ITO THE EDITOR OP. THE " SP ECTATOR."]
Sin,—The Council which has organised the Edinburgh Vacation Courses in English, French, and German, to be held in the University in August next, will be very grateful for the sympathy and support of the Spectator, especially as you have a wide circulation in the United States. The scheme has already been made known both at home and abroad, partly by advertisement, but thanks chiefly to the kindly notices bestowed on it by the Press. As yet, however, it is inadequately known in the United States, to which we hope that you will be good enough to accredit us. The aim of our Council (consisting of a hundred members, headed by the highest educational and civic authorities) is to provide a full month's sound and practical instruc- tion in French and German for the benefit of English- speaking teachers and other students, and in English for foreigners. In each of these three languages about sixty lectures and lessons will be given, and in each case the student will hear many cultured voices discoursing on language• and phonetics, on literature and history, giving recitations, and conversing at social gatherings, or during excursions around our romantic Northern capital .% Many teachers and students in Scotland and the North of England are unable to go to the Continent to study French or German, and so we are bringing over the Continent to their very doors, and thus enabling them, at trifling cost, to study one or both of these languages under distinguished Professors and Lecturers in Edinburgh. It is this great intellectual feast which I would specially beg leave to bring under the notice of our American friends about to visit Scotland. They will have the almost unique opportunity of hearing (inter alios) Professors Henry Sweet, Paul Passy, and Wilhelm Vietar, three of the greatest living authorities on phonetics, and Direktor Max Walter of Frankfort-ou- the-Main, the famous German master of the " new method," besides several very eminent Professors of French and German Literature. Perhaps it is hardly necessary to add that, as all the Edinburgh Professors and officials are serving gratuitously, they have no "axe to grind" or "log to roll." The University generously gives us every facility ; several School Boards and County Councils are sending us their teachers as students ; and our certificates of proficiency are recognised by the Scotch Education Department. So far we have a goodly and promising edifice. Will the Spectator kindly crown it with the aid we venture to ask ? All earnest students of the modern Literae Humaniores (and none are more earnest than the American), and all who desire to promote harmony and goodwill among nations, will be heartily welcome.—I am, Sir, &c., [It is with no little pleasure that we draw the attention of our readers, and especially our American readers, to the admirable scheme for Vacation Courses in the University of Edinburgh set forth by Professor Kirkpatrick. The sacrifice of time and energy on the part of the Professors and others who have organised the Vacation Courses is a very real one, and we can only hope that the response will be commensurate with the width and generosity of the scheme. American readers who wish to combine self- improvement with pleasure in a visit to Europe will assuredly give serious consideration to the offer made them by the University of Edinburgh.. Residence in Edinburgh in the summer is a liberal education in itself, so beautiful and so rich in memories of great. men and great events is the city, and so stimulating her intellectual atmosphere. For men and women of the English-speaking race throughout the world a month spent in study in the Athens of the North will be the laying up of treasure for the whole of their after life. -En. Spectator.]
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