to the dealings of every branch of business. We know
the parallel forms of correspondence in English, which give a means of
communication but not properly a language. Even the social values of
languages are less than they used to be, as the finer art of
conversation has declined. A little goes a long way; the rush of the
motor has cut it short; there is not time to exchange more than a few
commonplaces, and for these a very limited number of words is enough.

But let our girls give themselves time, or let time be allowed them, to
give a year or two to the real study of languages, not in the threadbare
phrases of the tourist and motorist, nor to mere drawing-room small
talk; not with "matriculation standard" as an object, but to read the
best that has been written, and try to speak according to the best that
can be said now, and to write according to the standard of what is
really excellent to-day; then the study of modern languages is lifted
quite on to another plane. The particular advantage of this plane is
that there is a view from it, wider in proportion to the number of
languages known and to the grasp that is acquired of each, and the
particular educational gift to be found there is width of sympathy and
understanding. Defective sympathies, national and racial prejudices
thrive upon a lower level. The _elect_ of all nations understand one
another, and are strangely alike; the lower we go down in the various
grades of each nation the more is the divergency accentuated between one
and another. Corresponding to this is mutual understanding through
language; the better we possess the language of any nation the closer
touch we can acquire with all that is theirs, with their best.

A superficial knowledge of languages rather accentuates than removes
limitations, multiplies mistakes and embitters them. With a
half-knowledge we misunderstand each other's ideals, we lose the point
of the best things that are said, we fail to catch the aroma of the
spices and the spirit of the living word; in fact, we are mere tourists
in each other's mental world, and what word could better express the
attitude of mind of one who is a stranger, but not a pilgrim, a tramp of
a rather more civilized kind, having neither ties nor sympathies nor
obligations, nothing to give, and more inclined to take than to receive.
To create ties, sympathies, and obligations in the mental life, is a
grace belonging to the study of languages, and makes it pos