Maya. neral structure of the language he is learning*; and although it be not uncommon to hear it said, that the perfection of teaching consists in grounding the scholars aright in the fundamentals of the language, by which is meant the obliging the children to repeat by rote a great many words which have been driven into their memory by dint of frequent repetition, and to which they have no idea annexed, yet it is obvious to reason, that the natural order is here directly inverted, and that the teacher begins precisely where he should end; viz. that the scholar, by practice, fhould first be brought to know and understand the general meaning of the language, and after he has done so, be gradually instructed in its niceties, peculiarities, and elegancies; and expe rience abundantly confirms the justnefs of this remark. All those languages which are taught in modern times, chiefly by explaining the meaning of the words, such as French, Italian, Spanish, and most modern living languages, without much strels being laid upon those fundamentals, as they are called, are acquired with facility, and can be spoken with fluency in a fhort time; whereas the Latin

*Mathematical learning is the basis of all mechanical knowledge, without which no considerable progress ever could have been made in the structure of useful machines; but it does not follow that every person who is to make use of these machines in the ordinary business of life re quires to be a deep mathematical scholar. It is in general enough ifhe can perform exactly that which he has seen others do before him. Just so it is with language, the critical scholar ought to understand all the principles of the mechanism of language, but it is quite enough if the ordinary operator knows how to make use of it for the purposes of life as others have done before him.

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language, which is chiefly taught in that absurd manner, is acquired with infinite difficulty, labour, and application, a moderate knowledge of it seldom being acquired in lefs than six or seven years intense study; and after all, for the most part, it cannot even then be spoken without great difficulty, and in a very imperfect manner.

I know well it will be said, that this is to be ascribed to the peculiar and difficult construction of that language; but that this is a mere pretext, without any foundation in nature, is sufficiently obvious from this single consideration, that the children in ancient Rome found as little difficulty in learning Latin, their mother tongue, as the children in other countries do to learn their several native dialects; and that they learned that language precisely as every other living language is acquired by children, without any attention to the fundamentals above named. We therefore suffer ourselves to be amused with chimerical notions, and blindly submit to a most tedious and unnecessary task, because no one has the resolution to think for himself, or dares to stem the general torrent that runs against him. I will not dwell on other arguments to fhow the futility of this notion, nor enter into any reasoning on the difficulties that every learner thinks he feels from the peculiar arrangement of the words which that language admits of, because this would lead to too great length; this is merely an imaginary difficulty, which never would be felt by one who learned the language by the ear and practice. In the arrangement of words which our own and eve

May t ry other language admits of, a similar variatio on is entirely unobserved by those, who, though they perfectly understand the meaning of every word that occurs, have never critically studied their own language. I may add, that the Latin pofsefses certain peculiarities in its construction, that tend to make the meaning of sentences, by those who learn it in the way I here allude to, more easily understood than most modern languages:

Two ends may be proposed in learning a language. One is to be able to read and understand a book that is written in that language, without attempting either to speak or to write it; the other is not only to be able to read a book, but also to speak and to write it with ease. That a language may be acquired for the first purpose, merely by the dogmatical mode of teaching, cannot be disputed, though the procefs is tedious and difficult; but it is nearly impossible, that, for the last purpose, it ever can be perfectly acquired by adhering to that method alone. But seeing it is of much more use in life to be able to speak and to write a language with ease, than barely to understand it in reading a book, so it would be a great advantage to the learner if all languages, especially those we ever can have occasion to make use of in conversation or writing, were taught in that manner in preference to the other.

In the present state of Europe it would be of use, where a complete system of education in languages was proposed to be given, that students should have it in their power to be instructed to read, write, and converse with ease in the follow

ing languages, viz. Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch. and English ; and that the Greek and Hebrew, with other dead languages that may be wanted, should be so taught, as that the student fhould be able to read and understand them; there being little occasion now either to speak or write these languages with fluency.

For the teaching of these languages in a proper manner, it is proposed that a building fhould be erected for a Gymnasium, totally detached from all other buildings, in a quadrangular form. The area in the centre fhould be allotted for a spot whereon the boys can amuse themselves in the open air. The buildings around fhould be supported on pillars, so as to form arcades towards the court, to afford a covered walk for recreation in rain or bad weather, and should be appropriated for lodgings and convenient apartments for the preceptors of the different languages and their pupils. A large grafs area adjoining, fhould also, if pofsible, be provided, in which the boys can be allowed to run and play at freedom when they pleased. It would be easy to make this an economical adjunct, by converting it into a field for cows, &c. to feed in, for the conveniency of the seminary.

As an illustration of the manner in which the different branches of language might be acquired, let us suppose that one student intended to attain all the above named languages, and trace his progrefs step by step through the whole.

We will suppose, then, that a boy from eight to ten years of age is first put under the care of the

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preceptor of LATIN, in whose house he fhould be placed as a boarder for a convenient time. His education while here fhould be conducted on the following plan:

In this family, no other language but Latin alone fhould on any occasion be allowed to be spoken, either by masters or servants, or any other person within the family. On entering, therefore, the boy would be under the necessity of learning to use this language on all occasions, to avoid the disagreeable trouble and embarrassment of explaining his meaning by signs; and under the care of the preceptor and afsistants would be in no danger of acquiring either barbarous words, or falling into grammatical vulgarities. In this colloquial way he should be allowed to proceed, without any other teaching of Latin, for the space of a year and a half, or two years, in which time he must have acquired a very general practical knowledge of the language, and a great command of words, in the same way' as a child born in ancient Rome would naturally have acquired a knowledge of his mother tongue, without any farther effort than that attention which a desire to supply his own wants naturally demanded. At no time, therefore, would he make greater progrefs than when at play, or when keenly engaged in the innocent recreations of childhood.

During this period, however, it would be improper to leave the boy entirely unemployed. He might with propriety be sent out an hour, or two hours a day, to learn to read English, under the