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Show I! '- i ,' !''" TEUT0NI2ING OR ANGLICIZING. i-'i! iM'i' contention of somo valuo and ' . Arauch strlkingnoss to current pedagog- RF?.v- . 'W.cal discussion has been made by ono Sj' of tho Rhodes scholars newly landed fei'i, ,sfejsiicpf rom Connecticut at Oxford, and look-r'$8&W look-r'$8&W aljout lllm in so vory wlde-awako a W jv?PI way as to lnsuro that for him at least fc '$k:' the experiment of expatriation Is likely wEV to bo successful. This simple Ithodlan v ' - ' finds that tho Indigenous and horcdl- p tary Oxonian has his advantages over 1 the transplanted American. Tho first i and greatest of theso Is tho Briton's P greater rango of literary culture "It f is a fact that In general reading the more studious Oxonian" (meaning the l more studious of tho Oxonians) "has I' us at his mercy; in overy form of clas-' I' steal scholarship oxcopt that of palns- I taking Investigation of mlnuto obscurl- 1 ties, a favorite pastlmo In Germany I and America, wo are "down and out" I He goes on to say that tho Briton equally knows moro about at least tho literary side of painting, sculpture, and music. Tho American at Oxford can very imperfectly recoup himself for his ignoranco of what overbody is thero presumed to know by allusions to chemistry or" analytic geometry, which nre as recbndlto to tho Briton as tho Briton's subconscious possessions posses-sions aro to him; for ho is awaro that In theso things ho himself is but a smatterer. Ono hopes that this Rhodian overstates over-states tho case, and indeed it Is plain that thero Is a personal equation to bo allowed for. Surely ho speaks only for himself when ho declares that tho ordinary or-dinary "American collegian" is not clear whether Titian and Murlllo wore sculptors, palntors, or musicians. But tho inferiority In general culture which ho manfully confesses for hlmseir might equally bo confessed, doubtless, by most of his colleagues on the Rhodes Rho-des foundations. Ho tells, in effect, tho samo story in 1905 that Emerson told in 1847, and independently arrives at much tho samo explanation, tho want of "access to books" for tho studiously stu-diously minded American boy, compared com-pared with tho liberty of "browsing in a library" which tho English boy of the class which finds its way to Oxford has enjoyed from childhood. This Is a want that tho present Rhodian, whom ono infers to havo been brought up among tho ordinary surroundings of a -Jew England village, has doubtless felt moro keenly that tho "minister's son" that Emerson was to tho sixth and seventh generation. Assuredly there is, on either side of tho water, no satisfactory sat-isfactory scholastic substitute possible for tho inestimable advantage of having hav-ing been brought up In "a reading family." fam-ily." All tho same, It is by no means satisfactory satis-factory to hear Emerson's complaint repeated, and with aggravation, after almost sixty years. "They read better than wo do, and writo better." And this In splto of tho fact that there is, ono may say, no oxrpess toaching of English literature in England, where a knowledge of it is assumed as a "byproduct" "by-product" of homo reading plus classical classi-cal culture, and a great deal of express teaching of it in tho United States. One may almost say that our inferiority comes because of this latter fact. Tho classics aro taught in Great Britain Us matters of literary culture. In America, Amer-ica, under tho influence of Germany they aro Increasing by coming to be taught, as our Rhodian intimates, as matters of "linguistic investigation." And similarly, though not Identically, with English. When an American professor, necessarily of Gorman unl-vorclty unl-vorclty training, assures mankind that "thero Is such a thing," such a grew-somo grew-somo thing, "as a sclcnco of English literature," tho American who has not sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, pot-tage, shudders at tho announcement and pities tho professor's pupils. When a translation of a Gorman professor's pro-fessor's lectures on tho sclenco of history his-tory appears from an American press, written In a jargon which indicates that tho translators have taken pains to forget all tho idiomatic English thoy over know, ono sees that Teuton-lzing Teuton-lzing has boon carried very far. Wo aro worso off than in Emerson's tlmo insomuch as our lack then was of an Inculcation of tho humanities, whereas where-as tho condition which now confronts us Is of an express inculcation of what may fairly bo called the inhumanities. inhu-manities. All which goes to show that Cecil Rhodes may havo bullded considerably bettor than ho know. Scribners. n |