University of Virginia Library

SCHOOL OF MODERN LANGUAGES.

Prof. Schele De Vere.

The subjects taught in this School are as follows:

1. The French, German, Spanish and Italian languages. A number
of classic and of modern authors are read in the class, to practice the pronunciation,
to acquire facility in prompt rendering of the foreign idiom, and
to appreciate the literary beauties of eminent writers. A much larger number
of works, mainly by modern authors, are expected to be read privately,
in order to acquire that familiarity with foreign writers which enables the
student to judge of the difference in style and diction in individuals, and in
various periods of literature.

At every meeting of the class, moreover, a lecture is delivered, and to a
large extent illustrated by examples and quotations, written on the blackboard,
so that the eye and the ear may mutually assist each other. In these
lectures the Grammar and the Syntax of each idiom is discussed in a manner
varying according to the state of preparation of each class. The treatment
is mainly historical: the words, the sentences and the general structure
being exhibited as they gradually developed themselves from the
earliest efforts made by the infant nation to the highest results obtained in
its so-called Golden Age.

These lectures are again accompanied by weekly exercises, translations
from the vernacular into foreign idioms. They furnish the Professor with
evidence of the success or want of success with which he has tried to explain
the rules and the usages of each language. After having been carefully
marked, they are returned to the student, and then written, in correct form,
on the blackboard. The Professor, as he writes there, accompanies them
with a running commentary on the various rules that have been violated
or misunderstood.

At stated intervals the Professor reads aloud, so as to train the ear; at
others, he dictates extracts from foreign writers for the same purpose.

After the classes have become somewhat familiar with the language they
are given a series of lectures treating of the History of the Idiom. Its
forms, its structure and its spiritual characteristics are carefully traced
through the different periods of their history, and minutely compared with
each other. This gives an opportunity for instruction in the fundamental
rules of the Science of Language, to which much attention is given. These
lectures are followed by another course on the Literature of each Idiom.
The different periods of the literature are explained and illustrated by

sketches of the lives and criticisms on the works of the principal writers of
each age. The parallelism between the national growth of a people and
its literary proficiency is carefully pointed out.

After each lecture the Professor remains some time in the lecture-room
to meet informally such students as desire additional information.

Diplomas of graduation are conferred in each of the four languages
named above; and upon the student who succeeds in any two of them,
sclected according to his own choice, a diploma of graduation in the
School of Modern Languages is conferred; but graduation in French and
German is required for the M. A. degree.

2. The study of Anglo-Saxon is mainly pursued in its aspect as the
mother of English, furnishing the student the means of tracing the history
of his native tongue from its earliest beginning. Much attention is given
to the illustration of the history of words, their first birth, their fate under
the yoke of the Norman, and their subsequent modifications. Whilst
the student is furnished with a key to the rich and historically invaluable
literature of our forefathers, he is at the same time given an opportunity
to learn the inner nature, the inherent power and the right to supremacy
awarded to his native tongue. Extracts from Anglo-Saxon writers are
read, and the bearing of their works on the history of our race is fully explained.

Certificates of Proficiency in Anglo-Saxon are conferred.

The following text-books are used in the several languages:

French.

Junior Class.—The Professor's Grammar and First Reader, Télémaque, Saintine's
Picciola, Masson's Dictionary.

Senior Class.—The Professor's Grammar, Brachet's Grammar, Molière, Racine,
Voltaire, Taine's L'Angleterre, Masson's, Gasc's or Littré's Dictionary. A course of
private reading is prescribed. Prof. J. A. Harrison's French Syntax is recommended.

German.

Junior Class.—Otto's Grammar, Whitney's Reader, Schiller's William Tell, Whitney's
Dictionary.

Senior Class.—Whitney's and Wilmans' or Frauer's (German) Grammar, Whitney's
Dictionary, Schiller's Works, Gœthe's Autobiography and Faust, Jean Paul's
Flegeljahre. A course of private reading is prescribed.

Spanish.

The Professor's Grammar, Seoane's Dictionary, Velasquez' Reader, Colmena Española,
Don Quijote, Calderon's El Principe Constante, Lope's Estrella de Sevilla,

Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature. In default of the Professor's Grammar, now
out of print, Knapp's Spanish Grammar will be used.

Italian.

Cuore's Grammar, Foresti's Reader, Manzoni's I Promessi Sposi, Tasso's Gerusalemme
Liberata, Pellico's Le Mie Prigioni, Petrarca, Dante's La Divina Commedia.

Anglo-Saxon.

Shute's Manual of Anglo-Saxon, or Sweet's Primer, The Professor's Studies in English,
March's Anglo-Saxon Grammar, the Anglo-Saxon Gospels.