best of our
undergraduates to this point I need not discuss. But at least once in
the process of his work he might be held to a stricter account than
elsewhere. And if we ask ourselves by what method this can best be
accomplished, I believe the answer is by some _special_ course in
which the language of several representative writers is treated as
such.[90] The point could be elaborated, particularly in view of the
present-day tendency to dwell unduly on so-called _realia_, French
daily life, and the like--all legitimate enough in their proper time
and place. But enough has been said to show that excellent as the
present plan is, it could without detriment enlarge the place given to
linguistics. In this bewildered age of ours we are forever hearing the
cry of "literature," more "literature": not only our students but our
teachers--and the connection is obvious--find language study dull and
uninspiring, oblivious to the fact that the fault is theirs and not
the subject's. Yet, as we observed above, French is "hard," and its
grammatical structure, apparently so simple, is in truth very
complicated. Manifestly, to understand a foreign literature we must
understand the language in which it is written. How few of our
students really do! Moreover, language and literature are ultimately
only parts of one indivisible entity: Philology--though the fact often
escapes us. "The most effective work," said Gildersleeve,[91] "is done
by those who see all in the one as well as one in the all." And
strange as it appears to the laity, a linguistic fact may convey a
universal lesson. I hesitate to generalize, but I believe most of our
colleges need to emphasize the language side of the French "major"
more.

=Relative positions of French, Spanish, and Italian in a college course=

As for Italian and Spanish, few of the colleges as yet grant these
subjects the importance given to French. For one reason, entrance
credit in Italian is extremely rare, and neither there nor in Spanish,
in which it is now rather common, owing to the teaching of Spanish in
the high schools, does it exceed two units. Some work of an elementary
nature must therefore be done in the college; indeed, at Amherst
neither language can be begun until the sophomore year--though
fortunately this is an isolated case. Further, even when the college
is prepared to teach these subjects adequately, it is still a
debatable question whether they are entitled to precisely the sam