nunció palabras conciliadoras que no puedo menos de reproducir : soy ya viejo y puedo permitirme aconsejaros. Tengo, además, el firme propósito de no volver a mezclar mi modesto nombre en las esferas del Gobierno; por eso puedo decir sin ninguna clase de aspiración que pudiera empequeñecer la idea con un sentimiento ambiscioso personal, que hasta que no desaparezca en España esa tradición violenta que determina apartamiento entre los distintos partidos políticos, que nos divide en esta materia de enseñanza en derechas e izquierdas, y hasta que todos no comulguemos en esa hermosísima virtud de la tolerancia, no podrá obtenerse en España una ley de Instrucción Pública que derogue ésa del 57, arcaica y antigua, que evite ese tejer y destejer de los ministros y haga de España una verdadera nación de los tiempos modernos."

Y el Sr. Domingo Miral, competente catedrático, en un reciente artículo que intitulaba “El Sr. Alba (actual Ministro de Instrucción Pública) y las Universidades" dirigiéndose al mismo ministro lo apostrofa de esta manera:

"El espíritu nacional ha llegado al límite de la paciencia; la crisis. de la enseñanza se nos echa encima de una manera fatal; no hay hombre, por muy hombre que sea, que pueda torcer el curso de las cosas, ni sabio que pueda erigirse en timonel del pensamiento nacional para dirigirlo a su gusto. La democracia debe traducirse en hechos, porque ha pasado la época de la verborrea."

Y termino yo expresando el deseo (deseo que lo es de cuantos siguen en este continente con verdadera simpatia e interés los estudios hispanos) de que la universidad española retorne a los tiempos de su grandeza, ocupando el lugar que por su historia le pertenece.

QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY
KINGSTON, CANADA

J. II. BROVEDANI

organización provisional servirá de ensayo en cuanto a los planes de estudios para la reforma de la segunda enseñanza.

La modificación que se introduce en este plan de estudios sobre el que ya existe en los institutos de segunda enseñanza, afecta a la intensidad de las materias de enseñanza, a la especialización del bachillerato (mediante la elección de estudios en los dos últimos cursos) y a la introducción de ciertas materias nuevas como son los idiomas Inglés y Alemán, los trabajos manuales, la música, los juegos, etc. También se diferencia en la implantación de cierto internado. El plan de estudios que se ensaya es sencillo y reune la máxima garantía de buen éxito, por lo cual merece la Junta sinceros elojios.

THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN SER AND ESTAR

In most of the Spanish grammars used in this country relative duration is given as the fundamental principle in the distinction between SER and ESTAR. In the following notes I shall attempt to render some service to the teachers who still accept this basis of discrimination by calling their attention to another, more practical principle, which seems to be the basis of distinction.

Most grammars are not definite as to how the term permanent is to be construed, when they tell us that SER predicates permanent conditions; but at least in one of them we find a clear statement. The authors add this footnote to account for the use of SER in, él es joven: "Youth is, in a sense, temporary, but it is after all relatively permanent as compared with illness or fatigue." From which we may infer that, inasmuch as there is no standard duration for illness, youth, or fatigue, and their relation is not constant, we are to regard permanence as a sort of indefinite ratio between variables.

Thus viewed, we must admit that the rule of permanence and transientness is very unpractical: first, because its complexity discourages the average student at the very start; and, second, because a consistent application of it will often demand an answer to such idle questions as, What is the ratio of permanence between wealth and youth? or, Is laziness less permanent than honesty? To take permanent in the sense of changeless is utterly impossible, as very few of all the possible properties and conditions predicated by SER are exempt from change.

Some grammarians find it expedient to say that there are many "apparent" exceptions to this principle of relative duration. The fact is that an accurate estimate on the basis of frequency and diversity might give us, perhaps, more exceptions than cases in which the rule is applicable. We must not forget that all nouns and substantive clauses, and most adjectives require the use of SER when they stand as predicates. But disregarding the frequency of exceptions, which is nevertheless a serious objection, we must confess that we cannot always succeed in showing our pupils that the exception is only apparent. How can we on the basis of relative

duration account for está vivo contrasted with es joven, and for the former as compared with está muerto and está cansado? If the difference of duration between death and fatigue is ignored, why is the difference between youth and illness considered? In what sense are the following sentences expressions of temporary conditions? La obra está terminada; "Los santos estarán contentos por toda una eternidad"; Los Pirineos están entre España y Francia; ¡ Está bien! ¡Qué buenas están estas peras! (considering that I have never tasted those pears before). How are we to explain that the following are expressions of permanent conditions? Esto es mío; Somos estudiantes; Lo que quiero es que me dejen salir; La disputa fué en el café; "Mientras Juan no se ponga bueno, yo seré el más fuerte de la casa": Yo era muy delgado cuando niño.

Of course, if the teacher is a good sophist, he may in some way meet the objection of his inquiring pupils. The author of a rather successful grammar, after stating that SER is to be used with adjectives whose meanings pertain to character, age, appearance, pecuniary condition, popularity, etc., remarks that "These things are all regarded as permanent by the Spaniards." This statement shows to what extreme measures we have to resort in order to defend the rule of relative duration.

Most teachers must have found that it is advisable to ignore all problems of permanence and transientness, and emphasize the more particular rules given in all grammars. So, the student must be told that ESTAR is to be used in all expressions of position, whether permanent or temporary; that it must never be used when the predicate is a noun, though the noun may connote the most temporary conditions, as, hucsped, alumno; and thus for all the uses of ESTAR and SER, leaving the rest to the eventual effects of practice. Now, we may ask, if these particular rules are the best practical guides, why should we mention the principle of relative duration at all? Is it not best to eliminate it completely from our grammars? It is a source of confusion, and once it has been learned, it lingers in the mind of the student in preference to the other particular rules, due to the synthetic tendency of memory.

The only reasonable excuse that can be offered for mentioning permanence at all in connection with the uses of SER and ESTAR is the belief that relative duration is the underlying principle in their. meaning. But this belief is merely a grammatical tradition, preva

lent mainly among those who study language from the standpoint of the logician. I cannot conceive that such a theory could have ever originated in the mind of one to whom Spanish is a natural medium of expression. Salvá does not see any exclusively transitory implication in ESTAR. To him this verb expresses a state, "sea el estado permanente o transitorio, esencial o accidental." Eduardo Benot ignores the occasional implication of permanence in SER: "Hay un verbo, el verbo ser, que tiene por oficio definir correlaciones de igualdad o comparación entre las ideas de cosas o conceptos de personas, o expresar simplemente atribuciones." 1 Some foreign grammarians have also noticed the falsity of the theory. Hanssen and Cirot, for instance, converge in the opinion that many of the uses of ESTAR cannot be said to express temporary conditions.

But the whole question, I think, may be reduced to this: If these verbs express permanent and temporary conditions, they must have derived such elements from their Latin antecedents, or they must have acquired them in modern Spanish. We must discard the first assumption, as SUM performed the office of both SER and ESTAR. As to STO, we know that it very often implied relatively permanent elements rather than transitory: "Si in fide non stetit"; "Nec domus ulla nec urbs stare poterit" (Cicero: Laelius, 7:23); "Intraannum nova urbs stetit” (P. Ovidius Naso). STO is Livy's favorite verb for last, continue: "Ibi aliquamdiu atrox pugna stetit." The distinction between SER and ESTAR was not definite in old Spanish, as SER was used more like SUM: Toda la mi facienda et la mi vida es a grant peligro de se perder"; "Fué él uno dellos á decir al rey que el paño era encomenzado" (Juan Manuel: Conde Lucanor); "Fué á dormir á la peña de Don Lorenzo que es á dos leguas de Olvera" (Crón. Juan II). Even later we find, "Tal señora no es en el mundo" (Cervantes), and, "Varios hechos á que fué presente" (Muñoz: Historia del Nuevo Mundo, pág. xvi). So, we must turn our attention to modern Spanish.

As the course of evolution of SER and ESTAR consists in the restriction of the original meaning of SER, pari passu with the ex

1 Comparisons are not permanent either from an objective or from a subjective standpoint: the things we compare are subject to change, and our judgment may be wrong. Besides, the feeling of certainty is generally stronger in perceptions than in judgments.

tension of ESTAR, we must look for the present elements of distinction in the latest developments of ESTAR. We may well consider the expression of immediate perceptions as one of the latest. For example, I remark at the table, ¡Qué buena está esta sopa! I do not mean that the soup is temporarily good, or that good taste is an accidental quality of soups. I mean simply that the soup feels good. If I say "es buena" instead of "está buena," I should probably be asked, "¿Para qué?" A judgment as to the nourishing or medicinal value of that soup would be expected. Doubtless we can find connotations of transientness and of relative permanence in these uses. We can find such logical connotations in any verb. The verb desire may be said to connotate transitory conditions; and throw implies permanent conditions; but this would not be sufficient to account for the vast difference that there is between their meanings.

The basis of distinction, as I feel it, is that ESTAR is associated with the characteristic feelings which attend immediate perceptions and their representations, while SER is likewise related to concepts and judgments. According to William James, "Remembrance is like direct feeling; its object is suffused with a warmth and intimacy to which no object of mere conception ever attains." This “warmth and intimacy" finds expression in ESTAR, and the colder logical relations, in SER. Thus we may account for their difference in affective elements. There is also a difference in their ideational elements. SER is well-nigh void of image contents, while ESTAR preserves much of its original meaning of stand, taking stand in its abstract sense of existing in a particular place or conditions, as in, we stand ready for war; he stood in doubt; "these participles stand in the accusative absolute," etc. Of course, in judging affective elements our point of view must always be the purpose of the speaker or writer, or his emotional state. So, in sentences of the type of, El libro es rojo, if they are ever used by any one, excepting a grammarian, we shall find that the purpose is to express a judgment, though the predicate be the name of a sensation.

2 By drawing this distinction in terms of aspect, Hanssen has probably come to a similar conclusion in his grammar, provided he used the terms "perfective" and "imperfective" as Professor De Lagarde defines them: "Das Perf. dient zum Ausdruck dessen, was wir unmittelbar empfinden. Das Imperf. dient zum Ausdruck dessen, was wir durch Vergleichung und Vorstellungen erkannt haben." (Bildung der Nomina, page 6.)