point of practical usefulness, it is obvious that it should not be neglected by those who are ambitious of possessing a complete knowledge of a foreign language and of availing themselves of that knowledge under all circumstances.

Thus it has been shown that these four branches have each a peculiar sphere of usefulness, and that, although distinct in practice, they are connected by the assistance which they lend to each other. Nature and reason combine in justifying the order above prescribed, namely, Reading leads to hearing, hearing to speaking, and speaking to writing.

373

BOOK VI.

OF GRAMMAR.

"Whoever undertakes to teach boys or girls the grammar of a language, undertakes to teach them what they cannot comprehend, and what he perhaps does not understand himself."-A. CLIFFORD.*

"Les règles qu'on a écrites sur les arts produisent à peu près l'effet des télescopes; elles n'aident que ceux qui voient."-D'ALEMBERT.t

"De grammaticis sic sentio: pleraque usu discendæ regulæ deinde addenda ad perfectionem."-LEIBNITZ.

CHAPTER I.

UNFITNESS OF GRAMMAR FOR CHILDREN.

SECT. 1.-THE GENERAL ADOPTION OF GRAMMAR AS AN INTRODUCTORY STUDY ACCOUNTED FOR.

HAVING assigned to each of the four branches its place and degree of importance, we will now, before entering on the details of the method which we propose, conclude our general observations on the study of language, by first adverting to the impropriety of making grammar an introduction to it, and, next, examining in what a complete course of grammatical studies consists.

That grammar has been made the preliminary step to the study of Latin, and, by assimilation, to that of other foreign languages, arises chiefly from two injudicious practices which have been noticed before: the one is, the learning of a second

Letter to the Earl of Shrewsbury. Encyclopédie. Discours préliminaire. "Of grammatical studies this is my opinion: most of the rules should be acquired by practice; they should, afterwards, be added to secure perfection."

language by the comparative process at too early a period, and the other, the premature "making of Latin."

The tender age at which children are usually sent to classical schools, not permitting them to enter at once upon the reading of classic authors, which are above their comprehension, means must be contrived to delay the explanation of them without apparently losing time, and a grammar is consequently put into their hands for one or two years as a preparation. On the other side, the teacher, unable to devote to his pupils all the time which, on account of their youth, they require from him for the explanation of foreign authors, is led to impose on them this tedious and uninteresting task, with the expectation that it will facilitate the work of translation and thus diminish his labour; but the end is defeated by the means; for it is often more troublesome to explain the grammar than the authors themselves.

This preparatory course again serves the purpose of Latin composition, because the unnatural process of writing before having read-that is, of composing in a language of which the learner is ignorant, necessarily demands a previous knowledge of rules as a substitute for the exercises of imitation and analogy. Another reason of the importance given to grammar in the study of a foreign language, is the prevalent belief that a knowledge of it ensures to the learners a knowledge of the vernacular grammar: we will subsequently show the fallacy of this opinion.

the

While we admit the efficiency of grammar towards the perfect attainment of the arts of speaking and writing, we cannot but object to the early period at which it is usually learned, and to the exaggerated importance attached to it, as an auxiliary to the acquisition of language; for, although it is made to engross attention of learners, it does not afford them adequate facility towards the attainment of the various objects aimed at in language-nay, these very objects are often lost sight of, in pursuit of this supposed auxiliary. Thus it is that grammar contributes very considerably in lengthening the period of classical instruction.

SECT. II.-GRAMMAR,-AN ART AND A SCIENCE.

Grammar may be viewed in two lights, either as a collection of rules which serve to guide us in the expression of thought, or as an investigation of the principles of language deduced from the nature and relations of the ideas to be represented. In the first light, grammar, applying only to the facts of one language, is called particular, and constitutes an art; in the second, grammar, proposing to explain the nature of words and their relations by the nature and relations of the things which they represent, and also to account for the mode of using them by a consideration of the mental operations on which it depends, is said to be general, because it embraces the principles of all languages; it then constitutes a science, being founded on the universal and immutable laws of external nature and of the human mind. There are as many particular grammars as there are languages; whereas, there is only one general grammar, one science of language.

The art of grammar gives the rules for using the materials of one language; the science of grammar gives the rationale of all the facts of language. The art is local,-its rules are established by custom; the science is universal,—its principles are independent of custom. The former is available to those who possess the materials of one language, the latter to those who are acquainted with several idioms: the one, when studied at a proper time, is conducive to the acquisition of a critical knowledge of a language; the other affords no aid in this acquisition, but tends to exercise the higher powers of the mind. Either of these two systems of grammar is an unfit subject of study before the third period of youth: an ignorance of the facts which are the objects of consideration in particular grammar, places this art beyond the reach of young children, and the philosophical principles on which general grammar rests, unsuited as they are to immature understandings, equally place the grammatical science above their capacity.

Of these two departments of grammar, the art is the one more especially resorted to as an auxiliary to the study of a foreign language, because it is the record, and not the rationale, of the facts which, by exhibiting the usage of a language, has led people to presume that students could thus be made to conform to that usage. With regard to the science of grammar, no one can,