GREEK AS INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE. 25 I " The every-day language must first be known before acquiring the art language." Should we not feel sorry for the student who begins to learn English by studying the poetical works of Chaucer? In what a roundabout way would he finally be enabled to understand the peculiarity of the language of Longfellow ; how long would it be before he would be able to de- rive any sort of enjoyment from this poet's writ- ings, if he were to learn the English language by reading Longfellow's works exclusively, and in learning it were obliged to parse every word? The color of a language and the kind of style of a literary work, can be fully perceived only by one who is able to judge how far this lan- guage differs from commonplace daily conver- sation. We do not subject good wine to a chemical analysis by means of acids and salts in order to prove its value, neither do we gram- matically analyze a poem to enjoy its charm. In learning a language we notice one thing: in order to advance rapidly we have to read, in the beginning, only such books as are written in an easily comprehensible style, the contents also to be of an entertaining character. If we choose the more difficult, serious, or tedious books, we shall not advance, but rather retrograde. If we
