Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1886 [PAGE 177]

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169 All difficulties of construction and wording are carefully discussed and explained, and by this means a valuable review of the difficulties of grammar is obtained. French or German is spoken in the classes during the last two terms,—that is to say, the corrections in pronunciation and translation, and the questions in construction from the teacher, as well as the answers from pupils, are in the language read. Py this; means a fair amount of practice is obtained, without taking time from reading or composition. In conclusion, the undersigned begs leave to suggest that whenever the number of students necessitates a further division of c asses, a separation of the students in literary and technical courses may be brought about. This need not be applied to the first year, for the students of the technical courses need certainly all the drill and discipline they can get from a thorough study of the grammar and syntax of a foreign tongue; but in the second year a course of reading in scientific prose could be given, which would more directly prepare them for the practical use of the acquired language in their several pursuits. Very respectfully,

E. SNYDER,

Professor Modern Languages*.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITEKATUKE.

PROFESSOR JOSEPH C. PICKARD, M. DR. A.

S. H.

PEABODY,

Regent.

DEAR SIR—The work done in the department of English Literature during the past year has been in accordance with the course laid down in the catalogue. In the spring term of 1885, the seniors studied Whitney's Life and Growth of Language; the sophomores read Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and some of his English historical plays; the freshmen had Bhetoric as a text-book study. In the fall term the senior class studied the Anglo-Saxon language; the sophomore class Burke, Bacon and Webster; the freshmen class, American authors. In the term now passing, the winter term of 1886, the seniors are reading early English authors; the sophomores, Milton and Wordsworth ; the freshmen, British authors from Chaucer to Tennyson. The aim of the department is to bring the students to a fair knowledge, at least, of the history of the English language and literature through all its periods, and to an intimate acquaintance with a few of the masters of thought and style whose spirits still rule us from their urns. To secure the best results, it has not been deemed so desirable for the student to know what others have said about an author^, (though such knowledge is not undesirable), as for him to have the