, we
are told with equal persistence by political optimists that we ought
to be on the most friendly terms with a great kindred people from whom
nothing separates us except regrettable ignorance and superficial
misunderstandings. Yet, in order to dispel that ignorance and to
remove those misunderstandings, we do not make the first necessary
step--namely, to learn the language of the people whom we are said to
misunderstand.

[20] Written in 1912.

It is true that Members of Parliament and journalists are ready enough
to proceed to Germany on a mission of goodwill, and to be entertained
at banquets and international festivities. But how futile must be
those friendly demonstrations when we consider that the enormous
majority of those Parliamentarians and journalists are unable to read
a German newspaper! And how must it strike a citizen of Hamburg or
Frankfurt when their English guests have to reply in English to the
toasts of their German hosts! And how must a patriotic German feel
when he discovers that not five out of a hundred have taken the
trouble to master the noble language of the country whose friendship
they are seeking!

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending, at the house of a
prominent political leader, a representative gathering of politicians,
diplomats, and journalists, who were met to consider the best means of
promoting Anglo-German friendship. In answer to a speech of mine, an
eminent German publicist and editor of an influential monthly review
delivered an eloquent address in broken French. To hear a German
address in French an audience of Germanophile Englishmen was certainly
a ludicrous situation! But the speaker realized that it would be
hopeless to use the German language, even to an assembly specially
interested in supporting Anglo-German friendship.

How long, my classical friends, are we going to submit to these
disastrous results of your monopoly? _Quousque tandem!_ How long are
we going to stand this scandal of international illiteracy and
ignorance, fraught with such ominous peril for the future? How long is
this nation going to be hoodwinked by an infinitesimal minority of
reactionary dons and obscurantist parsons, determined to force a
smattering of Greek down the throats of a reluctant youth? How long is
modern culture to be kept back under the vain pretence of maintaining
the culture of antiquity, but in reality in response to an ignoble
dread of enlightenment and progr