Word: english
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Dates: during 1873-1873
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...examinations, which will be held in Boston. The College, however, stands ready to make a similar arrangement with any association in the country which can guarantee a sufficient number of candidates. Such a system has been operating successfully during the past ten or twelve years at the English Universities...
...lack of self-reliance. It shows that one's own approbation is not sufficient unless that of others be superadded. And there is a dim belief that the speaker, as Socrates says, is moved by a certain divine inspiration and enthusiasm, or, to describe his condition in plain English, he is mad, and, although possessing a certain method in his madness, nevertheless he is destitute of true wisdom. His mind is not finely balanced, he is not sufficient unto himself, his ideas are purely theoretical...
...much better to be moderate in business and study, as in other things! We might well copy, in this respect, the more staid and phlegmatic English and Germans; to be sure, these have their faults, but the most certain way to gain any end is by a safe and thoughtful process, rather than by a violent, hasty action; and the straightest path to success in study is not by excessive application, but by a judicious and reasonable division of one's time between diligence and diversion...
...would be an easy matter to find similar remarks on English in the writings of French authors. M. Taine claims to appreciate our language and literature at least as fully as any of his countrymen; but in his remarks on Shakespeare you can see, if you examine at all closely, a lurking pity for the poor islanders who have found nothing better than an extremely improbable and barbarous language to express their ideas...
...objected that the English language is no more peculiar in its sounds than any other; and certainly a man is inclined to find any language surprising and ridiculous which is not his own. This point is well illustrated by Montesquieu, who makes nis countrymen ask their visitor from the East, "Comment peut-on etre Persan?" But Heine, whom we quoted above, was above the influence of this prejudice, as he knew Italian and French very thoroughly, and never found anything ludicrous in the sound of these languages. Since this is so, we must conclude that there was to him something...