the sense, force, and elegance of the original expression, it is also the most effective agent of success in translation itself. In fact, to a person who has command of the native tongue commensurate with his proficiency in mentally reading the foreign, translation presents no difficulty whatever; for if he conceives the ideas of a foreign author as rapidly as his eye can glance over the words, and if, on the other hand, he can, in his own language, express ideas as rapidly as he conceives them, it is evident that he must be able to translate foreign expressions as fast as sight conveys their meanings to his mind, when the difference of idiom, or the poverty of his own language, opposes no obstacles.

How desirable soever the power to read a foreign language mentally may be, very few persons ever attain it; in consequence, perhaps, of the unfounded belief entertained by some, that it is unimportant, and by others, that it is unattainable. Not two in five hundred of those who have received classical education could read and enjoy one of the standard Latin authors explained at school, and much less one not previously prepared, as they would a work in their national language.

That the art of mental reading is important has been clearly shown; that it is attainable is proved by experience in the acquisition of living languages: attention and perseverance suffice for mastering it. We do not see why an English or a French person acquainted with the Greek language should not read it as do the well-informed in modern Greece. Even Latin can, if properly studied, be read in this manner, notwithstanding its transpositive collocation. It was so read by the scholars of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, who used it as a living language; they could not effectually have translated it, for their imperfect idioms were inadequate to interpret the ancient authors.

The power of directly apprehending the ideas of a foreign writer will be easily acquired, if, conformably to the method of nature and our previous suggestions, the original text is occasionally explained by the language of action, or the exhibition of the objects alluded to, and, when this is not practicable, by models, pictures, engravings, or linear sketches, which associate in the young mind the foreign words with the things signified. No practice will be found more effectual in breaking the learner from thinking in his mother-tongue.

Further facilities will be afforded for the attainment of this

end, by reading easy books, and reading the same several times, as also by attending to the general meaning of an author, without aiming at critical interpretation of his words. As practice in reading renders the foreign phraseology more and more familiar, translation should be gradually laid aside, until it can be dispensed with altogether. The consecutive and diligent reading of seven or eight volumes would suffice to impart the power of mental reading, save the translation of the new words which may occasionally be met. Success in it can be secured even without the aid of a teacher.

More completely to shake off the fetters of translation, we would recommend, when a dictionary becomes indispensable, the use of one written exclusively in the foreign language; this guards against the intrusion of the native words, and, by explaining and defining the foreign, is less likely to lead astray than a dictionary in two languages, which, through translation, gives only approximate meanings.

Should the student's progress in pronouncing the language have kept pace with his progress in understanding it, he will receive further assistance towards mental reading from uttering the words to himself, as he apprehends the ideas conveyed by them. His mind and organs of speech, thus simultaneously engaged, will be diverted from translation. By degrees, the frequent recurrence of the same words and phrases will so rapidly and so closely associate them in the mind with their signification, that an intermediate language will no longer be required; mental reading will be attained.

SECT. VIII.-BENEFITS OF ORAL TRANSLATION.

It must be well understood, that we object to translation only so far as it is incompatible with the highest attainments and practical purposes of a foreign language; if these objects be set aside, there can be no doubt that it is a valuable exercise.

Oral translation acts, as we have seen, a prominent part at the outset of the study; and, at a more advanced period, it may serve to render our knowledge of the foreign idiom useful to those who are unacquainted with it. It also becomes indispensable to students who have to undergo examination. At the same time, it must be observed, that translation is not always a good criterion, although the only one, by which to

measure proficiency in this branch; for the more the translator enters into the spirit of his author, and discerns the beauties of style, the more difficult it must be to find equivalent native expressions for the foreign ones.

It is, as an intellectual exercise, and as a means of improvement in the mother-tongue, that translation assumes its highest importance. Ascertaining the precise meaning of a foreign author, and selecting the words and forms of speech in the native tongue,which most exactly convey his thoughts, is a double operation highly calculated to discipline the mind. Before the learner can venture to translate the foreign text, he must have exerted his understanding in apprehending the ideas of his author; he must, in some degree, have made them his own, by going with him over the same field of investigation. It is only when he has a clear conception of them that he can at all think of expressing them in his own language. This second operation again brings into action his mental powers, and all his resources of language: he is led to examine why one term has been selected in preference to another, to distinguish what propositions are principal, what secondary, and what is their mutual dependence. As almost every word may be translated in different ways, and every sentence in different styles, his discrimination and sagacity are constantly exercised in selecting the native expressions most suitable in each particular case. He must exert his imagination and judgment, not to overcharge his author's meaning, nor to fall short of it; he must be well imbued with the peculiar energy and grace of his model, to be able to transfuse the same qualities into his own style; and whether he succeed or fail, the actual labour of the attempt will be beneficial to him.

Another great advantage arising from the practice of oral translation, when continued for a long time, is the command of native words which it imparts. Aided by careful study of the national classics, it will prove a better preparation than rules and precepts for acquiring that magic power-extempore speaking-which instantaneously calls up the most appropriate terms, and suits the form of expression to the ideas. Not having passed through this ordeal, many persons are incapable of speaking in public, although they may write very correctly, because, in the act of communicating thought, right words do not arise spontaneously; they are only the slow result of reflection.

It needs scarcely be observed that learners who are yet incapable of self-direction should be assisted in all the investigations to which translation leads, and which make it so efficient in conferring command of the native tongue. They should be shown the various ways of rendering the same ideas-literally or freely-properly or figuratively,—and should be made to understand the reasons of the preference to be given to one of these forms over the other. The benefits which they will derive from this exercise will be greater in proportion as their instructor is better skilled in their native tongue.

Translation is not only an exercise in extemporaneous composition, it is also an analytical process which, by constantly bringing in contact the component elements of the two languages, leads to minute analysis of both. It cannot fail to bring under notice their nature, etymology, arrangement, and different acceptations, all of which escape observation in mental reading. If, in searching for and selecting native words as equivalents of foreign ones, none are allowed to pass without being fully understood, it will extend the learner's vocabulary, and consequently render instructive books and the conversation of well-informed persons in the native tongue more intelligible, interesting, and profitable than they would otherwise be.

Persevering in oral translation under the direction of an enlightened instructor would be more generally useful to young people than aiming at mental reading, an exercise tending exclusively to forward them in the foreign language. Improvement in the national idiom, for which the study of a second language is so desirable, must always be kept in view. Classical instruction is most favourable to the attainment of this object, because Greek and Latin teachers, as already remarked, know the language of their pupils, which is usually their own, sufficiently well to correct any error which they may commit. Every lesson in Greek and Latin may, and ought to be made, a lesson in the national tongue. If learners once acquainted with either of those languages be long employed in translating the best models of antiquity, they will be efficiently trained to critical use of their own, and to a perception of those qualities of style which contribute to the perfection of discourse.

In translating from a living language, and in any exercise in which that language is made subservient to the improvement of learners in their own, a native instructor can render more assistance to his pupils than a foreigner, who is seldom competent

to point out the best native expressions corresponding to the foreign. Not only can he render more service to the learners in their own language, but he can also best ascertain, by their manner of translating, whether they understand the foreign author: for this reason, the office of examining candidates required to know a foreign living language should be confided to natives, when translation from the foreign into the vernacular is the test. In the other departments of the study, however, a foreigner has greatly the advantage over a native instructor, as will subsequently be seen.

As the written translation from a foreign author is better calculated than the oral for exercising the mental powers and promoting improvement in the native tongue, we will treat more fully of these points in Book XI.

SECT. IX.-OF THE SECOND READING OF BOOKS.

Having conducted the learner through the successive steps which lead to the complete possession of the art of reading a foreign language, and having shown how, under the guidance of an enlightened professor, he may be familiarised with the characteristic merit of its literary productions, we will now present a few observations on another efficient means of promoting these objects, and making, at the same time, the practice of reading subservient to the acquisition of materials for conversation and composition in the foreign idiom.

Those who are anxious to approach perfection in a foreign language must adopt every means by which they can best study and imitate the style of its standard works. It is impossible, at a first perusal, to perceive all the force, elegance, and propriety of expression, to discover all the excellences or to appropriate all the valuable information which characterise eminent compositions: reiterated perusal is indispensable, for the accomplishment of these various ends. "If a book be worth reading once, it should be read twice," said Benjamin Franklin; we would add, if it be not worth reading twice, it should not be read at all.

To make reading subservient to improvement in the practical knowledge of a language, attention must be given to the form as well as to the ideas; and, to this effect, the second reading of a book is most desirable. In the first reading, the verbal difficulties which obstruct the path of a beginner, and the interest which the

VOL. II.

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