THE MASSACHUSETTS TEACHER. VOL. XXVI. JANUARY, 1873. No. I. IN assuming the responsibilities of Editor of the "Teacher," we can make no promises, except that of an earnest endeavor to do the best we can. With little experience as an editor, and that so long ago that most of the teachers of the present generation have been spared the trouble of reading the numbers that we edited, and with no special adaptation that we are aware of, our success must depend to a great extent on the monthly editors, who will hereafter furnish material, and be responsible for the first twenty pages of each number. Sci We hope that this will be borne in mind; and if every one who sees something wanting will make a note of it, and furnish a well-written article to supply the want, we think we shall not lack for matter to fill the prescribed number of pages. Another satisfaction will be to know that we have utilized grumbling, a feat, we believe, for which no patent has yet been issued. ence and manipulative skill have done much in our day to confer value on what has been deemed worthless; but if our invention is successful, we think we may fairly claim to be not least among inventors. We hope soon to be able to exhibit a model of our invention, by which a grumbler is converted to a first-class contributor. There are many questions in regard to education forcing themselves upon the community, on which legislative and town committees will be called to act, and which, if not discussed by those competent to speak wisely, will be by others. Thus, the relative claims of science and literature; a feasible method of making our schools more practical for the mass of scholars; the course of study in the several grades; and improved methods of instruction, are questions that excite an interest coextensive with education itself, and should be discussed, not only by theorists, but by practical teachers. We therefore invite all who have definite ideas on these and kindred topics, to lay them before the teachers of the State in the columns of "The Massachusetts Teacher." Upon normalschool teachers, and those connected with the higher institutions, it becomes a claim. Teachers whose school experience extends only over a period of five or ten years, have no adequate idea of the change which has been effected in the profession of teaching since the establishment of "The Massachusetts Teacher"; and it is in great part due to this journal, and to the State Association, that this change has been effected. There are a few of us who remember the meetings of the county associations, thirty odd years ago; but there are not many of us who ever spoke at those meetings. The lectures were given and the discussions were carried on almost exclusively by clergymen. There was a Journal of Education published in the State, and an excellent one it was; but few of the articles were contributed by public-school teachers. It was a kind of "declaration of independence" when the State Association was formed, limiting membership to practical teachers, and establishing a journal which was to be the organ of the Association. Acting as one of the monthly editors for a couple of years, we have no hesitation in saying that the preparation for those numbers required more reading and writing on educational topics than we had ever done before; and we doubt not many other teachers of the State who performed the same duty derived equal benefit from it. Nor are we willing to admit that "The Massachusetts Teacher" has been a failure as an educational journal. On the contrary, we think it has been a credit to its contributors and editors, and never more so than during the past year. If it has not proved a financial success, it is because many who have received substantial benefit from it, in increased salaries, and a higher estimate of their labors, have failed to contribute to its support. We have heard it said that the "Teacher" does not compare favorably, in interest, with the popular miscellaneous magazines. We are inclined to think this is true. But what of it? Their professed object is entertainment This is a professional journal, and should be compared, if at all, with those of its kind. How many persons- doctors, lawyers, or others - take the "Medical and Surgical Journal" or the "Law Reporter" for light reading? This being our estimate of the character of the " Teacher" as an educational journal, and of the important services rendered by it in the past, we ask and claim the co-operation of all who now occupy more honorable and lucrative positions than they would have done but for "The Massachusetts Teacher." Renewing our promise at the beginning to do the best we can, we heartily wish all the teachers of the State a "Happy New Year," reminding them, from the stand-point of an "old public functionary," that the taking of "The Massachusetts Teacher," and contributing to it, will be a pleasant thing to look back upon at the end of the year. LATIN AS A MEANS OF POPULAR EDUCATION. [Read before the Massachusetts Teachers' Association, at Worcester, December 27, 1872, by F. A. Hill, Chelsea.] POPULAR education ends with the high school. It is desirable to know, as a practical question involved in our topic, whether all there shall study Latin; whether, in fact, Latin is so precious that a common-school education without it must be distorted and inharmonious. No one pronounces the language barren soil. To him that tills, it bears fruit. That fruit has value. But here ugly questions press for answer. What is that value? How far is it intrinsic, how far traditional? Is that worth indiscriminately great to all, or is it variable, depending on taste, mental fitness, the time at disposal, the business of life proposed? Are there not other values in this prolific world, and is this relatively greater or less? The reverence for Latin in our systems of education is due to conditions most of which no longer exist. Wherever in Europe Roman arms triumphed, there Roman laws, arts, literature, flourished. Latin was the universal language. The learned used it with a measure of purity; the people spoke it in a careless," slipshod way. Scholars despised what they called the bad Latin of the people, the vulgar patois that varied with country. Hence, the Roman tongues, the outgrowth of such corruption, long existed without a literature. As for English, it was taking shape with peasant and swine-herd, while Latin-French was assuming consequence in the courtly circles of their Norman masters. Here, too, is a thought I cannot elaborate. Greece influenced Rome, owing a debt to Arabia for the volume of that influence, and Rome influenced the world. How was it done? The poets, philosophers, statesmen of Rome drank at Grecian fountains, communed with Grecian presences. Moulded thus, they naturally left Grecian imprints upon their language and works. Now, while Latin has always been prized since the Roman conquests, Greek has, at times, been wholly neglected. Even in its palmiest days, in what have been called Greek revivals, I do not understand that it ever received the attention devoted to its rival sister. Yet it is claimed, and with justice, that students of Latin for centuries, in relative or absolute ignorance of Greek,—“ a language," says Professor Whitney, "possessing a higher intrinsic character and an infinitely superior cultivation," — have notwithstanding felt the ennobling influences of the enlightened people that spoke it. Consider, then, how weighty the reasons were for the overshadowing influence of Latin. It contained all learning, or was supposed to. It held the riches of two civilizations. It was not national, but international. The languages of the people were corruptions to which no scholar would dream of looking for thought, much less of making them repositories of his own. The tongues that were not Romance were in their infancy. As literary languages, they are not now old, and owe their very existence to that boldness which broke the shackles of classical régime, or that fortune which never wore them. Latin or ignorance was the alternative. The would-be scholar had positively no choice. No wonder the language was revered. No wonder institutions. for its study multiplied. Rich in the hoarded treasures of the |