trade, are the more readily brought down to the lowest price, as their nature seldom admits of a prompt exhibition; the purchaser-the parent-is unwilling to pay much for things which he is compelled to take upon trust, and often is as unable to estimate their quality as the consumer-the child-is careless of their acquisition. Second-hand French will continue to supply the market abundantly, as long as there is a demand for cheap intellectual commodities.

Women may be very good educators, but they certainly are, in general, very bad instructors. The piety and affections which fill their hearts, beget that earnest solicitude for the well-being of childhood, which is the best promoter of moral training; but the superficial knowledge, which, in the present anomalous state of national education, society has allotted to them as their share of instruction, does not usually permit them to impart solid information to their young charge. It would, perhaps, be difficult to find a woman really well informed, who has been educated exclusively by female teachers. Women, with few exceptions, cannot properly direct the intellectual faculties of children, because they rarely study the constitution of the human mind; nor can they teach the principles of language, because they know but little of the laws which govern the relations between words and ideas. Their scanty stock of knowledge does not permit them to confer on their pupils the intellectual benefits of the comparative course, which demands, on the part of the instructor, extensive and deep information. They may, however, by the adoption of the natural process, most effectually teach a young child how to speak a foreign language, provided they can speak it themselves, and reside in the family. Their communicative dispositions and unbounded sympathy for infancy, guide them admirably in administering to their first need of language.

The inmates of convents, and all monastic seminaries which enforce upon them seclusion from the world, constitute another class of inefficient teachers of living languages; for, even granting that monks, nuns, or other recluses may have, at one time, been acquainted with the living languages which they pretend to teach, they must rapidly forget them for want of opportunities of practising them. The words, the phraseology, and the idioms of a language, together with its pronunciation and accent, should occasionally strike the ear in order to be reproduced by the tongue in its genuine purity. Foreigners themselves require to visit at times their native land, to refresh their memory and their early

impressions of language. A person who has been a long time abroad, habitually speaking the language of the country where he resides, and who has ceased to hear his vernacular tongue, or, what is worse, who has been accustomed to hear it spoken incorrectly by his pupils or other persons, is not likely to preserve it uncontaminated and retain a command of it. Illustrations of this fact will be found in the last Section of Book XI.

In the greater number of classical academies, living languages fare worse, if possible, than in convents; because in such establishments they are only of secondary consideration, and are often even looked upon as interfering with the business of the school. Those who teach them have a difficult part to play; for the heads of such establishments are generally little versed in those languages; and, from a natural feeling of pride, they do not encourage a branch of instruction which, we are to understand, they have not thought it worth their while to acquire themselves. School-boys being thus led to believe that the living languages are mere accomplishments of a secondary order, pay but little attention to them. They learn the lessons allotted by the foreign teacher, after they have toiled through their Latin and Greek studies, on which alone the head-master insists. The foreign living language, thus looked upon as a work of supererogation and as an encroachment on their few moments of recreation, cannot meet with their sympathy; and what is learned with distaste, is necessarily learned badly. This evil cannot be easily remedied when the Principal is unacquainted with the foreign language; because, being unable then to judge of the progress of the learners, or of the abilities of their teacher, he has no control over this department of instruction in his school.

Until modern languages are, in every respect, on a perfect equality with the ancient, in academical institutions, they will never be properly taught in those establishments by foreign teachers, whatever be their skill and information. We do not hesitate to declare again that, as long as instruction and the instructor do not stand higher in public estimation than they do now, learners will always be placed in the dilemma of studying foreign living languages either from their own countrymen incapable of speaking them, or from foreigners ignorant of the art of teaching and destitute of literary acquirements. (10.)

CHAPTER III.

METHOD.

SECT. I.-ON THE PRESENT NEED OF A METHOD OF LEARNING LANGUAGES.

We have, in the introductory book, laid down the general principles on which should be founded a rational system of education; we will now, confining our attention to the particular object of this essay, briefly examine what ought to be the leading characteristics of a method of learning languages; and particularly take into consideration the most efficient means of shortening the period of classical studies without prejudice to the learners. "It is," says Burnouf, “by improving the methods of teaching, that we shall really, as desired by everybody, shorten the study of Latin."* More objects of instruction may enter in the scholastic course, when less time is given to each. who shortens the road to knowledge lengthens life."

"He

Hitherto, the process of acquiring either the ancient or the modern languages, resting not on philosophical principles, but on mere tradition and routine, has been subject to fluctuation, and often marked by the strangest innovations. The mode of acquiring every department of the study has, at different times and in different countries, undergone modifications which form, at the present day, a confused mass of heterogeneous processes. This confusion must be removed by the introduction of a system in strict conformity with the nature of the subject, the laws of the mental constitution, and the exigencies of modern society.

It is particularly in the study of the principal languages of modern Europe that the want of a rational and universal method is much felt. These languages embrace so many different objects, and are learned under so many different circumstances—at home or abroad, by infants or adults, for reading or conversation, under the direction of native or foreign teachers,

*Petite Grammaire Latine. Pref.

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.

1. 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.