236 CHRISTIAN GREECE AND LIVING GREEK. schools of the Mediaeval Age ; they have, on this account, inherited a steady preference for that language. The general use of the Latin on the part of the learned professions has, in the easiest manner, facilitated the learned inter- course of all. This has now, however, alto- gether changed. The national languages have obtained their natural rights, and should always maintain them, even if a universal language for scholars shall have been adopted. We must concede that it is impossible to reinstate the old relation the Latin has held — when all the lec- tures on any subject whatever at the universities were delivered in Latin. Neither would such be desirable. Virchow says, in his inaugural address as rec- tor of the Berlin University : " It was from the beginning a weak side of the humanistic educa- tional institutions to favor the Latin language. It must be conceded that they could not do otherwise. They found the Latin the universal language of church and law. They were all Latin schools. They only continued what had become a general practice in consequence of the habit transmitted for a thousand years. But for this reason they had accepted an element of weakness. For the classical writers of Rome
