Written descriptions, or representations of new sounds, can but lead astray those who have not heard them. The ear alone can judge of sounds, as the eye alone judges of colors. Each organ has its peculiar sensations, inappreciable by the other organs. Language cannot perform the office of our senses, and it is inadequate to effect more than a mere reference to our experience. He who never saw snow, tasted truffles, smelt a rose, or suffered from the gout, cannot be made to conceive exactly the sensations they produce, either by the most descriptive language or the most minute combinations of other sensations. In order to have a correct idea of the French u or un, the English th, the German ch, the Italian gli, and the Spanish ∞, foreigners must hear them from the mouth of a native. It would be just as impossible to represent by description, or otherwise, these vocal elements, simple as they are, as to convey a notion of the roar of Niagara's fall to a person who never heard it.

Useful, therefore, as are pronouncing dictionaries, to serve as standards whereby to ascertain the exact pronunciation of certain words, they are so only as far as they employ the alphabetical combinations which are current in the language whose pronunciation they are intended to represent; but the power of using them implies a practical knowledge of the language, whereas they cannot be of any service to a foreigner ignorant of it. With him nothing can supply the want of living models, and he must have heard the vocal elements for a long time before he can expect to reproduce them with any kind of correctness. Our conviction of the right pronunciation of native words does not arise so much from our recollection of having often uttered them in any particular way, as from our consciousness of having heard them pronounced by persons reputed good speakers. It is the same with the foreign pronunciation: let the pupil hear the language often enough to have it in their power to recollect the manner in which it is pronounced by their instructor; their subsequent imitation of it will present no difficulty. It is by frequently hearing the teacher that learners acquire habits which will enable them afterwards instinctively to pronounce correctly in his absence.

When, after long practice in hearing, the pupil, in his turn, reads to his master, let him always pronounce fearlessly and fully, to afford the instructor the opportunity of correcting the slightest error, and thus early guarding him against carelessness. As he advances, he should trust to the habits of his ear; and, allowing the pronunciation to take its chance, should direct his attention exclusively to the ideas, with a view to suit his vocal inflections to the subject. To read or speak in a natural and correct tone, he must, when uttering words, have present to his mind the things meant by these words, and give way to his own feelings. His delivery will thereby be consistent with the subject; and, under the habitual impressions which he has received of a good pronunciation, he can commit but few errors.

Having thus gained correctness and facility of utterance in the foreign language, the learner may commit to memory selections of prose or poetry, as an exercise of pronunciation and elocution. Such recitations, practised sometimes with the instructor, and sometimes in his absence, will be a standard of correctness by which to regulate his future attempts, and will render every succeeding trial less difficult than the preceding. Recitation affords great facilities for learning inflections, emphases, and pauses; for, when the words are well fixed in the memory, the learner has only to attend to the delivery.

To a person who has once completely mastered the pronunciation of a foreign language, the practice of oral reading and recitation will prove most useful in the absence of foreign society, as a means, always at hand, of keeping up this acquisition. Reading aloud every day a few pages with a natural and correct intonation, by keeping the ear In tunc and the tongue in practice, will render the true pronunciation habitual, and thus preserve it to the latest period of life.

To acquire the art of speaking and writing a foreign language, a mere acquaintance with words cannot suffice; a ready recollection of them is indispensable in practice. And not only detached words, but customary groups of words, and even whole phrases, must be so intimately associated in the mind with the ideas which they represent, that the thought will at once recall the expression. This will soon be effected if the model conjugations of the verbs be thoroughly committed to memory, and the knowledge of them rendered permanent by frequent employment in the expression of thought. The mode by which this object is the most readily attained is the exercise of phrasemaking.

This exercise should, at first, be confined to a very limited number of words, and to phrases expressive of very familiar ideas, the chief object being to learn how they may be applied in conversation. The exercises should be made to suit the different degrees of proficiency of the learner, adapting the difficulties to his progressive improvement. They commence with phrases of two words,—a substantive and its determinative, a preposition and its object, an adjective and its substantive, & verb and its subject; afterwards, by adding to the verb an object, then an adverb, complete sentences are offered to the pupils for construction. Such sentences, when rendered easy by practice, may be lengthened by the introduction of two or more subjects, objects, attributes, or circumstances of time, place, manner, or quantity. When the formation of these complex-phrases has become familiar, two prepositions may be joined into one by means of a conjunction or a relative pronoun, or the difficulties be otherwise increased. Learners, thus progressively undertaking more complicated sentences, and daily experiencing more facility in forming them, cannot but feel conscious of their own progress; this consciousness of improvement is their best reward for past labor, and their greatest stimulus to future exertion.

The phrases which the teacher proposes for construction may be varied at pleasure, and their subject adapted to the wants and tastes of the learners. At one time, their succession assumes the form of a dialogue, in which a familiar exchange of thoughts is carried on, in imitation of that which takes place in social intercourse. At another time, the pupils exercise their powers of analogy and invention, by expressing ideas of their own, and forming the phraseology entirely themselves. Having been given a verb, and being informed of some of its idiomatic applications, they combine with it other words, so as to express a variety of familiar ideas. As they advance, they are asked, in the foreign language itself, various questions illustrative of the verb which is in course of practice; and, by bare substitution of the affirmative or negative form for the interrogative used by the teacher, they can give the answers in the very words and idiomatical or syntactical construction of the questions. The interest thus imparted to exercises founded on imitation and analogy, will soon give learners facility in forming sentences expressive of their own thoughts, and ability to sustain conversation. Manesca's System, Ollendorff's New Method, and other similar compilations consisting of phrases formed on the principle here explained, may be used as an introduction for this exercise, especially in the case of self-instructing learners, although the phraseology of most of these works demands considerable modification to make it applicable to general conversation. The tiresome repetition of the same phrases, and the perpetual succession of homely questions and answers, diffuse, moreover, throughout the exercises, a monotony and triviality of expression little calculated to interest or impart extensive command of the language. However, if properly used, and attention be paid to the directions found in most of these works, in which it is expressly recommended that the exercises should always be followed by practice in original extemporaneous phraseology, they may be rendered eminently useful in initiating the student into the art of speaking a foreign language.

An interesting and efficient mode of practising phrase-making consists in applying the knowledge thus acquired to words and sentences taken from passages of a foreign author, previously translated by the class. The instructor, when reading to his pupils, to accustom their ear to the foreign pronunciation, occasionally stops, and selects ex pressions, with the forms of which he desires to familiarize them. Having brought to their notice the peculiarity of structure which characterizes the phrase he has selected, he contrives a number of original sentences, variations of the one just heard, and gives them to the class for immediate oral translation. Having thus illustrated the foreign expression, he then proposes a variety of sentences, in the vernacular, similar to the above, which, being successively translated into the foreign language by the different members of the class, produce a series of analogous expressions which illustrate the particular form of the model-phrase. With learners as yet unskilled in this practice, he at first reduces the expression to its simplest form, and gradually introduces various changes in the persons, tenses, moods, and forms of the verbs; he substitutes or adds various words which show its application to diverse circumstances of colloquial intercourse, being, at the same time, careful to preserve, through all the transformations, the idiomatic construction of the original expression. He multiplies the variations of each model-phrase in proportion to the usefulness of the idea which it conveys, or to the difficulty of its structure. In this way the phraseology of the foreign text is diversified indefinitely, and affords an exhaustless source of practice in speaking.

Any well written work may be used for this exercise; but the best calculated for this object is that which, by the popularity of its topics, and the idiomatic turn of its style, furnishes the most useful materials for conversation.

The exercise of phrase-making, requiring of learners to decompose model-phrases .n order to construct similar ones, is a successful application of the analytical or inductive method. It is a double exercise of judgment, in which they decline, conjugate, illustrate the rules of grammar, in short, analyze the thought and its expression. It may be made, by a judicious instructor, the source of much grammatical information to his pupils. If he bring to their notice the place and the functions which the various words assume in the sentence, it will enable them to establish clear distinctions between different parts of speech, and to see the relations which exist between them. If he occasionally assist them in adding prefixes and affixes to primitive words, and show them how the sense of these primitive words is preserved and modified throughout their derivatives in diversified phraseology, they will acquire just notions of compound terms, and the power of multiplying expressions according to their wants.

When many analogous phrases have been constructed, learners should be led to observe their points of similarity; and, ascending from particulars to generals, should state the principles which govern their construction. Thus the rules of grammar will be gradually learned, as suggested by the functions of words, their inflections, and mutual dependence. These rules, inferred from the numerous phrases that illustrate them, being the result of the learner's own reflection and experience, will be easily remembered and applied. Should they escape the memory for a time, they may be retraced through the analogy and association by which they were formed.

The phraseology being at the option of the instructor, he always has it in his power to direct the attention of his pupils to the forms of speech, whose grammatical principles he wishes them to infer. But, to afford them early an opportunity of speaking idiomatically, we would recommend that, in general, preference be given to the expressions which differ in construction in the two languages, or which may illustrate some principle peculiar to the foreign idiom. He should, as much as possible, select model-phrases, or compose the native ones which he submits to his pupils for translation into the foreign language in such a manner that the principal facts under all tho

rules of grammar may be through them elicited and generalized in succession; and the variations of each illustration should be so multiplied as to render the syntactical forms habits of the mind. In this practical and inductive way the whole syntax of the foreign language may be made clear, intelligible, and familiar.

Rules should not, at any time, be committed to memory: if they are well understood, and if they assist in the expression of thought, the object is gained. Real knowledge of grammar consists, not in repeating, but in applying rules, and observing them in practice without retrospective consideration of them. In speaking or writing a foreign language we ought to be able, as in the native, to ascertain the right pronunciation, orthography, gender, inflection, grammatical concord, and order of words, by an appeal to our consciousness of their correctness, resulting from reiterated impressions rather than to our recollection of rules. A learner would not possess greater fluency of speech after having recited the whole grammar than before he commenced this laborious task. On the frequent, diversified, and just application of principles depend facility and correctness in speaking and writing the language. The frequency of the applications and the diversity of examples secure the double advantage of exercising at the same time the understanding and imagination. To illustrate the rules demands more reflection than a monotonous repetition of them, and thus leaves deeper and more lasting impressions on the mind. It is in this manner that synthesis, by generalizing the phraseology acquired through analysis and practice, fixes it permanently in the memory.

If the exercise of phraseology, which has now been minutely explained, be long persevered in, conjointly with reading and hearing, it will give great command of language to the learner, who then will not have to depend on accidental recollection of school-book phrases. The exercise which appears further best calculated for initiating him into the direct and connected expression of thought in a foreign language, is that of narrating in it tales, anecdotes, or historical facts, previously studied with this intention. This exercise goes one step beyond that of phrase-making, in which the learner formed unconnected sentences. In phrase-making the ideas were given to him in narration he provides both the ideas and the expressions. In the one he translated into the foreign language the vernacular sentences given him by the professor; in the cther he transfuses his own ideas directly into the foreign language.

As the learner acquires skill in this exercise he should, in preparing a narrative, attach himself to the ideas rather than to the manner in which they are conveyed, and to the connection of incidents rather than to the order in which the words succeed each other in the book. Once in possession of his subject, he should endeavor to bring into use the materials which he has previously collected by extensive reading, and should avail himself of the expressions of the foreign writer, when they come without effort,-when they, as it were, force themselves upon his recollection as the direct expression of his ideas; thus will he be led to speak his thoughts, that is, to think in the foreign language.

The practice of narration is, in the foreign as well as in the native tongue, an excellent preparation for extemporaneous speaking, and not less useful for unfolding the mental powers than necessary for social purposes. It yields in importance to no other exercise: it calls into action memory as well as judgment, by fixing attention not only on the languago but on the connected facts of the narrative, portraits of character, and descriptions of places. It cultivates the imaginative and inventive powers, by furnishing opportunities of substituting incidents necessary to the connection of the story for those which may have been forgotten. It fosters that self-confidence and presence of mind, without which words and ideas are unavailing for the purpose of public speaking: he who possesses confidence and strength of nerve sufficient o speak for some time

in a foreign language, especially before a large class, will certainly find no difficulty in doing the same in his own language.

After a year's steady practice in the exercises of phrase-making, narration, and grammatical illustration, or even in much less time, if the learner is an adult and has beep diligent, conversation will present no difficulty. The learner must, even at the risk of committing frequent mistakes, make a beginning as soon as he has gained familiarity with the pronunciation. He who defers beginning to speak a language until he knows it, commits a blunder, like him who, desiring to go into the water, puts off doing so until he knows how to swim. He who has not the courage to speak badly will never speak well. Errors pave the way to perfection. To advance in the art of speaking, the learner should not only lay aside bashfulness, which trembles at the idea of a mistake, but he must also divest himself of pride, which dreads being laughed at. These two feelings, by keeping the mind in constant awe, impede its free action. Even persons possessed of the greatest powers of language, become, under their influence, incapable of delivering their sentiments with order and precision.

The art of writing, which now remains to be spoken of, demands an extensive stock of ideas, great command of words, and an acquaintance with their idiomatic and grammatical arrangements, as well as with their orthography. Progress in it may be said to be commensurate with practice in the other three branches. Written composition will present little difficulty to those who have steadily pursued the course prescribed; who, by careful observation, have collected useful facts and right notions; who, by attentive and persevering study of the best writers, have their judgment developed, their memory enriched, and their taste cultivated.

This last remark in favor of the study of good models, as the best preparation for writing, is an indirect condemnation of grammatical exercises, or compositions by rules, and might alone justify our objection to them; yet, we cannot refrain from strengthening it by the authority and experience of distinguished professors. Rollin, that judicious reformer of the errors of the university of Paris, does not hesitate to recommend reading in preference to studying grammar and writing exercises illustrative of it. He observes, "to compose well in Latin, one must know the turns, the idioms, the rules of that language, and have made rather considerable provision of words, the force of which is felt, and the just application of which can be made. Now, all this can be done only by explaining authors, who are like a living dictionary and a speaking grammar, in which are learned by experience the force and the true use of words, phrases, and rules of syntax. I do not hesitate to decide that, in the beginning, we must entirely exclude exercises; they are only calculated to torment children by painful and useless labor, and to inspire them with dislike to a study which usually draws on them, from masters, nothing but reprimands and chastisements."* In this he is supported by almost all writers who have treated of classical instruction. Unwilling to swell these pages with quotations, of which we have perhaps already been too prodigal, we shall be content with naming, among those who condemn the practice, Roger Ascham, Locke, Milton, Montaigne, Lancelot, Vossius the elder, Lefèvre de Saumur, Nicole, Arnauld, Beauzée, Diderot, D'Alembert, J. J. Rousseau, Fleury, Bernardin de St. Pierre, Randonvilliers, Niemeyer, La Châlotais, Maugard, Pluche, Chompré, Weiss, Guizot, and others, to whom may be added the celebrated scholars whom we named on a preceding page, as most profoundly erudite without having ever learned grammar or written exercises.

And what applies to Latin applies with greater force to modern idioms. Not only are written grammatical exercises unnecessary for gaining acquaintance with the genius of a language, but they afford very little assistance towards acquiring the art of compo.

*Traité des Etudes.