258 CHRISTIAN GREECE AND LIVING GREEK. extra language for the sole purpose of con- gresses and periodicals. "Dr. Rose," he says further, " is probably not sufficiently aware that the question of pronunciation does not stand now as it stood formerly : Erasmian or Reuchlinian ? but rather : When was the pronunciation of the different words transformed into the pronuncia- tion of the Greeks of to-day? This change of pronunciation of the different sounds — as they are written — has taken place at different periods. When? — that is found by the study of inscrip- tions." I do not know if researches have been made as to how German, French, and English have been pronounced in different centuries. I can- not determine whether the result of such re- searches would compensate for the immensity of brain-work employed, but it appears to me that much time and brain-work have been wasted through the fault of Erasmus. If it had not been for him, nobody might have suggested, or might now suggest, any other pronunciation of classical Greek than the pronunciation employed by the Greeks of to-day. Whatever the scien- tific value of historical studies of pronunciation may be, it concerns in no way the practical study of Greek. Higher philology should be at-
