THE EDINBURGH VACATION COURSES IN MODERN LANGUAGES.
Up THE EDITOR OF THE " ersoneron.'i SIR,—May I again venture to beg for a little space in order to call the attention of your numerous readers at home and abroad to the Edinburgh Vacation Courses to be held in August next ? . As last year, when these courses were attended by three hundred and fifty-three enrolled students (including about a hundred and thirty foreigners), besides many other hearers, we shall have theoretical and practical courses in English, French, German, and to some extent in Italian also, conducted by an excellent staff of University Professors and other Lecturers, numbering about fifty in all. In each of the three chief languages three or four lectures and lessons will be given daily in language, literature, and phonetics (phonetics being again represented by three of the greatest living masters : Dr. Henry Sweet, Professor Paul Plumy, and Professor W. Vietor). As it has sometimes been alleged that similar vacation courses are got up with a view to " exploit the stranger," it may be noted that the principal officials of our Council and several of the Lecturers serve gratuitously, and that the University generously and freely provides us with ample and admirable accommodation. Our students therefore receive considerably more than "their money's-worth," while they will also find living inexpensive. For the great success of last year's courses we were deeply indebted to the most kindly and gratifying support of the Press in general, and of the Spectator in partioular, and to the
patronage of many School Boards and Town and County Councils both in England and Scotland. During the present year we have already received assurances of a like support and patronage, and we therefore confidently anticipate an equal or greater measure of success. Our Council of about a hundred members is headed by the Lord Provost and Magistrates of the city, by the Marquis of Linlithgow, Lord Reay, and Lord Balfour of Burleigh, and by the Principal of the University and the Secretary of the Scotch Education Department, all of whom are warmly interested in our national education. While our immediate object is the thorough and practical teaching of living languages, we also have at heart the great ulterior object of promoting national culture and international friendship by means of a harmonious inter- mingling of different nationalities. While it Is partly true that Edinburgh's " face is her fortune," she received last August an added charm from the presence of -many students, teachers, and visitors, besides distinguished Profeisors and Lecturers, from almost every part of the world. Believing, therefore, our object to be a beneficent one, I would again venture to bespeak your generous and powerful advocacy on its behalf.—I am, Sir, &c., J. KIRKPATRICK. University of Edinburgh.
[We publish Professor Kirkpatrick's letter with great pleasure, and trust that the Edinburgh Vacation Courses may prove this year even a greater success than the courses of 1905, though those were in every way worthy of the great University in which they were held. We specially desire to draw the attention of our readers in the Colonies and in America to the advantages, and, we may add, intellectual pleasures, offered by a course of study in Edinburgh in August.—En. Spectator.]
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