with or without an assistant-that the diversity of lights in which their acquisition is viewed, has naturally produced a corresponding diversity in the mode of effecting it. Every teacher of languages, on commencing his profession, bewildered by this confusion of processes, many of which are in direct opposition to one another, has to contrive a method for himself, or he must blindly follow the routine transmitted to him from past ages, with no other recommendation than its antiquity. The constant appeal to our forefathers in every thing which regards education, keeps the mind in bondage and plunges mankind into apathy. The world is now older than it was in the days of our ancestors: they were our juniors; they had only their own experience, we have theirs in addition to ours; our minds are fed in our childhood with the fruit of their maturity; we start in our career with many advantages of which they were deprived : we, consequently, ought to know more and be more capable of discerning right from wrong. It is then contrary to reason to sacrifice our views to theirs, and to make their opinions the standard of our conduct.

A comprehensive system is, at the present day, much needed, for the safe guidance of teachers and learners in this department of instruction. Such a system, in order to be general in its application, must embrace all the objects proposed from the study of highly cultivated living languages; for in these will be comprised the comparatively few exercises requisite for learning Greek or Latin. It must not, therefore, be wondered at, if our strictures on this subject, although applying to foreign languages in general, advert more frequently to the modern than to the ancient. When the objects aimed at are common to both, the process of learning will, with some trifling exceptions, be found the same; and, whenever they differ, a particular course will be prescribed. However, as it would have been difficult to explain our system in general terms, we have more especially selected for its application, the French language, as being the most generally learned in Europe.

The observations we shall make in the present chapter on the fundamental principles and the essential characteristics of a rational method, will, we hope, enable the reader to enter more readily into the spirit of our system, and follow its details more easily. As we proceed, we shall be more explicit, that nothing may be left to chance or ignorance; for the inexperience of teachers, as well as of learners, often adds to the difficulties

attendant upon study. If rational methods were more general, apparent dulness and perverseness would be more rare than they are at present.

Methods are necessary not to ordinary minds only; the most creative genius may derive incalculable benefits from them, and has often been indebted to them for its highest conceptions. "If I have any advantage over other men," said Descartes, "I owe it to my method."

Those who devote themselves to the search of truth and the acquisition of knowledge, cannot be too careful in the choice of the instrument with which their object is to be effected. It is, however, difficult to decide what is the most judicious mode of proceeding in the pursuit. The science of method has yet to be created. "What!" exclaims Joseph Droz, "for the last century, our arts have made immense progress, our manufactures have undergone admirable improvements, and the art of instructing men should remain subject to the inconvenience of an absurd routine! This is a melancholy proof that fathers think more of their fortunes than of their children." It is time to reject the worn-out machinery of our ancestors. Let us apply to mind, as we have long done to matter, new powers, new combinations, and new processes. Let a rational method of learning languages bring men of all nations into communion as steam has brought them into contact.

SECT. II.-CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD METHOD.

A good Method subdivides the subjects of Study.

It is in the faculties of man, and in their mode of action in the acquisition of knowledge, that we must seek for the general principles on which is based Methodology, or the science of method. The application of these principles to any one department of instruction constitutes a particular method, and varies according to the nature of the study and the ends proposed. Let us examine what are the characteristic features of the method by which languages may be best acquired.

Classification is the fundamental law of a rational method; for we should ascertain what things are to be learned, and in what order they are to be learned, before we think of the mode of

Discours de la Méthode.

new;

learning them. Besides, the mind cannot effectively attend to several distinct things at the same time, if these are all equally it must be abstractedly engaged on one at a time. The study of language must, therefore, be subdivided into the branches which constitute the leading objects proposed from it, namely, the arts of understanding oral expression, of reading, speaking, and writing. It is essential to distinguish these ultimate objects from the exercises which, although requisite for attaining them, are, for the greater part, of little utility after the period of study. For want of sufficient distinction on this point, the ends and the means have often been confounded together, and the former sacrificed to the latter.

The principles of subdivision and gradation, by concentrating the powers of the mind on one thing at a time, are most powerful in instruction, as well as in the affairs of life: a rational method of learning languages, in conformity with these principles, ought to indicate the successive operations which are necessary at the different stages of the acquisition, so that each may suitably prepare for that which follows, and that all may gradually concur to the end proposed. It ought to prescribe the order in which the different departments of the study may be successively entered upon. Throughout the course, and particularly at the outset, an accumulation of difficulties should be avoided, not to discourage the learner and thus damp his progress. As each object of study is secured, it becomes a starting point for other acquisitions. Each department of the language being successively rendered habitual by appropriate exercise, the mind will soon grasp them all with ease, whatever be their number. Such is the nature of the human mind that it embraces a multitude of elements without confounding them, when it is fully acquainted with the subject to which they belong; but two objects suffice to perplex it, when it is engaged in acquiring them: if the beginner does not consider these two objects apart from each other, he confounds them, and may fail in knowing either. A language must be the more easily mastered, when all its parts have been taken separately and duly considered one after another. “Divide and conquer,” the maxim of Machiavelli, "is a principle," said Dr. Johnson, “equally just in science as in politics." "" *

In the subdivision of the study of a foreign language, the method should point out to the teacher and to the learner what

*The Rambler No. 137.

[CHAP. III. comes within the sphere of action of each, and should unfold the special exercises which are requisite for the attainment of each particular branch. The extent of study may then be determined according to the nature of the language, the wants of the learner, the circumstances in which he may be placed. When, for example, he only wishes to understand books written in a foreign language, whether ancient or modern, his object will be the sooner accomplished, if his attention be not diverted from it by extraneous exercise. One or two years may then suffice to acquire as much Latin as, by the common routine, is learned in five or six; and a large portion of time will then be available, within the usual period of education, for attending to those branches of knowledge which have of late become indispensable.

Time will also be saved and the period of learning again shortened, if the method be sparing of those preparatory exercises, which make the student forget the end in pursuit of the means, and which not only render his labour unprofitable, should he happen to change his course, but divest study of interest by concealing from him its ultimate and real object. Young persons are averse to the acquisition of any knowledge, the application of which is either remote or unperceived. If they are given only such exercises as are consistent with the end proposed and such as keep this end in view, they will be stimulated by their consciousness of the useful results to which their efforts may eventually lead. And as, on proceeding, they can apply their acquisition to practical purposes, success becomes a powerful incentive to exertion and a continual source of enjoyment: it is thus that a good method makes the learner find pleasure on the road of duty.

The details of the study should be so contrived that each learner may direct his attention to the objects best suited to his wants. The medical student will then learn to read the language, the mercantile man to write it, the traveller to speak it; those who propose to teach it will join theory to practice, and young people, who have much time in perspective, may attend to every department of the language.

2. A good Method favours Self-Teaching.

One of the chief characteristics of a good method consists in enabling learners to dispense with the assistance of a teacher when they are capable of self-government. It should be so contrived as to excite and direct their spontaneous efforts, and lead them to the conviction that they have the power, if they have the will, to acquire whatever man has acquired. The prevailing notion that we must be taught every thing is a great evil. The most extensive education given by the most skilful masters often produces but inferior characters; that alone which we give to ourselves elevates us above mediocrity. The eminence attained

by great men is always the result of their own industry.

A rational method, by inciting the will of learners, brings their capabilities into action: it does not dispense with exertion, nor blindly force ready-made learning on the memory; it shows the way of studying, of making discoveries.

It devolves

on the teacher to excite in his pupils the desire, and furnish them with the means of improving themselves; for, without self-reliance and active co-operation on their part, all his instruction must be unavailing. He cannot advance them a single step unless they make corresponding efforts. There is a vague notion widely prevalent, that instructors are able, by a power inherent in themselves, to fill the minds of their pupils with learning in spite of them; but this is a sad mistake. The best informed teachers and the most elaborate methods of instruction can impart nothing of importance to the passive and inert mind If even a learner succeeded in retaining and applying the facts enumerated to him, the mental acquisition would then be vastly inferior to that which the investigation of a single fact, the analysis of a single combination, by his unaided reason, would achieve.

As, in the present mode of public instruction, students spend less time with the professor of foreign living languages than they do with the classical teacher, it is the more necessary that they should be afforded inducements and facilities for self-instruction in those idioms. In any pursuit, they should not do with their teacher what they can do by themselves; thus, their progress will always be commensurate with their abilities, or their desire of learning, as also with the time they have for study in his absence, which, in every department of instruction, is usually