"Vir bonus, dicendi peritus," (a good man skilled in the art of speech.)

SECT. V. THE LEARNER'S CAPABILITY OF SPEAKING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPENDENT ON THE TEACHER.

The art of speaking a foreign language cannot be imparted, unless the teacher is himself able to speak it with fluency and correctness. The acquisition of this art being the result of practice, demands an interlocutor with whom the learners may practise, and who may, by his example, induce them to speak, as well as teach them how to speak. If he be not a fluent speaker himself, he will be unwilling to expose his deficiency, and his pupils will remain without practice; if he be not a correct speaker, he will impart to them all his errors and vulgarisms. Even should the instructor, following some of our directions, confine himself to reading to his pupils and making them narrate, yet the part he takes in these two exercises implies the power of fluent and correct speaking; for he cannot enable them to understand the language when spoken by the natives, if he does not himself pronounce like the natives, so as to accustom their ear to the familiar way of speaking that language; nor, when they narrate, can he correct their errors in pronunciation, choice of terms, grammatical concord, and idiomatical construction, if he be not himself able to express every idea readily and properly. Classical teachers, being rarely in possession of such a command of oral expression in Latin, have it not in their power to enable their pupils to speak that language.

The teacher should, by every means, draw his pupils into a dialogue, and elicit their colloquial powers; he should frequently question them on topics familiar to them, and for which he knows they are in possession of words; he should especially make the books which they are studying, subjects of conversation. Through his good management the riches which they have accumulated by reading and listening, may now, by conversation, be rendered productive, and enable them henceforward to enjoy the fruit of their exertion. Let them be communicative with him and trust to him for assistance and correction: it is his business to afford them every facility. He may, when they are completely masters of mental audition in the foreign language, furnish them with an inexhaustible topic, by teaching them, through that language, any other branch of knowledge, and,

above all, a second foreign language. If, in the latter case, the first language be substituted for the native tongue of the pupils in all the explanations of the professor, and in all the exercises necessary for acquiring the second, they will be afforded constant practice in hearing and speaking, which cannot fail to secure facility of expression.

If the teacher know how to encourage the efforts of his pupils, and seize every opportunity to call forth their powers of expression as they gradually extend their vocabulary, he will secure for them ease and expertness, -two most desirable qualities of speech, as they will be to them in after-life great inducements to join in conversation. People are inclined to indulge in what they can do easily; but feel reluctant to practise, especially in the presence of others, any art which demands effort on their part. A person who conveys his ideas without hesitation, although he may commit errors, will be listened to with less impatience, and even with more pleasure, than one who speaks in a hesitating manner, however classically correct his expressions may be.

When learners feel confidence and freedom in delivery, practice is all they require to arrive at superior skill in the art of conversation, and form those habits of language which secure the acquisition. It entirely depends on the teacher, by causing his pupils to practise phrase-making, narration, and conversation, as also by reading and speaking to them in the foreign language, to render its phraseology so familiar, and, as it were, instinctive, that by the force of habit they will retain the power of speaking long after the period of learning. The recollection of a language is, as before remarked, commensurate with the extent of practice, not with the degree of skill attained in it. A person, for instance, who, in a residence of two years in France, has acquired some fluency and accuracy in speaking French, would, on his return home, forget that language sooner than one who did not speak it quite so fluently or so accurately, but who, everything else being equal, had practised it double the time. On the same principle, the younger a child goes to reside abroad, the sooner he forgets the vernacular idiom; because the shorter is the period during which he has practised it. Whereas an adult, when abroad, preserves for a long time the power of expressing himself in his native tongue, even though he has no opportunity of hearing or speaking it. The more frequently learners are in the society of a foreigner, whether

VOL. II.

R

he be a teacher or a friend, with whom they can converse in his own tongue, and the more intimate also their social intercourse with him, the sooner will they acquire, and the longer will they retain, the art of speaking that language.

SECT. VI. OBSTACLES TO THE SPEAKING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

In this country great obstacles are thrown in the way of those who wish to converse in a foreign language. It is a notorious fact that the number of practical linguists is smaller here than among the continental nations, although foreign living languages are as generally studied as anywhere else. The insufficiency of the time devoted to them, and the wrong methods employed in learning them, although contributing, in great measure, to this result, are not the only causes of their being so little spoken.

This department of instruction is, especially among the wealthy, generally confided to English tutors and governesses, who, for the most part, not being themselves able to speak the foreign languages which they profess to teach, have it not in their power to impart this art to their pupils. The few who, under competent foreigners, have attained proficiency, are often deterred from availing themselves of their acquisition in society, by the dread of exciting laughter, to which the English are but too prone in detecting mistakes, whether committed by a foreigner speaking their language, or a countryman of their own speaking a foreign idiom. As to social intercourse with their teachers, or other strangers whose language they have learned, which would afford them opportunity to practise that language, they seldom enjoy such an advantage, owing to the national pride and spirit of aristocratic distinctions established by birth and fortune which generally exclude foreigners from society. "Nowhere in Europe, perhaps, does difference of fortune or station," we may add, of birth, of religion, of politics, and of country, "produce more unsocial and illiberal separations. The people meet, as if to fight the boundaries of their rank and fashion, and the less definite and perceptible is the line which divides them, the more punctilious is their pride. It is a great mistake to suppose that this low-minded folly is peculiar to people of rank: it is an English disease. But the higher we go in society, the wider the circle of the excluded becomes, consequently the greater the

range of human beings cast forth from the pale of sympathy.. The lofty walls, the iron spikes that surround our villas, and the notices everywhere affixed, that trespassers will be prosecuted with the utmost rigour of the law, are meet emblems of the social spirit that connects the different orders of society in England."

*

In this land of political liberty, but social despotism, high talents are tolerated in society only when they court patronage at the sacrifice of personal dignity. As to teachers, they are seldom admitted to such a favour; for them especially, in this age of intellectual emancipation, is kept up the spirit of the good old times, when poets and schoolmasters were considered as part of the domestic establishments of the feudal lords. Whilst, on the continent, an eminent teacher sits at the table of the noblest princes, such a man in this country would, probably even to those who call themselves liberal, be an unwelcome guest at any entertainment to which the respectable inhabitants of a city are invited. This is inconsistent with the high estimation in which education is said to be held; it is a disgrace to a civilised community.

"The respect we pay to wealth," says Sir E. L. Bulwer Lytton, "absorbs the respect we should pay to genius. Literary men have not with us any fixed and settled position as men of letters. In the great game of honours none fall to their share. We may say truly, with a certain political economist, 'We pay best, first, those who destroy us,-generals; second, those who cheat us,— politicians and quacks; third, those who amuse us,—singers and musicians; and least of all, those who instruct us." "+

Society, as it is constituted here, will long keep from the field of instruction foreigners of eminence and respectability. It is not probable that persons of capacity and education, capable of nobly fulfilling the duties of the profession, would exchange the beautiful climate of France or of Italy for the less genial atmosphere of England or Ireland; would expatriate themselves, and forfeit the consideration to which they are entitled, and which they enjoy at home, for the paltry remuneration and often cold reception given to them in these islands. What can a teacher expect, who builds his future prospects on knowledge, intellect, and morality, when we see birth alone respected, titles alone honoured, and wealth alone esteemed?

Woman's Rights.

† England and the English.