Germany, constitutes the basis of education, is much more favourable to the progress of the faculties in childhood than that of mathematics or of the physical sciences.

The second part of Madame de Staël's assertion is perhaps liable to objection: the physical sciences seem to us better calculated than languages for exercising the minds of children under twelve, and have, consequently, in the preceding pages, been recommended as a branch, of elementary instruction; we will, in Book IV., consider this subject more fully. But to the first part of her assertion we fully assent: we consider the study of language as something more than a dry study of words, than a mere matter of colloquial convenience. It has already been shown that mathematics yields to languages in efficiency and usefulness, as an instrument of intellectual discipline. We will only add, that the pleasure of surmounting the difficulties of a foreign work, and of clearly conceiving the elevated thoughts of an eminent writer is, at least, as lively and refined as that of ascertaining mathematical truths; whilst the acquisition of a language affords, in general, more satisfaction, by reason of the immediate application which can be made of it, either to receive or to communicate ideas.

Every intellectual pursuit in early life ought to have for its principal object to invigorate the faculties, and to produce, by means of appropriate exercises, the highest degree of activity of which the mind is capable. All persons have not equal need of the different branches of instruction taught in schools, and they may differ in opinion as to their degree of utility; but all will agree that habits of reflection, investigation, and reasoning, are useful to every individual, and at every period of life. The classical and scientific information collected in youth is not unfrequently laid aside in maturity, to make room for the practical business of active life, with which it often has no connection; but high mental capacity is never lost and is always productive of real benefit.

A method which would exclusively rest on the action of a single faculty, whatever might be its apparent success, would be most prejudicial to the intellect. Even imagination, which is often checked in young people, ought to have its due share of exercise it performs an active part in learning and applying language. All the fine arts, among which may be placed the art of expressing thought, owe their best productions to the

*De l'Allemagne.

richness and vigour of that faculty. However, if any be entitled to more exercise than others, these are attention and judgment— attention, above all, that manifester of the will, that eye of the mind, without which the other faculties would remain dormant. The powerful influence which attention and judgment have in all the affairs of life demands that they should act a prominent part in the process of education. They are the guides which direct us in the use of the other faculties and render their action efficient.

Memory, although holding also an important place relatively to the acquisition of knowledge, demands less specific exercise than the other intellectual powers, because the use of it is necessarily involved in their action. Besides, it has abundant employment during the first periods of youth, in storing up the facts impressed through the senses upon the mind and retaining the corresponding native words. As it predominates in childhood, teachers are apt to resort to it as a general instrument of instruction; but its exclusive cultivation only tends to make learned fools.

This faculty, it is true, early manifests itself, but it never exists alone: the others begin their action much sooner than persons generally imagine. Children are capable of attention and reflection; they have imagination and judgment; they observe, they invent, they reason, as actively as adults, with this difference, that their sphere of mental activity is confined to matters of comparatively little importance. Their intellectual constitution differs from ours only in degree. If we wish to exercise and improve it, we must offer to their consideration objects suited to the weakness of their minds, the use and purport of which they can understand, and which may be congenial to their tastes and feelings."

Memory, however, assumes a most active part in the learning of a language; but a great deal of care is required to render it truly effective. As the power of remembering greatly depends on associations, those should be preferred which link the objects of study more closely, and enable them to recall each other more readily. Mechanical memory should, on no occasion, usurp the place of intellectual memory. It is by exercising the judgment on things and their relations, that language is best secured; the signs will be easily remembered, when the mind is stored with the ideas which they signify. Words, being valueless, and not easily retained apart from the ideas which they represent, should

never be acquired separately from them; they should be learned on the principle of the necessary association which exists between ideas in a connected discourse, rather than on that of accidental association, as is commonly practised in learning lists of detached words. Nor can they be available for any practical purpose, unless they have been frequently and diversely combined by analogy in the expression of thought.

But it is not enough for a learner to confide information to memory, or to attain skill in any performance; the possession of an art, to be long retained and be made available for practical purposes, must become, by the repetition of the mental operations requisite for acquiring it, or by reiterated application of its principles, a fixed habit of the mind, or of the muscles. A language will be the more available and the longer remembered as the knowledge of it is more completely secured by confirmed habit in the use of it in its different departments.

SECT. III.-GENERAL PRINCIPLES ON WHICH A RATIONAL
METHOD IS BASED.

Although no method can be pointed out for the acquisition of any branch of knowledge, which would suit every individual and every circumstance, there are, nevertheless, general laws, deduced from the functions of the human mind and from the nature of the knowledge to be acquired, which can be made to bear on the study. The brief summary which we have just given of the characteristic features of the method we advocate for learning foreign languages, presents the application to this department of instruction of the great principles laid down in our introductory Book. The practical details of the course founded on them may, to a certain extent, be familiar to experienced and skilful professors; but they have as yet been confided only to tradition. We will, in the course of this work, endeavour to unfold them, so as to show their application in particular cases, and it is to be hoped that a due observance of them will guard against gross error. None of the great principles which constitute the fundamental laws of a rational method have, we hope, been neglected; and here we shall recapitulate those which may be called the axiomatic truths of methodology :

1. The method of nature is the archetype of all methods, and especially of the method of learning languages.

SEC. III.] PRINCIPLES ON WHICH A RATIONAL METHOD IS BASED. 217

2. The classification of the objects of study should mark out to teacher and learner their respective spheres of action.

3. The ultimate objects of the study should always be kept in view, that the end be not forgotten in pursuit of the means. 4. The means ought to be consistent with the end.

5. Example and practice are more efficient than precept and theory.

6. Only one thing should be taught at one time; and an accumulation of difficulties should be avoided, especially in the beginning of the study.

7. Instruction should proceed from the known to the unknown, from the simple to the complex, from concrete to abstract notions, from analysis to synthesis.

8. The mind should be impressed with the idea before it takes cognizance of the sign that represents it.

9. The development of the intellectual powers is more important than the acquisition of knowledge: each should be made auxiliary to the other.

10. All the faculties should be equally exercised, and exercised in a way consistent with the exigencies of active life.

11. The protracted exercise of the faculties is injurious: a change of occupation renews the energy of their action.

12. No exercise should be so difficult as to discourage exertion, nor so easy as to render it unnecessary: attention is secured by making study interesting.

13. First impressions and early habits are the most important, because they are the most enduring.

14. What the learner discovers by mental exertion is better known than what is told him.

15. Learners should not do with their instructor what they can do by themselves, that they may have time to do with him what they cannot do by themselves.

16. The monitorial principle multiplies the benefits of public instruction. By teaching we learn.

17. The more concentrated is the professor's teaching, the more comprehensive and efficient his instruction.

18. In a class the time must be so employed that no learner shall be idle, and the business so contrived that learners of different degrees of advancement shall derive equal advantage from the instructor.

19. Repetition must mature into a habit what the learner wishes to remember.

20. Young persons should be taught only what they are capable of clearly understanding, and what may be useful to them in after life.

These axiomatic truths are at the foundation of every rational system of instruction: their application cannot fail to secure the acquisition of knowledge, and of languages in particular. They constitute, as already stated, the common principles into which may be resolved nearly all the suggestions made in the following pages; an intimate familiarity with them is, therefore, indispensable for the full and clear comprehension of our method, the more particularly as, to avoid repetition, we will dispense with referring to them. (11.)