Ever since Carlyle began to study and translate the German literature,
the German language has been growing in favor with English speaking
people. For years past in the United States, it has held a large place
in the curricula of colleges, academies, and even the public schools.
Extremists, in some cases, have gone so far as to propose the exclusion
of one or both of the old tongues and the substitution of German.
Whilst such practice would be extreme, it is but just to say that all
attention and study thus far have been worthily bestowed. The following
are a few of the many valid reasons for the study of German:
1. This language possesses, in an unusual degree, those qualities
which give discipline to the mind. One of the greatest linguists and
comparative philologists of the age, has ranked it not inferior, but
superior to the Greek in this regard. The German is an inflected
language like the Latin. This gives exercise to memory, and demands the
utmost exactitude in construction. At the same time it has synthetic
power, a capacity of word-building unsurpassed by any other language;
so that the nicest shades of meaning can be expressed, thus giving the
mind an exercise of the highest disciplinary character.
2. German ought to be studied, if for no other reason, for its wealth
of literature. The student can not come into full sympathy and
appreciation with these mines of literary riches except by the avenue
of the language in which they are found. Much and the best is lost
in translations. It ought to be borne in mind that as students for
centuries past have toiled over Greek and Latin for the sake of the old
masters in literature, that the same reason should incite to the study
of German. For one of the four Titans of literature was a German, and
besides Goethe, there is Schiller, Lessing, Klopstock, Wieland, Herder,
Richter, and others, making a literary bloom comparable to that of the
English age of Elizabeth. It belongs in its fullness and beauty only to
the German scholar.
3. To the student of theology or science the German language is of very
great value and importance, especially to the former. A scholar in
divinity recently said, “Hebrew, Greek, and German are indispensable to
the theological student.” Joseph Cook discredits Mr. Herbert Spencer in
many things, because, as he says, he “doesn’t know German.” Certain it
is that whilst happily we are not obliged to accept all the views and
notions of German theologians, yet not to be abreast with the results
of German investigations and discoveries in the various departments
of theology is to lag behind the advanced knowledge and thought of
the times. And here in many instances it is impossible to rely on
translations, for many of the best works are not translated. Owing to
the cost and difficulty of translation they are not likely to be, and
when they are the process is slow, and the result often unsatisfactory.
4. The American student should study German with a view to converse
easily with his neighbor of that tongue and nationality. Living, as
we do, neighbor to two Germanies, it is of no little commercial and
social advantage to speak their language. One of these Germanies is
established on our own soil, and we meet and mingle with it every day;
the other, with the facilities for travel and communication, is as near
to us as the remote parts of our own nation are to each other. Not to
be able to speak their tongue, but always to compel them to speak
ours, is to meet them on unequal ground.
5. The large and growing demand for teachers of German is a practical
inducement to those who contemplate the teaching profession. Not only
in the college and university, where broad courses of study in German,
including the history and literature, are provided, but in the graded
schools of the smaller towns, school boards are including German, and
are seeking teachers competent to give such instruction.
6. Last, though not the least of the reasons here given for the study
of German, is that which arises from its relationship to our own
English tongue. Both the German and the Saxon are the descendants of
the old Gothic, the language of Ulfilas, in which he wrote the famous
“Codex Argentens.” It is estimated that thirty per cent. of our English
is of Saxon origin, enough to establish a strong connection, making
cousins, at least, between English and German. Thus we observe that
many of the commonest household words are often the same in sound,
and many times in orthography. To the philologist such relations and
correspondences are of great interest and importance. They furnish some
explanation of the resemblances to be observed between the race, types,
usages, and domestic institutions.