Abstract
NOBODY, not even Prof. Kent or Mr. Heron-Allen, really wants Latin as a universal language. Latin is dead; its natural development has ceased and could not possibly meet the growing needs of international thought. Every one recognises that the classical tongue, if it is to satisfy modern needs, must have its grammar simplified and its vocabulary, especially of abstract terms, enlarged. But the features which are to be changed are those which give Latin its peculiar savour and the educational value that some would claim for it. “Modernised Latin” is not Latin at all; it is a hybrid jargon as artificial as Volapuk or Esperanto, as devoid of literary tradition, as incapable of artistic expression, as subject to national and individual vagaries. Of this last defect, of which he accuses Esperanto, Mr. Allen gives a crushing example. Few but English speakers would understand statio for railway-station; few but blundering schoolboys would use quae as a substantive for quis.
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