context, cannot be determined when the remainder of that sentence is as yet unknown. The search for single words often requires more time than would the reading of whole sentences by means of a verbal translation accompanying the text; and the slowness with which their meanings reach the mind not only renders it difficult to seize their collective sense, but the process is so little calculated to fix them on the memory, that the learner not unfrequently has forgotten the first words of a sentence, before he has arrived at the last, and must go through the annoying and laborious task of searching for them a second time. This and other objections to the use of dictionaries will be more fully adverted to in the next chapter; for the present, it may suffice to observe, that the unseasonable applications to a dictionary impose unnecessary labour, which causes much delay and tends to discourage learners. To its use may be partly attributed the slow progress which boys make in classical learning. They must, indeed, find it difficult to attain proficiency in an art the acquisition of which demands, at least, the reading of twenty-five volumes, when, by the lexicon process, they translate but twenty or thirty lines a day.

Should a beginner have the advantage of a great portion of his teacher's time and attention; should his instruction, for instance, be carried on by a parent or a resident tutor, he should be encouraged to inquire for the meaning of every foreign word which presents difficulty, and to ask explanation of the sentences which he does not perfectly understand. If his age has not yet permitted him to master an extensive stock of native words, he should be told the meaning of the new ones which he has occasion to use in his translation. He should, in fact, be assisted in understanding the native as well as the foreign terms. Whenever practicable, the organs of sense may also be brought in aid of the explanations which he requires. Explaining foreign expressions by the language of action—that is, by directing the perceptive faculties of the child to the objects alluded to in the text-associates in his mind the thing signified with the words of the two languages, and thus prepares him for acquiring the power of thinking in the foreign idiom.

The knowledge of words is in proportion-not, as commonly believed, to the trouble one has had in discovering their meanings-but to the eagerness with which the mind receives them, to the fitness of the time for learning them, to the intensity of attention bestowed on them, to the frequency of their recur

rence, and to the opportunities one has of using them afterwards./ The old adage, “easily learned soon forgot," applies to what is learned without sufficient attention, not to what is quickly conceived. When words are acquired at the moment they are wanted, attention is vividly roused, and they remain indelibly engraved on the memory.

So the young child, moved by the simple impulse of nature, arrives, without much trouble, at a knowledge of the words of his own language, and yet retains them with astonishing ease; every gesture, every tone of the voice, every expression of the countenance, assists him in discovering the sense of what he hears. As he advances, he is left to his own resources: we speak before him, not for him, of things but imperfectly intelligible to him; yet he listens with curiosity, and, anxious to discover the subject of our conversation, he depends on the context, when external signs fail him. His first conception of phrases, words, and verbal inflections, may be very imperfect, but the ever-changing circumstances which are connected with them daily supply the deficiencies and bring him nearer to the exact meaning of the expressions. It is thus that, at the entrance upon life, imagination divines the words and imitation soon after reproduces them. Simple and beautiful is the process by which nature initiates children into the language of their parents!

If we contrast in their results the imitative process of nature, which we take for our model, and by which a child ten years old learns without trouble what, in the ordinary circumstances of life, he never will forget, with the lexicon and grammar method, the slow process by which boys take seven or eight years to learn a little Latin, which nine-tenths of them forget in half the time, it will show in a striking manner the superiority of the natural method.

SECT. IV. OF EXPLANATIONS IN INTRODUCTORY BOOKS.

As facilities must be afforded to learners, it is a question of age and of convenience whether they should be given orally or in writing the first of these two methods suits children better; the second, adults; the first is better calculated for private, and the second, for public instruction. The oral assistance of the teacher, which prevailed in the old school when Europe abounded in Latin scholars more practical than we can now boast of,

although indispensable in the case of very young children, would not always be practicable with older students. These may dispense with a professor, or receive only periodical lessons during which little time is allowed for translation. They must have recourse to books which assist beginners in translation and supply the place of an instructor; for every means should be resorted to, that may save the time and labour required by frequent reference to the dictionary. This latter help may be had recourse to, when, after having gained some proficiency in reading, the learner has few words to look for, and is able to select the most appropriate from the numerous translations attached to the words in a lexicon.

The initiatory books which may best enable a beginner to translate a foreign language in the absence of the teacher, are those in which the text is accompanied by a literal translation, that is, an explanation of the words, placed either, 1, between the lines of the text; 2, in the margin underneath; 3, on the page opposite; or, 4, at the back of the text. Of these different arrangements, the first is the least desirable, because it perplexes the eye and diverts the attention from the text; the others present less temptation to apply unnecessarily to the interpretation; and the last, more especially, provides against the pupils glancing at the explanation, when examined by their teacher. In these books each foreign term should be interpreted by one corresponding in the national language; the place of the words understood should be supplied, and idiomatical forms translated, both literally and freely. The explanations of the first book could not be too minute; but the aid afforded to learners should diminish gradually in the succeeding volumes. For those who have already made some progress, separate annotations might be introduced to explain local customs, peculiar allusions, or other collateral information which` may be deemed useful, and sufficiently connected with the subject not to distract the attention. But literal translations, interlineal, marginal, or other, should be used only with a few elementary works,-the standard classics being reserved for a time when learners can construe and translate without such assistance.

The use of these books is in perfect accordance with the natural process by which the infant associates ideas with the first words that he hears in the vernacular tongue. We have already, in Book v. Chap. I., adverted to the similarity of these two modes of proceeding. The native expressions addressed to him

are always accompanied by tones, looks, and gestures, which explain them at once. The translation attached to the text interprets the foreign words at once, as the language of action interprets the native, and ensures the knowledge of them more effectually than the dictionary, because words are better remembered when one appropriate meaning is attached to them, than when the judgment is divided between many different interpretations. By means of these explanations, practice soon associates in the mind of the learner the foreign words with the native, so that a recurrence of the former will readily recall the latter; and thus will the power of comprehending the written language be rapidly acquired. This method has even an advantage over that of nature; for, intelligible as the language of action proves to be to the child, it is evident that it cannot always convey to him the meaning of words, particularly of those which express abstract ideas, or of things not within the power of perception at the time, as precisely and as rapidly as a verbal interpretation accompanying the text does to a person who studies a foreign language. The latter ought, therefore, to be understood by a learner in less time than the native tongue by the child. If the grammar and dictionary method is so deplorably tedious, it is because it is in direct opposition to

nature.

In availing himself of the aid afforded by the initiatory books, the learner should not be too hasty in applying to the native words. If he makes use of an interlineal translation, he ought to keep it covered, look at it only after having endeavoured to translate independently of that assistance, and then rest his attention, for a moment, on his new acquisition, to impress it well on his memory. If the same words are, in the explanation, translated differently according to their various acceptations, he will, from the definite meaning they bear in each particular instance, form a clearer conception of their true and varied import, than if he had had recourse to a dictionary; because it is only from the circumstances in which they are applied that he can determine their exact signification. He will also have greater facility for remembering these words; for their association in his mind with the native ones is, by means of their juxta-position, immediate and the more close, as he can have no doubt of the appropriateness of the interpretation in each particular case; the dictionary, on the contrary, by often presenting many translations for a foreign word, keeps him in

doubt as to the proper one, and thus weakens the impression and the association.

When, by means of the explanation affixed to the text, the student is once in possession of all the words of a sentence, he will, in most cases, be able easily to discover the sense conveyed by that sentence. The literal translation used to explain the foreign text, not only will give the meanings of individual words more appropriately than a dictionary, and enable the student to arrive at the sense of his author with less expenditure of time, but will also exhibit, in a striking manner, the points of resemblance and difference between the two languages.

SECT. V.-INTERLINEAL TRANSLATION.-DUMARSAIS' METHOD.

Interlineal translation is not a modern discovery; it was known as far back as the ninth century, as we are informed by Justus Lipsius. Arius Montanus, long since, published the Hebrew Bible with an interlineal version in Latin, which, although rather imperfect, has rendered great service to Hebraic studies. The method of interlineal translation has, for a long time, we believe, been extensively practised in Germany. Locke strongly recommends it as being, in his opinion, the readiest means of initiating a learner into the reading of foreign writers.* After him, this system has been advocated by Dr. Samuel Clarke, Luneau de Boisgermain, Dumarsais, Radonvilliers, the Abbé Gaultier, and many distinguished professors, who have used it, and still use it with success, and who have published works with interlineal versions. Condillac, who, in his education of the Duke of Parma, adopted that method, declares it to be the best for teaching the dead languages.† D'Alembert sanctions it by his entire approbation. It has, of late, in this country, been improperly named after Hamilton, who also proclaimed its efficiency, but long after many writers had done so. Some credit, however, is due to him for his exertion in giving it publicity, and bringing it into operation in Great Britain.

The promoters of the interlineal method do not all agree in the details: some preserve the original text, others alter it in conformity with the genius of the language into which the translation is made; that translation is also more or less literal, according to the particular views of its author. Our limits not * Thoughts on Education. Eloge de Dumarsais.

† Cours d'Etude.