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About The Hesperian / (Lincoln, Neb.) 1885-1899 | View Entire Issue (March 15, 1893)
TEE HESPERIAN 11 science is of quite recent growth. Twenty years ago the student of chemistry was con tent to accept all his laboratory experiences from tho professor. Tho introduction later of a few experiments as an accompaniment to the lecture was, of course, a boon to the student; yet the lecture-room table remained an impassable barrio' between him and practical chemistry. Now it is a recognized necessity that the student should be made to get his experiences at first hand, not only in chemistry, but also in history, economics, psychology, and, last of all, in literature. Advances in education are of course made with the plodder in view. Yet while the laboratory method is the only salvation for tho student that is slow, it is very largely supererogation and a hindrance to him who has imagination enough to supply processes and results subjectively. Can this be the reason why instruction by the laboratory method never flags in Germany? In liter ature such a student usually arrives at his principles by ways unknown to himself, and to have his consciousness definitely directed to certain elements and processes of thought that he unconsciously follows cannot but bo beneficial. But it is in tho resolution of all the va rieties of poetry good, bad, sentimental, intellectual, strong, weak to certain con stant elements that the Analytics of Litera ture will be a boon to both, teacher and stu dent. AVhat should we think of a chemist o regarded starch, ether, and carbolic acid as elements, and recognized no differ ence in the molecular complexity of distilled water and coal-tar ( Yet the teacher of lit erature deals with Spencer or Tennyson as Spenser or Tennyson as elements, not as the complex compounds they really are. The existence of these ultimate, constant elements whose presence in varying proportions make Spenser, or Tennyson, or Shakespeare, or Bill Nye, it is the especial object of the Analytics to make clear. Given the ele ments, the presentation of them inductively fchould be no task to the teacher that knows his business. Tho Analytics of course follows the objec tive plan. To have followed the subjective would have been to assume the existence in the student of what tho book was written to dovolope literary taste. Though there Is no formal division into two parts, the prose and poetic sides of our literature aro kept quite distinct. It is in the treatment of prose stylo that tho reduction to elements becomes especially beneficial. A person may learn to write in the course of twenty years. But of how he learned he has often absolutely no notion. Formal rhetoric, in that it does not deal with ultimate elements, is frequently of no benefit, at all. Indeed, tho Analytics owes its inception to the ob servation that a little objective study of English prose effected marked changes in the student's stylo. From writing in a shambling, disconnected way he came in very many cases to write in short, sharp sentences, with some degree of power. The book itself consists of about 400 pages of text and some 80 pages of notes. This arrangement adapts it to two classes of readers. Those who need more facts and more extended discussions upon various topics than appear in the text will find them in the notes. On the other hand, those who have the details at command will not be dis tracted in reading the tot by unnecessary discussions. A set of questions on Shake speare's Macbeth appear, in an appendix, and the whole is closed by a copious index. H. C. Fktkkson. Learning a Language. Learning a language by studying its gram mar is like learning to play the piano by studying harmony. Learning a language by studying its literature is like learning to play the piano by studying musical notation. Literature is no more language than notation is music. It is a deplorable fact that under the pres ent methods of instruction, graduates from the classical department are unable to speak Greek or Latin, as well as they could Eng lish when they were two years old. Is this Y mi
