ABSTRACT
Irving Babbitt asserts that the study of English with reference to its intellectual content is a serious discipline. He considers what justifies the study of English on cultural and literary rather than on sentimental and utilitarian grounds. English appeals to us as our mother-tongue, and at the same time some training in English is admittedly useful. The old education, individualistic and humanistic, stressed ethical standards and training for wisdom. The new education, sociological and humanitarian, stresses training for service and training for power. To discriminate sharply between these two approaches calls for severe intellectual discipline. Humanist educators affirm standards and insist on quality; humanitarian educators emphasize numbers. If a teacher is humanitarian, with a predominant interest in the underdog, he will at once find himself out of touch with most of the great figures of both ancient and modern literature. Humanism is only one of a large class of words that call aloud at present for definition.
