If, for instance, a number of individual expressions be presented, in which the same peculiarity of arrangement prevails, any young person of ordinary capacity will be struck by the resemblance, will readily imitate that peculiarity of arrangement when required to construct other sentences of the same sort, and will easily of himself infer the rule which governs them all. This analytical mode of studying grammar, similar to the intellectual process by which we arrive at a knowledge of the natural laws, is the most rational and the most favorable to mental discipline: it consists in observing facts, comparing them, remarking their resemblances and differences, and afterwards bringing into the same class all similar facts. Those which may be generalized constitute the rules, and those which are not comprised within any class form the exceptions. Thus observation, comparison, and generalization, are the essential means of arriving at the knowledge of a particular grammar. It is by this inductive process that all grammars have been made.

Beneficial, however, as it may be for a learner to observe by himself, he should not be refused the instruments which may help him in his observations. It is not enough that, in reading and analyzing authors, he should infer the rules of composition by in. duction from the phraseology; this random way of acquiring the grammatical prin. ciples of the language would never give him a complete and systematic knowledge of them; a methodical treatise on the subject is indispensable, if he wish to have a comprehensive view of the theory of a language. A few months of assiduous study of a good grammar, after sufficient practice in inferring the rules from the written page, would tend to generalize, connect, and complete the scattered notions of grammar acquired by induction in reading foreign authors.

Pursued in this way, the study of grammar will prove eminently beneficial by bringing into activity all the faculties of the mind; and, although it does not necessarily imply the power of reaching the standard of the great models, it furnishes the student with the means of entering into the secret of composition, of exploring the mysterious law of creative genius, and of comparing its productions with the rules of composition. Thus he will learn how to follow with success the steps of the great masters, when his turn comes for literary labors. But, should the learner not carry his views so high, still this course of serious studies will not be fruitless: it will enable him to examine literary works more minutely, and will render their perusal more profitable and interesting; it will make him distinguish what constitutes elegance and vulgarity, clearness and obscurity of style, and will thus enable him to discern and appreciate the merit of literary compositions; it will tend to prevent that blind and implicit veneration which too often causes people to confound in their admiration what is good and bad in the style of celebrated writers. Should the rules of literary criticism produce no other result, save to guard against frivolous and false judgments, they would be a valuable acquisition.

This study, however, should not engage the attention to the exclusion of practice; for, without the means of applying the grammatical principles, these would be of very little avail. Let it be well considered that practice alone may lead to grammar, but grammar alone could never lead to practice.

The superiority of practice over theory sufficiently indicates the place which grammar ought to hold in a rational method, and justifies the observations which we have made on this subject. These observations are not altogether new; but, were they even so, they ought not, on that account, to be disregarded; for novelty does not prejudice a truth, nor does antiquity justify an error, or consecrate an absurdity.

Having laid down the great principles on which rest the teaching and learning of foreign languages, we will now expound the method by which this double object may be effectually attained.

To reading has been assigned the first place in the study of a foreign language, because it is the easiest of the four branches, the most important as an ultimate object, and the most useful as a means by which to arrive at the other branches of a language learned out of the country in which it is spoken.

Easy, however, as this acquisition may be, time and labor have often been wasted in the pursuit, from not knowing how to proceed. There are difficulties incident to all study; an accumulation of them must be carefully avoided at every period, especially in the commencement. Plato and Locke are, with Quintilian, among the many who recommend us to facilitate the first steps of study. "Young beginners," says Quintilian, "require to be put on the road, and that road to be made smooth and easy."* "The great use and skill of a teacher," observes Locke, "is to make all as easy as he can." It is undoubtedly part of his duty to save his pupils waste of time and labor. The more rapidly one language is learned, the more languages, the more sciences and arts may be studied within the period of scholastic education. Let beginners then be afforded every assistance which it is in the power of books and masters to afford.

Convinced that the easiest mode of obtaining instruction is not always the best, or the most favorable to intellectual development, we shall subsequently suggest modes of great mental exertion. But, in translating the first volumes, the difficulties of apprehending and remembering the signification of many new words, of construing them into intelligible sentences, and rendering them into correct native expressions, are quite sufficient to engross the beginner's attention, exercise his judgment, and bring out his reflective powers; he should be spared the irksome work of looking for these words in a lexicon, selecting one of their many equivalents, and consulting a grammar respecting their inflections, their concord, their place, or the irregularities which may affect them. All this mental labor should be reserved for a more advanced stage in the study.

Acquaintance with the foreign words should be the primary object of the learner. He should be afforded every facility for ascertaining their exact value in a ready and easy manner. To this effect the text of the first book which he translates should be accompanied by faithful interpretations and such explanations as are necessary. The study of the declensions and conjugations, as well as the articles, pronouns, prepositions, and conjunctions, conjointly with translations, would smooth his way, by exhibiting at once the relations between the substantives, adjectives, and verbs. This will especially apply when the inflections of these latter words are very numerous; but it must be borne in mind that the grammatical distinctions under which these inflections are classified are of but little import to the beginner; and, as the ability to comprehend a language cannot be gained through the knowledge of grammatical definitions or syntactical rules, these should be dispensed with as a preparation for translation.

of

The dictionary should not be introduced at this early period, especially in the case young learners, who are very awkward at using it. Even in the hands of adults, recourse to such a book consumes considerable time in the beginning, when they have to look for nearly every word of the foreign author, and to choose one of the various native equivalents it offers to them-an operation extremely difficult at the beginning of a sentence, because the particular acceptation of a word, depending on the context, cannot be determined when the remainder of that sentence is as yet unknown. The search for single words often requires more time than would the reading of whole sentences by means of a verbal translation accompanying the text; and the slowness with which their meanings reach the mind not only renders it difficult to seize their collective sense, but the process is so little calculated to fix them on the memory, that the learner not

* "Via opus est incipientibus sed ea plana, et cum ad ingrediendum tum ad demonstrandum expedita."-QUINTILIAN, Inst. Orat. Lib. viii., Proem.

↑ Thoughts on Education.

unfrequently has forgotten the first words of a sentence before he has arrived at the last, and must go through the annoying and laborious task of searching for them a seeand time. Reference to a dictionary should only be had recourse to, when, after having gained some proficiency in reading, the learner has few words to look for, and is able to select the most appropriate from the numerous translations attached to the words in a lexicon.

The knowledge of words is in proportion-not, as commonly believed, to the trouble one has had in discovering their meanings-but to the eagerness with which the mind receives them, to the fitness of the time for learning them, to the intensity of attention bestowed on them, to the frequency of their recurrence, and to the opportunities one has of using them afterwards. The old adage, "easily learned soon forgot," applies to what is learned without sufficient attention, not to what is quickly conceived. When words are acquired at the moment they are wanted, attention is vividly roused, and they remain indelibly engraved on the memory.

So the young child, moved by the simple impulse of nature, arrives, without much trouble, at a knowledge of the words of his own language, and yet retains them with astonishing ease; every gesture, every tone of the voice, every expression of the countenance, assists him in discovering the sense of what he hears. A similar mode of proceeding may be adopted in reading foreign books, by accompanying the text by a vernacular interpretation, that is an explanation of the words, placed either between the lines of the text, or in the margin underneath, or in the page opposite, or in a separate volume. Of these different arrangements, the first is the least desirable, because it perplexes the eye and diverts the attention from the text; the others present less temptation to apply unnecessarily to the interpretations; and the last, more especially provides against the pupils glancing at the explanation, when examined by their teacher, besides presenting other advantages to be mentioned hereafter when speaking of double translation. It is particularly to self-instructing students, and to those who must prepare their task in the intervals of the lessons, that the help afforded by such books will prove useful. In public instruction, especially, when the pupils cannot have the undivided attention of their teacher, these works are calculated in a great measure to supply his place; and although their assistance alone cannot be as efficient as that of a wellinformed private instructor, who can always suit the explanation of difficulties to the capacity of each individual, and illustrate passages in a more satisfactory manner than could be done by writing, yet such is the facility afforded by these explanatory books for beginning the study of the written language, that children, who at all times need the assistance of a teacher, might successfully undertake that study under the direction even of a person but superficially acquainted with the language.

Indeed, the use of these books is in perfect accordance with the natural process by which the infant associates ideas with the first words that he hears in the vernacular tongue. The native expressions addressed to him are always accompanied with tones, looks, and gestures, which explain them at once. The translation attached to the text interprets the foreign words at once, as the language of action interprets the native, and insures the knowledge of them more effectually than the dictionary, because words are better remembered when one appropriate meaning is attached to them, than when the judgment is divided between many different interpretations. By means of these explanations, practice soon associates in the mind of the learner the foreign words with the native, so that a recurrence of the former will readily recall the latter; and thus will the power of comprehending the written language be rapidly acquired. This method has in some degree even an advantage over that of nature; for, intelligible as the language of action proves to be to the child, it is evident that it cannot always convey to him the meaning of words, particularly of those which express abstract ideas, or of things not within the power of perception at the time, as precisely and as rapidly as a verbal inter

pretation accompanying the text does to a person who studies a foreign language. The latter ought, therefore, to be understood by a learner in less time than the native tongue by the child. If the grammar and dictionary method is so deplorably tedious, it is because it is in direct opposition to nature.

Interlineal translation is not a modern discovery; it was known as far back as the uinth century, as we are informed by Justus Lipsius. Arius Montanus, long since, published the Hebrew Bible with an interlineal version in Latin, which, although rather imperfect, has rendered great service to Hebraic studies. The method of interlineal translation has, for a long time, been extensively practised in Germany. Locke strongly recommends it as being, in his opinion, the readiest means of initiating a learner into the reading of foreign writers.* After him, this system has been advocated by Dr. Samuel Clarke, Luneau de Boisgermain, Dumarsais, Radonvilliers, the Abbé Gaultier, and many distinguished professors, who have used it, and still use it with success, and who have published works with interlineal versions. Condillac, who, in his education of the Duke of Parma, adopted that method, declares it to be the best for teaching the dead languages.† D'Alembert sanctions it by his entire approbation. It has, of late, in this country and in England, been improperly named after Hamilton, who also proclaimed its efficiency, but long after many writers had done so. That he has failed in obtaining the expected results, is owing to his founding on it a system of instruction by which he pretended to teach every branch of a living language; whereas, the real advantages to be derived from its use are limited to the assistance it gives in speedily ac quiring the art of understanding the written language.§

It has been questioned whether the translations afforded, as an assistance to beginners, should be literal, or in conformity with the genius of the language into which the translation is made. If all languages presented the same construction, and the same forms of expression, no doubt the former mode would be the most profitable; but as this is far from being the case, it would often cause great perplexity to the learner, and in many instances be attended with serious inconveniences. In transpositive languages, in Latin for example, a verbatim translation of the original text would present such a confused medley of words, that it would be almost impossible to divine from them the meaning of the author. In such case recourse may be had to the method suggested by Dumarsais, and successfully followed by many eminent professors on the continent of Europe. This method consists in at first introducing learners to a text arranged conformably to the genius of their native idiom, and accompanied with an interlineal translation in which the words omitted in elliptical expressions are supplied, and afterwards turning their attention to the pure text of the original, when, by means of the interlineal translation of the simplified text, they have become acquainted with its words and the nature of the subject. But as those difficulties are confined more particularly to the classics, such aids may be dispensed with in the acquisition of modern languages. For these, adherence to the spirit, rather than to the letter of the original text, would, in our opinion, constitute the merit of translations intended to assist beginners, leaving it to the instructor to judge how far it may be necessary to require occasionally a verbatim translation, especially in the beginning, in order to ascertain whether the foreign phrase has been well understood. It will be a wholesome mental exercise for the pupil, thus by himself, to inquire into the spirit of the foreign page, and at the same time, afford the teacher a constant opportunity to comment on the difference between native and foreign expressions without introducing the student to barbarous translations, from which he is apt to

*Thoughts on Education.

+ Cours d'Etude.

Eloge de Dumarsais.

§ See Edinburgh Review, No. 87, for an able defence of the interlineal method of translation; see also An Essay on a System of Classical Instruction, combining the methods of Locke, Milton, Ascham, and Colet, &c., published by Taylor and Walton, London.

I See Dumarsais' Exposition d'une Methode raisonnés pour Apprendre le Latin.

acquire loose habits of language and a negligence of expression which it is often very difficult afterwards for him to get rid of.

The care which the use of these initiatory books demands, in order to produce all the benefits which may be expected from them, requires, on the part of the learner, some discernment and power of self-direction. In availing himself of their aid, he should never be too hasty in applying to the native words, but only look at them, after having endeavored to translate independently of that assistance, and then rest his attention, for a moment, on his new acquisition, to impress it well on his memory. If the same words are, in the explanation, translated differently according to their various acceptations, he will, from the definite meaning they bear in each particular instance, form a clearer conception of their true and varied import, than if he had had recourse to a dictionary; because it is only from the circumstances in which they are applied that he can determine their exact signification. He will also have greater facility for remembering these words: for their association in his mind with the native ones is immediate, and the more close as he can have no doubt of the appropriateness of the interpretation in each particular case; the dictionary, on the contrary, by often presenting many translations for a foreign word, keens him in doubt as to the proper one, and thus weakens the impression and the association.

With regard to the habits of dependence, which such books may be supposed to give to a learner, the imputation is equally applicable to the dictionaries, and indeed to every means employed in commencing the study of any art. Because an infant avails himself of the hand offered by his mother to assist his first steps, it does not follow that he will always be dependent on that hand. Let the student abstain from the above helps by degrees, and, as he feels that he gains familiarity with the language, appeal to his own reflective and reasoning powers. The meaning of the words which now remain unknown to him should, if possible, be inferred from the context,-an inductive mode of proceeding highly advantageous, as it exercises the understanding and gives it habits of mental activity and independence. In the pursuit of any branch of instruction, that method must be preferred, which leads the mind to depend on its own exertions rather than on the evidence of others. The learner should then endeavor to discover some resemblance between the unknown words and those which he knows, either in his own language or in any other; he should decompose them to find in their roots or their terminations some clue to their import; this may also be apprehended from the context or from a consideration of the author's views. Not only would this investigation be favorable to mental discipline, but the information thus gained would be more indelibly impressed on the mind, precisely because it had been discovered by mental efforts. Almost all the words we know of our own language have been acquired in this manner. By a process of instinctive analysis and induction, which commences at a very early age, we decompose the sentences into their elements, as we hear the same words used on various occasions. Every instance in which the general meaning of a sentence is understood, leaves some idea respecting the signification of the words met for the first time in that sentence: as they recur, our repeated attempts to discover some common meaning which corresponds with their different acceptations enable us to apprehend with precision their import.

Dugald Steward, with his usual accuracy, thus describes this process: "The first sentence where the word occurs, affords, it is probable, sufficient foundation for a vague conjecture concerning the notion annexed to it by the author, some idea or other being necessarily substituted in its place, in order to make the passage at all intelligible. The next sentence where it is involved, renders this conjecture a little more definite; a third sentence contracts the field of doubt within still narrower limits, till, at length, a more extensive induction fixes completely the signification we are in quest of. There cannot

2