in the former the words are subsequent to the ideas, in the latter the ideas are subsequent to the words-very often they are not taken into consideration at all:-there is nothing so common with children as to repeat what they do not in the least understand.

The practice of committing to memory passages of foreign authors at an early period of the study necessarily fosters a most defective pronunciation; for, in learning by rote, the child usually utters the words as rapidly as he can, to connect them in his mind by the accidental association of order and place. He thus mutters the same passage over and over, until it is mechanically retained; and, in this careless utterance, ignorant as he is of the foreign sounds, every syllable becomes an error, and every error is repeated until confirmed into inveterate habit. J. J. Rousseau condemns the practice even in the native tongue : what must be its consequences in a language of which the sound of every syllable is unknown to the learner?

Memory cannot be exercised and improved generally: learning pieces of prose or poetry by rote increases, it is true, its power, but it does so within certain limits, and in a manner inconsistent with the future wants of the learners, as has been explained in reference to the learning of a vocabulary. (See Book VII. Ch. 11.) It produces no other advantage but that of imparting facility in committing to memory other pieces of prose or poetry. It would not enable a person to remember better the subject of what he reads and hears, or the practical details of business in active life; it cannot, in fact, be of any service except to one destined to be an actor, or more anxious to parrot discourses in public assemblies than to deliver them extempore.

Jacotot falls into a most unaccountable error in his system of "Universal Teaching," founded on mnemonic repetition. He unhesitatingly attributes to it the effects which exclusively belong to reflection and judgment; and this confusion of ideas constitutes the radical error of his method. The principles from which he starts may be good, although we doubt the correctness of some of them, but the extreme to which he carries their application destroys the benefit that might be expected from them. *

Constantly repeating the same thing, as he recommends, produces no other effect than to make the recitation easier and more

* The fundamental principles of Jacotot's system are these four:-All intellects are equal; Learn something thoroughly and refer everything else to it; All is in all; We can teach what we know not.

rapid! but this facility and rapidity are obstacles to the exercise of judgment. The power of reflection loses all command over words and actions rendered habitual by repetition. "External movements," says Degérando, "thus converted into habit by frequent repetition, are no longer confined to rapid obedience of our will; they anticipate it-they are even reproduced in spite of it." The child who repeats by rote would find it a difficult matter to arrest his attention on the particulars of what he has committed to memory; and, consequently, this exercise leaves on the mind no information available for conversation. The task becomes still more irksome and prejudicial when, in conformity with Jacotot's suggestions, it is imposed on learners before they know the meaning and pronunciation of what they commit to memory.

Learning passages from Latin authors, as is often done, with a view to cultivate the taste, is not an efficient means of opening the mind to a perception of classical beauties. When these have been explained to a student, his committing them to memory cannot make him more conscious of their existence; whilst the frequent repetition required for learning any passage must blunt his feelings respecting the excellencies which it contains. Moreover, should it not have this effect, it is obvious that a few extracts, however well retained or delivered, are utterly inadequate to impart extensive and critical acquaintance with the merit of the great writers. Such a practice only serves to indulge plagiarism and a taste for Latin quotations.

These exercises of memory are far more interesting, and have a more useful tendency in the native than in a foreign language; for the students, entering then more fully into the spirit of the select pieces they learn, may, by frequent delivery, appropriate the moral sentiments and literary beauties which they contain. The recitation of them is also an efficient means of practising elocution, and may be introduced among friends as a social and intellectual recreation. But selections from foreign authors, with the exception of those intended for practising pronunciation, are, in general, unavailable as mnemonic acquisitions, and unprofitable as means of mental discipline.

It is a great error to believe that young people are well informed, because their memory has been much exercised. Let us keep in mind these words of Montaigne, "To know by heart is not knowing." "He who knows only by heart," says Condillac,

* Du Perfectionnement Moral.

“knows, as it were, nothing; and what he forgets he cannot find again.' "Whoever falls into that practice," says also Cobbett, soon begins to esteem the powers of memory more than those of reason; and the former are despicable indeed when compared with the latter."+ The practice of making young persons mere reciting machines has been reprobated by many; among others by Locke, J. J. Rousseau, and, above all, by the celebrated philanthropists, Pestalozzi and Fellenberg. The pupils of these two eminent men were exercised in a manner nearly similar to what we have endeavoured to explain. "That only," says Fellenberg, "which a man produces by combining the materials presented to him, or which he, to a certain degree, reproduces in his imagination until it becomes a part of his own train of thought, can be considered as a real acquisition, or can contribute satisfactorily to the development of his mind."‡

Memory acts undoubtedly an important part in the acquisition of languages: it is not therefore the use of this faculty which we condemn, but its abuse, and the inaction in which the other faculties are allowed to remain. The great end of instruction in youth ought to be that harmony of the intellectual powers which results from their equal cultivation, and which alone constitutes intellectual perfection.

SECT. IV.-MECHANICAL AND INTELLECTUAL MEMORY.

In repeating dialogues or selections from books, a child usually loses sight of the subject and only attends to the words. These, by force of repetition, are remembered in their order of succession, so that each word mechanically suggests that which is contiguous to it, and they are, at last, recited one after another, in an unvaried tone, and with the unconsciousness of old habit. Recollection of the words is assisted, not by the ideas which they convey, but by their local contiguity and by the place they occupy in the page which is, as it were, opened before the mind, when a learner is reciting his lesson. Should anything occur to interrupt him, he cannot resume, but must begin the whole again; and what proves that the reciter only connects sounds is, that each time the memory fails he mechanically repeats the word at which he stopped as a clue to the following. Lessons † A Grammar of the English Language. Amer. Ann. of Education.

* Grammaire Disc. Prélim.

thus irrationally learned are the bane of instruction. Besides the waste of a considerable portion of time devoted to learning and saying them, they are a cause of weariness and punishment, which cannot but create aversion for study, and blunt the moral feeling and the noble desire of knowledge.

The confusion of ideas which the foreign expressions present to a beginner, and the difficulty which he experiences in connecting them in his mind, must greatly impede his recollection of the phraseology. If a link is lost there is no association of ideas, no logical connection, by which the chain may be formed again. A series of expressions thus learned cannot be depended upon for any particular application, as they are not under the control of the individual.

Such lessons afford another proof of a fact which has already been stated, that the power of recollecting information is not always in proportion to the trouble taken in acquiring it; for no school-task is, perhaps, more troublesome than learning by heart lists of words or passages of books, and, yet, none is more easily forgotten. The reason is that this mnemonic exercise is a mere mechanical action of the tongue, which repeats words without any participation of the understanding.

This mechanical memory, or power of retaining words in given order, rests only on accidental association, and is of little use in after-life, although a means of success at school: it is often found associated with great deficiency in judgment. But intellectual memory,-that which is founded on the connection of ideas, on analogies and resemblances, on associations of cause and effect, of premisses and consequences, and which derives its efficiency from reasoning,―acts an important part in the formation of intellectual character, and bears on all the practical business of life. It is brought into activity in the study of a language by the analogical process of phrase-making, as also by narrating facts and describing things seen as well as heard or read of. These intellectual exercises furnish the mind with ideas and, consequently, with words; for the ideas cannot be learned independently of the words by which they are expressed; whereas words are often learned without ideas. We will, in the following Chapter, suggest further means of exercising this species of memory.

Intellectual memory can be applied to the learning of select pieces in a foreign language only when that language is fully understood, and its beauties of style appreciated; for the ideas

being then clearly apprehended and well engraved on the mind, their expressions will easily be recalled. But the practice of learning passages from books at an early period of the study does not, as already remarked, render literary beauties more obvious: nothing but the assiduous reading and analysing of a whole work can make us conversant with its style, and enable us to appreciate its merit; nor does this mnemonic exercise, any more than the practice of learning lists of words or dialogues, bring into action the higher sort of memory; it therefore has nothing to recommend it. Under the influence of this parroting process, every faculty of the child, save memory, remains dormant; every qualification of the teacher, save patience, remains useless-the mode of action of each is merely mechanical, and consequently equally irksome to both.

We should consider that instruction has not for its object to afford young persons an opportunity of making momentary display of their recollective powers, but to leave in their minds profound impressions which may hereafter be recalled and applied as circumstances require.

Nor is exclusively repeating the ideas of others conducive to what alone is desirable, namely, the expression of one's own. On this point the art of the performer in language differs materially from that of the performer in music or dramatic recitation. Musical or theatrical men may well be satisfied with performing the compositions of others; but, if we wish to speak or write, we must perform our own. All the efforts of the master and the pupil should tend towards this.

Had children been taught not merely to repeat words, but to form sentences expressive of their own thoughts, and to convey in connected discourse the ideas which they have acquired from books, from conversation, or from experience, they would enjoy the fruit of their studies and application,-they would converse in the foreign language. Timidity and bashfulness are not often, as the deceived parent is too apt to believe, the cause of his child's silence when addressed in that language; they are only screens for his inability to speak: and how, indeed, can he be anything but timid and bashful when desired to do that in which he has never been instructed!