Enough has been said to indicate why the automatic translating machine, while not an idle dream, is not yet an operating reality. Meanwhile, the research continuing in many centres will deepen our understanding of languages and will, in time, lead to the operation of automatic machines whose purpose, in the words of Warren Weaver, is "not to charm or delight, not to contribute to elegance or beauty; but to be of wide service in the work-a-day task of making available the essential content of documents in languages which are foreign to the reader."