Repository: UIHistories Project: Course Catalog - 1876-1877 [PAGE 57]

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College of Literature and Science. SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND MODERN LANGUAGES.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITBEATUBB.

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Studies of the School.—In the arrangement of the studies the endeavor is to present a thorough and extended drill in grammatical and philological study, and in the authors and history of the English Language, affording a training equivalent to the ordinary studies of the classical language. This drill extends through three years of the course, but may be shortened according to the ability and preparation of the student. The first two terms of the first year are given to a general survey of the whole field of British and American Literature from the middle of the sixteenth century to the present time. All the really representative writers come into notice, and representative specimens from the writings of each are carefully read in class. Moreover each student is required each term to read the entire work of some classic author, making choice from a prescribed list. Frequent exercises in writing abstracts or original compositions on themes assigned are also required. The study of Rhetoric occupies the third term. During the second year some four or five of the great masters are studied, their work analyzed, the shaping forces of their times, and their influences upon succeeding times are investigated. Lectures are given from time to time on Poetry, Epic, Lyric, Dramatic, &c. Writing and reading required as in first year. In the senior year attention is given to Old English; to the AngloSaxon, for which the way has been prepared by the study of both English and German ; to Philology; to the Philosophy of English Literature, and to ^Esthetics. Essays, Forensics, and Orations are required. French and German.—The modern languages taught in this School are confined to one year of French and two years of German, but the student may, at his option, substitute a second year of French for one year of German. Abundant practical exercises are given both in composition and translation, and the diligent student gains the power to read with ease scientific and other works in these languages, and may, with a little practice, write and speak them with correctness. A constant attention is also given to the Etymologies common to these languages and the English, and thereby a large advantage is gained by the student in linguistic culture. " He who knows only one language," said Goethe, " knows not even that one properly." In the first year, the student passes over a complete grammar and reader, acquiring a knowledge of the technicalities of the idiom, and a sufficient vocabulary for the use of the books of reference within the course. The second year is devoted to a critical study of the languages and philological analysis, and to a course of select classic reading, composition and conversation. Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy—F ox these studies, see School of Mechanical Engineering. Natural Sciences—See Schools of Chemistry and Natural History.