New English Courses at Harvard.

The addition of new courses in the English department at Harvard, promised for next year, is another step in the development of the college which will be warmly approved by people of liberal views in matters of education. In spite of the increased attention which is now being paid to the study of the English language and literature in colleges and other institutions of learning both in this country and in England, there is still a notable lack of interest in the subject exhibited in quarters where it ought not to exist. The reasons for this have often been discussed, and do not again need to be rehearsed; that they are insufficient is now admitted in certain high quarters where the admission would have been impossible not so many years ago. For a long time even Harvard seemed disposed to cling too tenaciously to the classical system of education, or, at least, in recognizing the value of greater breadth, to place English much further down in the scale of (merit than it deserved. But with certain changes which have been made in the establishment of honors in English, a new and happier spirit has prevailed, of which this latest announcement of additional courses in the English department is one of the fruits.

These courses cover valuable fields of knowledge which heretofore have been little traversed, except by special students. The King James version of the Bible, in particular, has never received the attention to which its peculiar literary merits entitle it. An attempt has been made to convince the public that as a translation it is a poor and inadequate piece of work. That question it is not worth while here to discuss; but it still bids fair to remain among the imperishable classics of our tongue. For its extraordinary merits as a piece of English place it above the rank of a translation and transform it into something only less original and native to the intellectual soil than the work of Shakspere or Milton themselves. It is surprising, indeed, that it has been so seldom studied from this point of view, and the attempt at Harvard to do something of the sort is worth the highest degree of commendation. To a less extent the study of the extra Shaksperean drama and of the literary period immediately preceding the Restoration has also been strangely neglected and should also now be distinctly approved.

The general question of the study of English in colleges, and just what place it should take in any scheme of liberal education, is an important one, which the course now entered upon by Harvard will help greatly to solve. For our own part, we would not for a moment underestimate the claims of a so-called classical training; but we can not help thinking that if anything is to be sacrificed it should not be English. - Boston Post.