come into the city and ruin those insensible teachers and perhaps they would understand better some of the problems of the growing boy and girl. If you do something which is needed, it is not necessary to say that the community will profit by it. Perhaps you will do it for your own diversion and satisfaction at first, but gradually you will come to look upon your compensation only as a by-product, for you will have learned one of the significant lessons of life which is that happiness cannot be found when sought directly but it comes as a result of giving one's self, whole-heartedly in service for others. More Light Another dawn-a rosy flush Has tinged the mountain height; While still the base is deep in shade The pinnacle is bright. To those who climb-the way seems long; Some weary of the fight; Yet others still with courage strong Are struggling toward more light. HARRIET RUNDLE, San Diego, Calif. T Educational Value of Latin THEODORE W. NOON, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. HERE are over 500,000 students who are taking 2. Mental Discipline Theory. Lessons of moral value may be given indirectly. Skill in reasoning out questions in Latin syntax does not imply skill in business transactions. The direct method gives better results in the study of derivatives. The number entering upon the study of law, theology, medicine, is altogether disproportionate to the number studying Latin. The educational value of Latin appears in the gain in the power of expression which is derived from the process of relating words to thoughts, in rejecting, in weighing, in comparing through the medium of written translation. Better results in this respect are gained through the study of Latin than through the study of modern languages. Compare the Latin word "res" which has fifty different meanings. To secure these results, form drill, syntax work, writing of EnglishLatin sentences must aim at acquiring ability to render into good English at sight a passage selected from the Latin text. The study of Latin occupies a prominent place in the curriculum of the American High School. There are over 500,000 pupils of High School age who take this subject. What is the educational value of Latin that justifies the attention given to it? It is the purpose of this article to show that the real hold that Latin has on the curriculum today is due to the power of expression gained by the student through accurate and finished translation. The process is one of relating words to thoughts through the medium of translation. Latin affords better opportunities to relate words to thoughts through the medium of translation than either French or German. Language study shows that Latin has a wider range, a greater depth than either French or German. Take for example the Latin word "res." By selecting the proper word to fit the thought, the student develops the power of expression. This study is carried on for a period of several years. The exercise of translating the Latin text makes a distinct contribution quite different from writing English composition or word study, e. g., Shakespeare. This appears in the process of translation of Latin text, in relating words to thoughts. In English composition the teacher has the exact words of the writer. These words may or may not express the real thought of the writer. The teacher has no method of determining. In Latin, however, the teacher has in the Latin text the content of the thought that the student seeks to express. The teacher is able to direct and foster the development of thought expression in the pupil. Herein lies the educational value of Latin. This makes the right kind of instruction, that insists upon finished translation of the Latin text, imperative. It calls for the best possible method to be followed in every recitation and examination. The educational value of Latin can be gained by the treatment of four aspects of the study of Latin: 1. Memory Work, Forms. 2. Syntax. 3. Writing English-Latin Sentences. 4. Finished Translation of Twelve Lines of Latin at Sight. These factors form a unit leading to a neat rendering of the Latin text. The danger that besets the teacher of Latin is that he will allow half-finished translations to be given of the assigned passage, thereby vitiating English style and ren dering ineffective in terms of real and lasting value all previous work in Latin, e. g. Memory Work, Syntax, Writing of English-Latin Sentences. A finished translation gathers up all of these in one complete whole. The demand for neat rendering of the Latin text must be insisted upon with firmness. We are reminded of a half finished structure just north of Princess Street in Edinburgh, Scotland—an unfinished stone structure the pride and poverty of Scotland. Transliteration is not translation. It is not enough for the teacher, however patient, merely to go through the steps of form drill, syntax work. After the battle of Cannae, when Hannibal had gained a signal victory over the Romans, Marhabal his general came to him and said, "Give me a detachment of horse and I will take Rome." Hannibal replied, "Not now." The answer of Marhabal, "You know how to win a victory, Hannibal, but not how to use a victory," clearly portrays the position of a teacher or student of Latin who performs the difficult task of memory work, syntax study, but who does not apply this knowledge in producing finished translations. In other words he does not relate words to thoughts sufficiently to gain the real educational value of the study of Latin. The literary work of Addison who devoted several years to the study of Latin poets, evidences the influence of this process of relating words to thoughts. Compare the following citation from the De Coverley Papers: "There cannot be a greater judgment befall a country than such a dreadful spirit of division as rends a government into two distinct people, and makes them greater strangers and more averse to one another, than if they were actually two distinct nations. The effects of such a division are pernicious to the last degree, not only in regard to those advantages which they give the common enemy, but to those private evils which they produce in the heart of almost every particular person. This influence is very fatal both to men's morals and their understanding; it sinks the virtue of a nation, and not only so, but destroys even common sense." "Are there not other ways," someone asks, " by which this power of expression may be acquired?" The literary work of Washington Irving is cited, the charm of whose descriptive passages is universally recognized and praised. He did not devote special study to Latin. Compare the following excerpt from the Alhambra: "One of my favorite resorts is the balcony of the central window of the Hall of the Ambassadors, in the lofty tower of Comares. I have just been seated there, enjoying the close of a long, brilliant day. The sun, as he sank behind the purple mountains of the Alhambra, sent a stream of effulgence up the valley of the Darro that spread a melancholy pomp over the ruddy towers of the Alhambra, while the Vega, covered with a slight sultry vapor that caught the setting sun, seemed spread out in the distance like a golden sea. Not a breath of air disturbed the stillness of the hour, and though the faint sound of music and merriment now and then arose from the gardens of the Darro it but rendered more impressive the monumental silence of the pile which overshadowed me. It was one of those hours and scenes in which memory asserts an almost magical power, and, like the evening sun beaming on those mouldering towers, sends back her retrospective rays to light up the glories of the past." Such a literary production is a work of art, indescribably beautiful, like the setting sun lighting up the eternal snows of Mount Shasta of Northern California, the bright gleam of white slowly changing to a dull grey against the dark background of the mountain pine. It is admitted that there are other ways of getting returns, but we contend that this process of relating words to thoughts in the correct translation of the Latin text has produced large results. Substantially this is the only valid reason for the place occupied by Latin in the curriculum today. If time permitted it would be interesting to review the vari |