The English Language

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 14, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 31.

The English Language.

A RUSSIAN priest who has traveled around the world, asked by a New York interviewer what struck him most during his trip, made this interesting and noteworthy reply:—

The lead that English-speaking people have taken everywhere. English has become the international language. With my limited knowledge of English, during my trip, I have been far better off than any of my occasional German and French friends. English has a glorious future. It is bound to become the universal language of science, trade, and industry. There have been three great epochs in which all the educated men talked Greek, Latin, and French, respectively. Now we are entering the epoch of English. The Greek world was too limited in both area and age. The Latin world was larger than the Greek, but its field was too narrow. The French epoch was diplomatic. Now the English, or rather Anglo-American, epoch will embrace the whole world. The English-speaking nations lead the world in the higher politics, and in industry and trade; and they are unsurpassed by any nation in scientific, religious, or philosophical thought. Our German friends object to English on the ground that it is, in their opinion, not an original language, being rather a mixture of German and Latin. In my opinion, this is rather an advantage, for English is not quite a foreign tongue to Germans, and to the nations of Latin origin, and so much the more easily can be adopted by all of them.