Latin study. Others are content with the late
learning of Latin and prefer that it should be preceded by a thorough
study of modern languages (see Prof. B.I. Wheeler, in Baumeister's
_Handbuch_, 1897, ii. 2, pp. 584-586).

Latin pronunciation.

It was mainly owing to a pamphlet issued in 1871 by Prof. G.M. Lane, of
Harvard, that a reformed pronunciation of Latin was adopted in all the
colleges and schools of the United States. Some misgivings on this
reform found expression in a work on the _Teaching of Latin_, published
by Prof. C.E. Bennett of Cornell in 1901, a year in which it was
estimated that this pronunciation was in use by more than 96% of the
Latin pupils in the secondary schools.

Some important statistics as to the number studying Latin and Greek in
the secondary schools were collected in 1900 by a committee of twelve
educational experts representing all parts of the Union, with a view to
a uniform course of instruction being pursued in all classical schools.
They had the advantage of the co-operation of Dr W.T. Harris, the U.S.
commissioner of education, and they were able to report that, in all the
five groups into which they had divided the states, the number of pupils
pursuing the study of Latin and Greek showed a remarkable advance,
especially in the most progressive states of the middle west. The number
learning Latin had increased from 100,144 in 1890 to 314,856 in
1899-1900, and those learning Greek from 12,869 to 24,869. Thus the
number learning Latin at the later date was three times, and the number
learning Greek twice, as many as those learning Latin or Greek ten years
previously. But the total number in 1000 was 630,048; so that,
notwithstanding this proof of progress, the number learning Greek in
1900 was only about one twenty-fifth of the total number, while the
number learning Latin was as high as half.

The position of Greek as an "elective" or "optional" subject (notably at
Harvard), an arrangement regarded with approval by some eminent
educational authorities and with regret by others, probably has some
effect on the high schools in the small number of those who learn Greek,
and in their lower rate of increase, as compared with those who learn
Latin. Some evidence as to the quality of the study of those languages
in the schools is supplied by English commissioners in the _Reports of
the Mosely Commission_. Thus Mr Papillon considered that, while the
teaching of English literature w