SECT. V. OF DIALOGUES, COLLECTIONS OF IDIOMS, AND STANDARD WORKS, AS AUXILIARIES IN THE EXERCISE OF PHRASE-MAKING. We must not be understood to reject dialogues and collections of idioms altogether. What we condemn are the utter neglect of the analogical principle, and the mechanical operation of repeating verbatim a set of phrases that may never be wanted in the form given them by the compiler, and which are commonly forgotten as soon as learned. Collections of dialogues or of idiomatic and colloquial phrases may be resorted to as soon as, by previous acquaintance with the pronunciation of the foreign language and the conjugation of verbs, learners are prepared for promiscuous exercise in speaking. They present, in a condensed form, numerous expressions which, from the homeliness of the ideas conveyed, or the familiarity of the occurrences referred to, cannot, for the most part, be met with in either imaginative or didactic standard works. They will prove useful to those who learn by themselves, and will also enable a teacher readily to exercise his advanced pupils in the most familiar topics of conversation, or in the difficulties of grammatical and idiomatic structure. They may be employed, especially, by instructors who have not equal command of the foreign and the native tongues; for such persons would be incapable of going through the exercise of extemporaneous phraseology, which requires thorough knowledge of both languages. But whoever makes use of these compilations should bear in mind that, as the idioms or any other expressions which they contain assume in practice an infinite variety of modifications, they can be of no avail to a learner unless he understand them in all their diversities, whether written or spoken, and unless he possess the power of adapting them by analogy to the various situations of social intercourse. He ought then to prepare for their future application to the varied circumstances of conversation, by considering them only as models from which to make phraseological variations, either with his instructor or by himself, according as he is a beginner or a proficient. In mentioning collections of phrases which may serve for practice in speaking, we have designedly omitted proverbs, although they have often been collected for the use of learners; because, not admitting of variations in their form, they cannot VOL. II. enter into the phrase-making exercise. Proverbs and old sayings should not be confounded with idioms, which, in general, are susceptible of modification: they are pithy and, for the most part, trivial metaphors, which can be used only as quotations. It is, besides, injudicious to impose them as tasks on young people; for, appropriate as they may be in the mouths of uneducated philosophers, their familiarity would often shock, if introduced in polite society. As for those who prize this minor branch of literature, they can easily become skilful in the use of proverbs by simply committing them to memory; and if the sentiments which they convey, or their modes of expression, be not vulgar, they will form a useful acquisition; for though these memorials of national manners and feelings are no longer ornaments of conversation, they have not ceased to be treasures of thought. In Spain and in Italy they frequently possess a degree of pleasing poignancy and elegance, which perhaps render them less objectionable than in the other countries of Europe. It is obvious that we do not here allude to the proverbial expressions, maxims of wisdom, and aphorisms taken from the Scriptures or the classics: these, although unexceptionable among wellinformed persons, are of too high an order to be introduced with strict propriety in familiar intercourse. Any standard work in the foreign language may be used for exercising learners in phrase-making; it will, besides, offer more correct and elegant expressions for practice than the great majority of phrase-books. The instructor, when reading to accustom his pupils to the spoken language, occasionally stops and selects expressions with the forms of which he desires to familiarise them; or he takes an approved author with the exclusive purpose of exercising them in phrase-making. Having brought to their notice the peculiarity of structure which characterises the phrase he has selected, he makes them translate and re-translate it alternately, as we suggested in reference to Latin, when explaining the exercises in hearing. (See Book Ix., Chap. I., Sect. III.) He then proposes a variety of English sentences, variations of the one just heard, which, being successively translated into the foreign language by the different members of the class, produce a series of analogous expressions which illustrate the particular form of the model-phrase. With learners as yet unskilled in this practice, he at first reduces the expression to its simplest form, and gradually introduces various changes in the persons, tenses, moods, and forms of the verbs; he substitutes or adds various words which show its application to diverse circumstances of colloquial intercourse, being, at the same time, careful to preserve, through all the transformations, the idiomatic construction of the original expression. He multiplies the variations of each. model-phrase in proportion to the usefulness of the idea which it conveys, or to the difficulty of its structure. In this way the phraseology of the foreign text is diversified indefinitely, and affords an exhaustless source of practice in speaking. A selfinstructing learner may, as already suggested, derive considerable advantage from thus clothing his own ideas in the words of a standard author. Any well written work may be used for this exercise; but the best calculated for this object is that which, by the popularity of its topics and the idiomatic turn of its style, furnishes the most useful materials for conversation. For a class, the model-phrases may be written on a black board in view of the learners, who can thus the more easily follow the explanations of the professor, and construct similar phrases, at the same time that their memory is assisted by associating the orthography with the pronunciation. All the variations which are successively introduced may be tested by comparison with the model expression on the board; and their analogy being thus rendered more obvious, greater facility is afforded for construction. A professor, desirous of forwarding his pupils in grammatical analysis, can also use this means of exercising them in parsing the expressions submitted to their investigation. The black board will be found useful, whenever ocular demonstration may be required; for instruction is better secured when conveyed to the mind through the senses of seeing and hearing at the same time. Ollendorff's "New Method," consisting of phrases formed on the principles of imitation and analogy, may, indeed, assist in introducing learners to the arts of speaking and writing the foreign language; but its phraseology demands considerable modification to make it applicable to general conversation. The tiresome repetition of the same phrases and the perpetual succession of homely questions and answers, diffuse throughout the exercises a monotony and triviality of expression, little calculated to interest, or to impart extensive command of the language. There is no teacher or adult learner who could not, with the phraseology of any popular standard work as a model, form more diversified, more useful, and more select phrases, than those which fill the first volume of this cumbrous and expensive compilation.. Jacotot and his followers attempt to initiate learners into the speaking of a foreign language by asking them questions on the subject of the book they learn by rote; but the process of catechising young persons in various passages of one author, so as, in some sort, to compel them to use in their answers his very words, requires, on the part of a teacher, some preparation and a degree of attention and skill within the compass of very few. Besides, this exercise, for the greater part, elicits from learners only the mechanical repetition of words and phrases; it confines them to a very limited number of subjects; does not provide an extensive phraseology, nor even afford opportunity to practise the interrogative form; in short, this method, like phrasebooks and dialogues, taxes the memory of learners without calling into action their own powers of analogy and invention. Tarver and Le Vert are, in this country, the only authors in whose works we have seen direct allusion to the phrase-making exercise; however, although their methods are more comprehensive than those of Jacotot, Ollendorff, Hamilton, Dufief, Porquet, and many others, set forth with ridiculous pretensions, they fail equally by deficiency in devising means of advancement in the higher departments of the study, and, especially, in the power of directly associating ideas with words of thinking in a foreign language. CHAPTER III. NARRATION AND CONVERSATION. SECT. I.-INTERCOURSE BETWEEN TEACHER AND PUPIL MOST WHEN the extempore formation of sentences has become of easy execution, and when the language, written or spoken, is perfectly understood, the learner may begin to converse in the foreign tongue: this he will easily do, if he be much in the society of his instructor, or of a friend who speaks that language. The union of these two characters in one individual would greatly forward the learner's progress in conversation. It is therefore, advisable that a professor of languages should, in his intercourse with his pupils, preserve a degree of intimacy, gentleness, and indulgence, without detracting from his authority he should be conversable rather than dictatorial, and should have, at all times, a pleasing manner, cheerful countenance, and familiar delivery. Unrelieved gravity, by intimidating his pupils, would repel their confidence and be an obstacle to freedom of communication. : Learners, on their part, should not hesitate to question their teacher on all doubtful points, or communicate with him on every thing which may interest them; they should consider him a friend as well as a master; they should repose in him the most implicit confidence, and, withal, show him that deference and respect which his high office claims. From the unjust depreciation of the teacher's services in this country, he is sometimes denied that courtesy to which, as a gentleman, he is entitled. This observation more particularly applies to parents and adult learners in the opulent class of society. A learner, whatever be his rank, should be free from that unbecoming pride which too often prompts the wealthy man to look down upon any person whom he pays. What social intercourse can exist between a disdainful pupil |