today. But to return to
our theme: to deny our interest in the past is to throw away our
heritage, to sell our mess of pottage to the lowest bidder. If the
Romance languages have one function in our American colleges, it is
this: To keep alive the old humanistic lesson: _nihil humani a me
alienum puto_; to the end that the modern college graduate may
continue to say with Montaigne: "All moral philosophy is applied as
well to a private life as to one of the greatest employment. Every man
carries the entire form of the human condition. Authors have thitherto
communicated themselves to the people by some particular and foreign
mark; I ... by my _universal_ being, not as a grammarian, a poet, or a
lawyer." The college course in the Romance languages should prepare
for a profession, but it must first help to prepare thinking men and
women.

WILLIAM A. NITZE
_University of Chicago_

Footnotes:

[85] The quotation is from Emerson, _Nominalist and Realist_.

[86] I make no attempt in this article, written before 1917, to treat
actual teaching conditions: the premises are too uncertain.

[87] The above statistics are from C. H. Handschin, _The Teaching of
Modern Languages in the United States_, Washington, 1913, pages 40ff.

[88] I cite the following figures: (_a_) Entrance: Harvard 16-1/2,
Amherst 14, Wisconsin 14, Columbia 14-1/2, Colorado 15, Illinois 15,
Chicago 15; (_b_) Collegiate Degree: Harvard 17-1/2 "courses," Amherst
20 "courses," Wisconsin 120 "credits," Columbia 124 "points," Colorado
120 "hours of scholastic work," Chicago 36 "trimester majors." It is
certainly desirable that our colleges adopt some uniform system for
the notation of their courses. Johns Hopkins, at least, is specific in
explaining the relationship of its "125 points" to its "courses"; see
page 262 of the _University Register_, 1916.

[89] At Chicago exactly 1/4 or "at least 9 coherent and progressive
majors" must be taken in "one department or in a group of
departments." But Chicago also requires a secondary sequence of at
least 6 majors; Columbia requires three years of "sequential study--in
each of two departments." Illinois, "a major subject (20 hours)" and
"an allied minor subject (20 hours)."

[90] An excellent manner of procedure is that outlined by Professor
Terracher in his interesting article in the _Compte rendu du Congres
de Langue et de Litterature Francaise_, New York (Feder