It was soon the established custom for young Romans to go to Athens and to other centers of Greek learning to finish their training, and the knowledge of the Greek language among the educated classes became universal.  At the same time many cultured Greeks—­poets, artists, orators, and philosophers—­flocked to Rome, opened schools, and taught their arts.  Indeed, the preeminence of Greek culture became so great that Rome almost lost her ambition to be original, and her writers vied with each other in their efforts to reproduce in Latin what was choicest in Greek literature.  As a consequence of all this, the civilization and national life of Rome became largely Grecian, and to Greece she owed her literature and her art.

Rome and the Modern World.  After conquering the world, Rome impressed her language, laws, customs of living, and modes of thinking upon the subject nations, and they became Roman; and the world has remained largely Roman ever since.  Latin continued to live, and the knowledge of Latin was the only light of learning that burned steadily through the dark ages that followed the downfall of the Roman Empire.  Latin was the common language of scholars and remained so even down to the days of Shakespeare.  Even yet it is more nearly than any other tongue the universal language of the learned.  The life of to-day is much nearer the life of ancient Rome than the lapse of centuries would lead one to suppose.  You and I are Romans still in many ways, and if Caesar and Cicero should appear among us, we should not find them, except for dress and language, much unlike men of to-day.

Latin and English.  Do you know that more than half of the words in the English dictionary are Latin, and that you are speaking more or less Latin every day?  How has this come about?  In the year 1066 William the Conqueror invaded England with an army of Normans.  The Normans spoke French—­which, you remember, is descended from Latin—­and spread their language to a considerable extent over England, and so Norman-French played an important part in the formation of English and forms a large proportion of our vocabulary.  Furthermore, great numbers of almost pure Latin words have been brought into English through the writings of scholars, and every new scientific discovery is marked by the addition of new terms of Latin derivation.  Hence, while the simpler and commoner words of our mother tongue are Anglo-Saxon, and Anglo-Saxon forms the staple of our colloquial language, yet in the realms of literature, and especially in poetry, words of Latin derivation are very abundant.  Also in the learned professions, as in law, medicine, and engineering, a knowledge of Latin is necessary for the successful interpretation of technical and scientific terms.