Sunday, August 24, 2014
Two of the Best Languages That Ever Were
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), "Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania," The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Albert Henry Smith, Vol. II: 1722-1750 (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1905), pp. 386-396 (at 394):
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When Youth are told, that the Great Men whose Lives and Actions they read in History, spoke two of the best Languages that ever were, the most expressive, copious, beautiful; and that the finest Writings, the most correct Compositions, the most perfect Productions of human Wit and Wisdom, are in those Languages, which have endured Ages, and will endure while there are Men; that no Translation can do them Justice, or give the Pleasure found in Reading the Originals; that those Languages contain all Science; that one of them is become almost universal, being the Language of Learned Men in all Countries; that to understand them is a distinguishing Ornament, &c. they may be thereby made desirous of learning those Languages, and their Industry sharpen'd in the Acquisition of them.
