Latin is not only useful for preparation for all the modern sciences, law, and theology but also as a tool for training the mind in logic and beauty.

Latin is a language

As dead as dead can be.

It killed the ancient Romans

And now it’s killing me.

Students of Latin have been chanting this rhyme for ages. For many, these words express the frustration many feel when learning the Latin language. Indeed, Latin is highly inflected, meaning there are lots of forms to be memorized, not to mention its syntax, rhetorical devices, and vocabulary. 

Studies in Latin, however, are more than exercises in seemingly useless forms. While I might dutifully spout off the practical uses of Latin – the root of much of our English vocabulary, especially that of the modern sciences, law, and theology, and its solid foundation for the study of any Romance language – I would like to make the case for Latin as great for training the mind in logic and beauty.

I always enjoyed Latin in high school, but it was not until years later that I realized how much Latin helped me to think in an orderly, logical, and – dare I say it – practical way. Breaking down a Latin sentence into its parts is much like studying a math problem when approaching its solution, like studying a balance sheet to check the health of a business, like reading primary sources to make judgments about history, like reading literature carefully for its beauty and message.

Practicality aside, we must never forget that most of the knowledge of Western Civilization was originally written in Latin, the Lingua Franca of the medieval and modern West. It is vital that we do not lose the ability to read these texts with an understanding of the virtue and theology underpinning them.

Finally, the study of Latin can be beautiful. The skill of the Romans to shape and choose their words – whether in the poetry of Virgil, the orations of Cicero, or the Vulgate Bible of Jerome – is astounding and worth pursuing for our own pleasure and imitation.

As Cheryl Lowe, the founder of Highlands Latin School, reminds us, “Latin is not dead; it’s immortal.” It is woven into the very fabric of our culture and civilization. May we not neglect its legacy.