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occupy an equal rank with those of constant use and indispensable necessity. Besides all this, why should we make our mode of acquiring this particular kind of knowledge different from the ways of getting all other information? Knowledge consists of facts observed, arranged, and remembered, and the chief value of it often lies in the habits formed by the labour of acquiring it. For these reasons, we would teach syntax, at the commencement, entirely from observation, explaining to the pupil each example as it occurs, and leaving him to discover similar instances himself. Instead of requiring a rule to confirm a case of particular usage, it will be found quite as simple to ask the pupil to produce from his own reading one similar example, or more. Difficult modes of expression must be repeatedly explained by the teacher, who will find that the book which the class is reading furnishes the best materials. For a pupil somewhat advanced, a larger kind of grammar, containing a complete syntax, is useful, and even necessary, to serve as a general storehouse whence he may derive additional examples, or new illustration, or the confirmation of that which he has already acquired. The comments of professed scholars, too, become useful guides for the student, as he proceeds to the perusal of more difficult authors and to the more critical study of the language. But no set of rules committed to memory, and then applied to books, will either form a sound scholar, or, what is infinitely more important, create habits of patient observation and just judgment. A man might be acquainted with the results of many profound inquiries in physics and in all the various sciences; he might take them on credit, and act as if he believed them to be true; but his understanding would not be

one jot advanced above that of an uninstructed workman. If the knowledge of all facts and the conclusions of all research could be poured into a man's mind, without labour of his own, he would be less really wise than he who has been properly trained to work the rule of three.

There is an objection to the study of syntax as taught in grammars which needs to be stated. Syntax, or arrangement,' is that branch of grammar which affects to explain the general principles by which the order of words in any language is governed, and the modifica tions which the several words composing a distinct sense undergo in consequence of their being subordinate to this order. Language consists of words, and the order of words, as just explained. Each language has an order of words peculiar to it, such as the Greek, the German, the English, and others; not an order so fixed that there can be no deviation from some general formula; but still an order which positively disallows many collocations of words. The common rules of syntax do not treat of this part of the subject; they seem to treat only of the modifications of the several words, owing to their relationship to other words in the sentence. All languages are composed of sentences, or of parts into which a discourse easily distributes itself. All sentences contain assertions, facts, or, properly speaking, premises; they also contain inferences or conclusions, either obviously and clearly, or tacitly and obscurely deduced from these premises. The process of reasoning then is necessarily included in the form of every language; and as the principles of logical reasoning are always the same, these principles are applicable and should be applied to the analysis of all language.

To point out the difference of the form which equivalent sentences assume in one language, such as Latin or Greek, and in our own, is a part of syntax properly taught; and syntax, when made what it ought to be, is inseparable from some instruction in the science of logic *.

I shall now endeavour to explain more clearly the advantage of translation, graduated in difficulty according to a pupil's progress, and the kind of information to be derived from classical studies; and, as part of the same subject, I shall attempt to show the use, the necessity, and the ease of studying language according to true etymological principles.

All languages, and particularly written languages, consist of a great number of words, to which are attached certain ideas. The uttering of a sound, or the exhibition of its written representative, is the mode by which we communicate the impressions made on us by objects of sense, and also the result of mental operations. If each idea had a sound or word to represent it, language would be almost unattainable, from the number of its component parts. But the same word has various meanings, some primary and more common, others derived and less common. The ordinary and primary meaning of a word indicates in general the immediate impression made on the organs of sense: hence a large class of words are only imitations of natural sounds, which the human voice can produce with ease, and can thus, even in the

* See an article on parsing (by Mr. Alexander Allen of Madras House, Hackney) Journal of Education, No. XX., which is referred to not so much to illustrate what is here said, as to show what may be made of parsing,' as it is termed, in the hands of those who know how to manage it.

absence of the object, make it present by one of its sensible properties. A serpent hisses, burning wood crackles, falling timber makes a crash, and heavy iron chains clank. The words even, upright, smooth, crooked, denote sensible properties of matter; but we apply the same words to denote our judgments of things of a moral nature. We say that a man's temper is even, and his conduct is upright; or we may sometimes have occasion to say, that though his manners are smooth, his dealings are very crooked. The usage of words in these secondary senses is vague in all languages; and it is particularly so in that class of words used to express praise and blame. Writers on moral and political science often labour to give stability and precision to terms which in popular language express nothing definite. Many such words still move about in ordinary society; they are well received and often entertained, but nobody thinks of asking who or what they are.

Now this more exact study of the meanings of words, or their primary and derived senses, is very much facilitated by the teacher requiring the student to point out, in the lecture-room examination, the original meaning of the word, and to trace from that its other remoter meanings. This kind of investigation is often a real historical inquiry, involving more research and more knowledge than a pupil possesses; but the teacher can direct his inquiries, and supply their deficiencies, and correct any erroneous conclusions. But by written translations, an exercise of the greatest importance, the pupil will be taught to study more exactness than is practicable in oral translation: he will select words with more ease, weigh them with greater

accuracy, reject what is superfluous, and labour to express in simple and perspicuous language exactly as much as is contained in the original, and neither more nor less. It is the teacher's duty to examine these exercises, to point out their defects either in the mode of expression or in the interpretation; and it will be found a very useful part of instruction for him to take one or more of these exercises, and to make their merits or defects the subject of remark to all the assembled class.

The books used for instruction in the Latin and Greek are most commonly books of history, oratory, epistolary correspondence, moral philosophy, and the various kinds of poetry. They have been chosen because they treat of topics of most general interest, and are written in that style of language which may be called the popular or common. For it should be observed, that language is of many kinds, and that each science has a language of its own, which is only understood by those who know the science. Many books in the English tongue are unintelligible even to a well-educated man, if he knows not the things of which they treat. In Latin and Greek, then, we do not read with our pupils the works of Hippocrates, Galen, Aretæus, and Celsus; because neither we nor they understand the science of medicine. We all know that it would be very tiresome and unprofitable to read about things which we cannot comprehend,

But the books that we do read treat about things also, and if these are not understood or explained, we lose much of the profit that might be derived from them. Let us make a short enumeration of the books that are commonly studied in schools and colleges:

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