The mastery of languages; or, The art of speaking foreign tongues idiomatically

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THE

MASTERY OF LANGUAGES;

OR, THE ART OF

SPEAKING FOREIGN TONGUES

IDIOMATICALLY.

THOMAS PRENDERGAST,

FORMERLY OF TIER MAJESTY'S CIVIL SERVICE AT MADRAS..

'• .*. .•^•.

LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,

PMisktT in Ordhiary to Iler Majtsty,
18 64.

i-"-

NF,w ■ ■ -'v^

>A \ '±'i ii

LONDON:

PftllCTKD BT 0. W. BKTNKLL, LITTLK PULTENKT mRKT,

HAIMAKKBT, W.

[The right of Trantlation is reserved. ]

CONTENTS.

PAOK

Preface . . . . . v

Chapter L — ^Analysis of the Process followed by Children 1

„ EL— Outlme of the Scheme . .19

„ in.— Memory . . . . . 29

„ lY. — Evolutions of Language . . .49

Coupled Sentences . . . . *60

„ v.— -The Process . . . .69

„ VI. — On the Selection of Sentences . . 106

„ Vn. — On Fluency and Learning by Rote 136

„ Vm. — Pronunciation . . . . 145

„ IX.— English . . . .157

A list of the Commonest English Words,

Declinable and Indeclinable . .-. .164

.* '. •» '•
Samples of Sentences containing from Twetnty • . •

to Thirty of the Commonest Words*. •.,!■. 165

Paradigm or Synopsis, showing the Yariktions'. . .

of the Commonest DeclinabK-^^ords. in \* ^ / » .

the English Language . ' ',^. ^ '.' •>. •'/'.>. 1G«5 ' '

„ X.— Teloogoo . . 'V'V^\;y^'/''.^%\l6Y

Paradigm of the Commonest Intfectipaa' iit,' *

Teloogoo . . . \ \' ' . 184

Teloogoo Sentences . ' *.' . *184

„ XL — ^Hindustani . . . .185

Hindustani Sentences . . . 187

Hindustani Paradigm, or Synopsis of the

Terminations of all the Variable parts of

Speech . . . .188

„ XII. — On Grammar . . . . 189

„ Xni.— On Book-Work . . .217

„ XIV. — Miscellaneous Notes, and The Labyrinth . 223

Note . . . . . . 259

.'":".'\y..'"i.''..

• . •• •.

PREFACE.

^HE design of this treatise is to show by an
analysis of the child's process, —

1. That the power of speaking foreign, lan-
guages idiomatically, may be attained . with
facility by adults without going abroad.; "■ ,

2. That sentences may be so formulated, in
all languages, that when the5^:.are,"tlK>ro%hiy
learned, the results evolved therefeoEafrwitl in
each new lesson double the number of .idiomatic
combinations previously acquired.

3. That the acquisition of imconnected words
is comparatively worthless, because they have
not that property of expansion.

4. That the preliminary study of grammar is
unnecessary.

VI PREFACE.

5. That the power of speaMng other tongues
idiomatically is attained principally by efforts of
the memory, not by logical reasonings.

6. That, the capacity of the memory for the
retention of foreign words is universally over-
estimated; and that every beginner ought, in
reason, to ascertain by experiments the precise
extent of his own individual power.

7. That inasmuch as a word, not perfectly
retained by the memory, cannot be correctly
reproduced, the beginner ought to restrict him-
self within the limit of his ascertained capacity.

••,8*:3?hat he should therefore avoid seeing or

heaiiji&.-OAe word in excess of those which he is

• , •*" •
^Jurtti^ljr.^ng&g^^ in committing to memory.

* •:'.;?. . ^Oat.^ tiifi;;i-)nere perusal of a grammar
• • •* •,•* • *• ••* •*

clogSV*]tK(&. memory^ with imperfect recollections
of words5..and fractions of words; and therefore
it is interdicted.

10. That, nevertheless, the beginner who
adopts this method, will not fail to speak gram-
matically.

11. That the most notable characteristic of
the child's process, is that he speaks fluently

PREFACE. VU

and idiomatically with a very small number of /
words.

12. That the epitome of language made by
children, all the world over, is substantially the
same.

13. That when a child can employ two
hundred words of a foreign tongue, he possesses
a practical knowledge of all the syntactical
constructions, and of all the foreign sounds.

14. That every foreign language should
therefore be epitomized for a beginner, by the
fi:aming of a set of strictly practical sentences,
embodying two hundred of the most useful
words, and comprising all the most diflGicult
constructions.

15. That by "mastering" such an epitome,
in the manner prescribed, a beginner will obtain
the greatest possible results, with the smallest
amount of exertion; whilst, at the same time,
he wiU have abundant leisure to bestow upon
the pronunciation that prominent attention to
which it is entitled.

The theory on which the scheme is based is

Vm PREFACE.

that whatever we undertake to leam, should
be learned Oioroughly ; that no exertion is called
for^ in reproducing what has been so acquired ;
that if it be repeated daily it cannot be for-
gotten ; that long sentences are more useful
than short ones, because many of the lesser
are contained in the greater, and are deducible
from them by subdivision; that the treachery
of the memory may be effectually neutralized,
by always hearing or seeing the lesson afresh,
before any effort is made to reproduce it ; that
the action of the memory is more vigorous in
frequent short efforts, than in continuous appli-
cation; that the formation of habit coincides
with that principle; and that a pursuit, which
is not beyond the capacity of very young
children, ought not to be conducted as if it were
a severe intellectual undertaking.

In theory, some of these propositions are
admitted, but in practice the first lessons
are not tholroughly acquired ; they are not
thoroughly amalgamated; the memory is over-
loaded; and the sentences are too short, and
too much limited by technical considerations.

PREFACE. IX

A remedy for this want of thoroughness
can only be found in the establishment of
some test which can neither be impugned
nor evaded ; for a standard which is not
stringently applied, is a mere delusion. We
ought to avail ourselves of all those compensa-
tions which nature has provided for the feeble-
ness of the intellectual powers during childhood.
That perfect "mastery" over their vernacular
tongue which children display, as they advance
step by step, must be relentlessly exacted in
relation to each foreign sentence committed to
memory, and to each branch into which the
beginner may think fit to divide his operations.

This method is specially designed to meet
the wants of adults, and to foster the inva-
luable process of self-instruction. It combines
"unity with progress." As it only professes
to be an exposition of phenomena which have
come under everyone's observation, the want
of novelty may not be considered altogether
unpardonable. There may not be one idea
^hich has not been forestalled by the thousands
of able men who have given their lives to the

X PREFACE.

study of the art of learning languages. But as
there has been no clear enunciation of the
imiversality and energy of that principle which
is traceable in the operations of every one
who has attained colloquial success, whether
with or without methodical procedure, this
work is not altogether xumecessary.

Sages are constantly remarking that there
is no royal road to learning. But the iron
rail is a right royal improvement on the high-
ways of our forefathers ; and the ocean steamer
surpasses all their conceptions of the per-
fectibility of navigation. Our communications
with foreign nations have attained an astonishing
development; but no parallel facilitation of the
intercourse between man and man has been
effected, although its importance in relation to
all that concerns the best and highest interests
of our race, is incalculable.

Complicated and erudite schemes are gene-
rally received with approbation; but it is hard
to persuade men to condescend to a simpli-
fication of the process followed by child-
ren. Nevertheless, the searcher for truth

FBEFACE. XI

will doubtless extend his indulgence to this
attempt to decipher a neglected page in the
book of nature. The crude suggestions here
put forth may perhaps fall into the hands of
practical men, who will apply them to the
formation of a soimd system for promoting
an elegant accomplishment ; for securing eco-
nomy of time and labour; for enabling any
individual residing abroad to disseminate a
knowledge of his own language ; and for quali-
fying many to go forth into all lands, and
preach the Gospel of Peace.

August 1864.

CHAPTER I.

ANALYSIS OF THE PROCESS FOLLOWED BY
CHILDREN,

T^HERE are certain maxims which have exer-
-*- cised a most pernicious influence in deterring
people from the study of languages, and from the
investigations requisite to lead to the discovery of
the proper method of acquiring them.

It. is currently believed, on the authority of
great names, that the aptitude which we display
in childhood is lost by degrees as we grow to
maturity ; and that there is a special faculty which
characterizes the linguist, without which no great
or rapid progress can reasonably be expected.

But we have no proof that any of our powers
begin to decay in early life, nor are we in pos-
session of any analysis of the infantile process,
complete enough to enable us to determine by
what method, or by what concurrence of accidents,

B

Z ANALYSIS OF THE PROCESS

it happens that every child acquires an idio-
matic power over the language of those among
whom his lot may be cast. We may, therefore,
repudiate those maxims, and thus get rid of the
two chief obstacles which we encounter on the
threshold.

In ojher pursuits we work upon certain intel-
ligible principles, and we gradually obtain definite
results, commensurate with our efforts ; but no true
mode of action has been laid down, whereby an edu-
cated man, even when residing abroad, can reason-
ably expect to acquire a free colloquial use of a
foreign language, without going through a course of
study, which is always either tedious or laborious,
and which, in many instances, proves unavailing.

The scholar fails in spite of the advantages
he possesses in having access to the accumulated
learning, and the combined experience and skill of
all Christendom. And yet every one of his chil-
dren, unless subjected to counteracting influences,
accomplishes the task without books, without study,
and without instruction. This is a mystery which
he does not even attempt to solve, because he
believes that the child has one more faculty than
is possessed by the man.

But uneducated men often learn to speak
foreign tongues in a few weeks, without any of
the appliances of science. In such persons it is
obvious that the aptitude has extended beyond the

FOLLOWED BY CHILDREN. 3

period of childhood : but then they are declared to
be endowed with that special faculty, which,
though it does not indicate any intellectual supe-
riority, is not enjoyed by ordinary mortals. Thus
the question is universally evaded and shelved.

It is a very unpalatable fact that people of
the slenderest capacity are found to surpass men
of brilliant talents in this pursuit, but the only
safe conclusion that can be drawn, is that the
latter have worked on erroneous principles, and
have widely deviated from the true course.

The object of this work is to show that, in
the infantile process, there lies latent a method
absolutely perfect, which is within the compass
of the feeblest intellect, but the principle of which
has never been satisfactorily expounded.

The late Cardinal Mezzofanti, indisputably the
greatest linguist that ever lived, has passed away
from among us, leaving his plan of learning lan-
guages unrevealed. But there is good reason to
doubt whether he had any fixed principle of action,
because none of his admirers could ever discover
one, and there was great inequality in the results
of his various efforts. His biographer relates that
he possessed a retentive memory, a quick ear, and
an incredible flexibility of the organs of speech.
He constantly filled his head with new words ; he
learned every new grammar, and applied himself
to every strange dictionary, but he vaguely

4 ANALYSIS OF THE PROCESS

described his talent as a "mere physical endow-
ment, a thing of instinct, almost of routine."

Some think that he was too vain of his pre-
eminence to divulge his secret, and others that he
had none to reveal. At all events, his labours
have been fruitless; and we have obtained no
useful suggestions either from him, or from any
other great linguist, to indicate the true method
of beginning to learn foreign tongues. On the
other hand, there appears to be nothing, either
in their practice or in their writings, to contro-
vert the notion that any person who adopts the
principle of the method employed by children,
may learn to speak a foreign tongue more expedi-
tiously and more idiomatically than many linguists
who commence their operations by learning gram-
mar, and studying the best authors, according to
the methods generally prevailing.

A child, living in daily association with foreign-
ers, acquires two or three languages at once, and
speaks them all fluently, idiomatically, and without
intermixture. He learns them, not unconsciously
nor without effort, but without tuition, without
one idea of the nature of the science of grammar,
and without any philosophical reasoning. This is
a feat which baffles the efforts of men of the highest
endowments, and of the best education.

If it be true that a great increase of power
results from the development of our faculties by

FOLLOWED BY CHILDREN. O

education, whence arises the supposed inability of
adults to compete with children in respect to the
employment of idiomatic forms of speech ? There
is one very obvious reason which outweighs every-
thing that can be put into the balance against it.
It is because we do not pursue the same course
that they do. Let us, therefore, track them closely ;
for if we tread in their footsteps, we must be in
the right path, and the result will show that we
have not lost the aptitude of childhood.

Many conflicting and unsatisfactory reasons are
assigned for the wonderful success of children, viz.,
their greater power of concentrating their attention ;
their freedom from care, from prejudice, and from
distraction; their elasticity of mind; the flexibility
of their vocal organs ; their greater quickness and
retentiveness of memory; the non-development of
those powers of discrimination and of comparison,
which adults exercise to their own disadvantage ;
their greater need impelling them to greater exer-
tions ; their constantly hearing a language spoken,
and thus learning by the aid of an ear uncorrupted ;
their greater delicacy of ear; their greater impres-
sibility; and, finally, their having a brain unoccu-
pied, and thus better adapted for the reception of
new words and ideas, like a sheet of paper, whereon
what is first written, although covered by innumer-
able new scribblings from day to day, is boldly
asserted to be ineffaceable and indestructible.

6 ANALYSIS OF THE PROCESS

As children talk long before they are able tu
reason about words, some hold that the gift of
speech is altogether independent of the intellec-
tual faculties, and that it is merely the result of a
physiological function. Many contend that there
can be no method in the process, because none is
discernible. No doubt, the operations of infants,
individually considered, are perplexingly unscien-
tific and inconsistent, and to all appearance destitute
of any indication of an orderly or systematic pro-
cedure. But when we reflect that, for six thousand
years, myriads of successful experiments have been
carried on unceasingly by children, in every region
of the earth, — and that, in spite of their inexpe-
rience, their intellectual weakness, and the total
want of concert among them, instances of failure
are almost unknown, — we are driven irresistibly to
the conclusion that there must be some method in
operation ; and it is time that that method should
be investigated and explained.

As we have already found one good and suffi-
cient cause why we fail in competing with children,
it is needless to examine all those suggestions
which have been devised to vindicate the theory of
our inferiority to our former selves. Instead of
this, let us try to collate all the facts that we can
find, connected with the infantile mode of proce-
dure, in order to ascertain how they harmonize
•with each other, and to resolve them into a

FOLLOWED BY CHILDREN. 7

practical system, which shall be consistent with
reason and general experience.

Being endowed with great sagacity in inter-
preting looks, tones, and gestures, infants begin to
understand what is addressed to them long before
they know the meaning of the individual words,
and they receive credit for knowing all that they
seem to understand. The wonder is that they
understand at the same time so much language,
and so few words.

But we are not envious of their power of
understanding what they hear, Ijecause we are not
inferior to them in that respect. It is in speaking
idiomatically that adults generally fail, and child-
ren always succeed. In this respect alone they
excel us, and this is the object of our inquiry.

It is useless to attempt to analyse mental
processes, or to divide the words which a child
understands and recollects, more or less perfectly,
into various classes, according to the degrees in
which they are severally known to him. But there
is a classification on a simple plan, which is
eminently precise. It divides words into the
known and the unknown, or those learned per-
fectly, and those learned imperfectly.

In order to determine with precision how many
and what words they know, we must observe those
combinations which they employ without being
prompted or assisted. Up to this stage they have

8 ANALYSIS OF THE PROCESS

been led and guided by their mothers and nurses,
from whom they have learned the utterance of
words, and in whose hands they have been passive in-
struments ; but now they begin to teach themselves
by imitating and repeating complete sentences.
This is the true commencement of that indepen-
dent process of self-instruction which we have to
investigate, to methodize, and to adopt.

As words are not language, except when they
are united in idiomatic combinations, we class
among the unknown all those which they employ
unconnectedly. On the other hand, by analysing
their sentences, we discover the number of words
really and practically known to them; and the
result proves how very small a number suffices to
produce that astonishing variety of expression
which loquacious children display.

Their eagerness in learning to talk, and the per-
severance and earnestness with which they apply
themselves to the reiteration of any form of speech
which pleases their fancy, are the sources of their
success in pronouncing and in reproducing whole
sentences. They show their intelligent appreciation
of these, by gradually interweaving with them the
single words which they have previously learned.
As they advance, they employ sentences in which
will be found many words which they do not
thoroughly understand, and some common phrases,
the precise meaning of which they do not, and

FOLLOWED BY CHILDREN. 9

need not, and perhaps never will comprehend,
because they puzzle the grammarian himself.
Nevertheless as we are now treating solely of
their power of speaking in sentences, we class
among the words which children know, every one
of those which they use correctly in combination.

Over these they have acquired, by their own
exertions, the right of possession and the power of
ownership. These, as the word " vernacular" sug-
gests, are the little home-bred slaves that come and
go at their bidding, and over which they exercise
absolute mastery and control, when they use the
gift of speech.

Their imitative faculty is always in active
operation, prompting them to echo and re-echo
what they hear; but more especially those truly
practical sentences, by means of which they obtain
the gratification of their desires. And because the
latter are very numerous, and are continually
recurring, the sentences which relate to them are
reiterated so often, that they gradually become
domiciled in the memory, and in course of time
they seem to issue spontaneously from the lips, as
if they were the natural expression of those desires.
But in reality they are called forth by repeated
efforts of memory, which, by the agency of habit,
become slighter and slighter, till at last they are
quite inappreciable. But habit is second nature,
and that which is the result of confirmed habit

10 ANALYSIS OF THE PROCESS

becomes so easy, that it is to all appearance in-
Yoluntary, and^ in common parlance, is said to be
natural.

As the stock of sentences which they learn de-
pends mainly on the chance utterances of others ;
as they are often checked and interrupted, when
they ought to be aided and encouraged in their
persevering, but tiresome reiteration of a new
sentence ; and as they are wayward and capricious
[ in bestowing their attention ; it often happens that
\ clever children are slow, while stupid ones are
comparatively quick in learning to talk. It
will be shown hereafter that their progress in
speaking is regulated by the practical utility of
those sentences which they acquire, and by their
assiduity in employing them, with other words
interchanged.

Amongst all their mistakes and deficiencies, it
must be borne in mind that they are sadly puzzled
by hearing many sentences that are too long to
be remembered, many that are unintelligible, and
many that are unsuitable to be repeated, word
for word, to express their own thoughts and
wishes.

But their individual imperfections do not
impeach the perfection, or the validity of the
system of nature which they unconsciously adopt.
That system must be judged of by its results in
in the aggregate, not by the isolated operations of

FOLLOWED BY CHILDREN. 11

individuals, who pick up a language in a course of
careless desultory gleaning.

When children undertake to compose a sentence
which they have never heard uttered by others, or
not often enough to enable them to retain it
thoroughly in the memory, they speak with inde-
cision and inaccuracy. But when they utter
complete idiomatical sentences with fluency, with
accurate pronunciation, and with decision, while
they are still incapable of understanding any of the
principles according to which they unconsciously
combine their words in grammatical form, it is
obvious that they must have learned, retained,
and reproduced them by dint of imitation and
reiteration.

These sentences are the rails on which the
trains of thought travel swiftly, smoothly, and
without the slightest deviation from their proper
course; and each language seems to constitute a
separate line of rails, because they do not clash
with each other when the little linguists have
occasion to converse with two or more foreigners of
diflferent nations. The reason of this appears to
be that, in the first instance, the words are
indissolubly bound together in those sentences
which the child learns by rote, that is by imita-
tion, and repetition of the sounds, but not
without a definite idea of their combined meaning.
By slow and almost imperceptible degrees he

\

12 ANALYSIS OF THE PROCESS

begins to frame variations of the sentences, by
interchanging the words or the clauses, and by
inserting new words, as humour, or chance, or
necessity impel him ; but still their first connec-
tion with each other is preserved unbroken in
the memory by the frequent repetition of the
originals.

Each new sentence which he acquires is inter-
changeable, more or less usefully, with those pre-
viously learned by rote; and as it generally contains
one or two words already familiar to him, an easy
and natural connection springs up among them;
they daily become more closely amalgamated with
each other in the memory, and at the same time
more clearly and thoroughly understood.
I In learning to talk he gains the greatest
advantage from consorting with other children,
because their speech is limited to a very few words,
which are constantly reiterated with variations,
and he echoes what they say more easily, and
adopts their phrases more readily, than the less
congenial and less suitable expressions of adults.

Long before their reasoning powers become
capable of grappling with grammar, children display
fluency, correctness, and copiousness of speech;
fluency, because the sentences which they know
are so few that the memory is not overloaded, and
they can reproduce them with ease; correctness,
because their words are linked together in the

FOLLOWED BT CHILDREN. 13

memory in the form of idiomatic sentences, learned
by rote ; and copiousness, because there is in well-
selected practical sentences a reproductive energy
which disunited words do not possess.

Hereafter we shall observe how it is that the
knowledge of many words is not essential, and that
fluency, correctness, and copiousness are quite con-
sistent with a very small vocabulary.

Infants learn their own language slowly but
surely, for a speechless child is very rarely to be met
with ; and their progress does not depend upon the
intelligence of their parents, for a silly mother who
incessantly repeats the same colloquial tales, brings
an only child forward in speaking, more quickly
than the cleverest woman, who does not recite
dialogues, and resort to repetitions.

The infantile method is also perfect, inasmuch
as children always learn to speak exactly in accord-
ance with the exemplars around them, however
pure, or however corrupt those may be. The
best proof of this perfection in their imitative
power, is to be found in the fact that there
are some languages which have been transmitted,
almost without alteration, through many genera-
tions.

The memory of children is not so retentive as
that of adults, for we know that, if removed, when
under four years of age, to a place where they
neither speak it nor hear it spoken, they lose every

i

14 ANALYSIS OF THE PROCESS

word of their own language in a few months. On
the other hand, if they speak it but for a very
few minutes every day, they never forget it.
They learn a new language equally well in either
case.

Hence it appears that repetition, which we have
shown to be the process by which they originally
acquire the power of using idiomatic sentences, is
also the preserving principle by means of which
children retain that power. By transposing and
interchanging the words and the clauses, they
utilize them all, and thus gradually, but uncon-
sciously, amplify their power of speech. They
pronounce to perfection by closely observing and
mimicking, or even caricaturing, the pitch of
the voice, the tones, the gesticulations, the move-
ments of the head, and the contortions of the face
of those around them.

The whole process, therefore, resolves itself into
imitation, repetition, and diligent endeavours to
give expression to new ideas, by changing the
words from one sentence to another.

It is obvious that a very moderate amount of
reasoning power is exercised in this process.
Infants do not possess an intuitive understanding
of any language; nor have they the power of
framing idiomatic sentences at once by instinct.
Not until they have made many futile attempts,
\ can they utter the simple vowel sounds ; not until

V

FOLLOWED BY CHILDREN. 15

many weeks or months have elapsed can they
pronounce words ; and after that there is a long
interval before they can string words together in
sentences. And yet the feeble efforts of dawning
reason are amply sufficient for the colloquial attain-
ment of the most complicated languages.

Thus far we have traced the progress of infants
in beginning to speak their mother tongue. This
natural impulse continues in full vigour during
childhood and youth. Still guided by the same
unerring instinct, a child of six, eight, or ten
years of age, when suddenly transplanted to a
foreign country, where he consorts chiefly with the
natives, immediately adopts the same course of
imitation and repetition of practical sentences.
As he is alike untrammelled and unaided, the true
process of nature Ls most distinctly and perfectly
exemplified by him. In three or four months he
generally talks a foreign language as fluently as his
own. If he never hears it spoken, except by the
natives of the country, he speaks it without any
adulteration; but if there are people around him
who jumble together the words, or the tones, or
the constructions of two languages, he always
adopts their jargon. His conversation is com-
pounded of the phraseology of all those with whom
he is brought into casual intercourse, for he imitates
everything and everybody without discrimination.
He never pauses to consider which language he

16 ANALYSIS OF THE PROCESS

has to speak, nor does he ever address the wrong
language to anyone.

This promptitude, when displayed by adults,
is generally regarded as an indication of great
cleverness, although every child exhibits it, even-
in speaking four or five languages.

It is by this clearly traceable course of action
that the urchin masters every new language that
he hears ; and therefore we shall take him for our
model, instead of the helpless, dependent infant.
Without analyzing or philosophising, and with-
out any of those advantages which science and
experience are supposed to confer upon adults, he
contrives to speak foreign tongues more idiomati-
cally, and with greater facility than they do.
And it is worthy of notice that all languages
appear to be equally easy to him, although he has
to contend, exactly as we have, against a fixed
habit of expressing his thoughts, in a language
which is dissimilar, perhaps, in every respect.

Children are considered by some to have an
advantage over adults, in consequence of their
minds being blank ; but ours are blank enough
with respect to a language altogether unknown to
us, and vacuity of mind is not found to be con-
ducive to success in any other pursuit.

In truth, children labour under several disad-
vantages, for which, however, nature provides
adequate compensation. For instance, they have

FOLLOWED BY CHILDREN. 17

less power of concentration, less application, and
abstraction, and no idea of method. And although
in early life the memory is more sprightly, it is a
mistake to suppose that adults cannot equal the
actual performances of children, in learning a
number of words in any foreign language.

Again, children far excel adults in the true
imitation of foreign sounds. That power is due to
a flexibility of the vocal organs, which becomes
impaired by disuse and neglect. However when
the cause is ascertained and the remedy is ob-
vious, the failure may be rectified for the future.
We have all been in possession of that power
of imitation, and our apparent inferiority, which
arises solely from the omission to exercise the
organs, is only accidental.

Hereafter this may be easily tested with chil-
dren placed in positions favourable to their keeping
up, uninterruptedly, the practice of speaking new
languages. It seems probable that, under such
circumstances, their power of imitation would not
only be developed to an unparalleled extent, but
that it would also last in full force as long as the
other faculties of the body and mind remained
unimpaired.

But we must bear in mind that the faculty
of reproducing sounds has nothing intellectual in
it. The power of expressing thought in idiomatic
phraseology is the most important matter for

c

18 ANALYSIS OF THE PROCESS, ETC.

consideration, because this is the essentially intel-
lectual part of the undertaking.

The success of children is due to their following
the light of nature. We have ignored that beacon,
and have deviated from the right course; but
when we obtain the true bearings and soundings,
there is nothing to prevent us from resuming it,
with every confidence of success.

CHAPTER 11.

OUTLINE OP THE SCHEME,

LANGUAGE is a tree which is propagated not
by seeds, but by cuttings; not bywords, but
by sentences.

Every language is an aggregate of sentences,
that is, of words combined in certain established
forms, grammatical and idiomatic. Unconnected
words are not language; and therefore we proscribe
them altogether. Sentences have within them a
principle of vitality, an inherent power of ex-
pressing many different ideas by giving birth to
new sentences. Unconnected words have no such
power, and therefore it is a misapplication of time
and labour to learn them at the outset.

A sentence is a branch with every leaf arranged
in the perfect order of nature. A branch may be
used for purposes of decoration, or it may be car-
ried as a flag of truce between warring tribej.

i

20 OUTLINE OF TH£ SCHEME.

But disunited words are of no more use to a learner,
than a sack of loose leaves would be to the deco-
rator, or to the herald of peace.

Our taskmasters make us waste weeks and
months in exercises which virtually amount to endea-
vours to manufacture branches of leaves without
sticks. For when the coherence of the words, their
combined significance, and their orderof arrangement
have been lost ; when the words are bisected and
trisected, and their component parts are scattered,
we cannot re-arrange them in the original idiomatic
order, and it is laborious even to combine them
grammatically. Every word, in its turn, gives
rise to much deliberation ; and the result, after all,
is generally a gross caricature, exhibiting the vine
leaves of Spain, France, or Italy, grotesquely
arranged upon a stick of British oak.

There is no reason why a beginner should not
learn complete sentences of ten or twenty words
each, in a foreign language, one by one, and em-
ploy them as freely and intelligently as if he were
speaking his vernacular tongue. And considering
that the classical proportions of a sentence are not
impaired by the removal of any one word, and
the substitution, of another grammatically corre-
sponding to it, there is nothing to prevent a begin-
ner from acquiring all the variations which may
be producible by interchanging words in strict
conformity with the established construction.

OUTLINE OF THE SCHEME. 21

But this restrictive course is not followed.
It is true that dialogue books are used, but so
many sentences are studied at opce that the idiom-
atic combinations escape from the memory, although
the individual words may be all retained. More-
over, the study of grammar is generally super-
added, and thus the memory is overtasked. The
sentences, too, are sometimes very injudiciously
selected, and conversations are attempted in which
they cannot be introduced without considerable
exercise of ingenuity on the one hand, or the
emplojrment of unknown words on the other. It
is thus that the difficulties of a beginner are
seriously increased.

Tet in spite of all the modern improvements in
the methods of learning languages, there are many
well educated men who still persist in following the
ancient system. After striving conscientiously for
months to learn a living language from books,
they give it up in despair, finding that they make
no perceptible progress, even although they hear it
constantly spoken around them. This is the natu-
ral consequence of following an irrational method.
Men study grammar, and learn thereby to inter-
pret the written language, when their object is to
acquire the habit of speaking it. They are always
engaged in decomposing, instead of composing.
They assume that because they can disintegrate,
they can also reconstruct sentences; and they

23 OUTLINE or TH£ 8CHIMI.

eannot discern that there is anything obstructive
in the method \¥hich they are pursuing.

Instead of receiying, as children do, the inimi*
table fabric of speech ready made, they supplj
themselves with the raw material in profusion, in
the vain hope of manufacturing it for themselves, at
some future, and perhaps distant period, by means
(if cumbrous and costly machinery.

Relying on the traditions of their boyhood, thej
orerload the memory with words, without making
any attempt to ascertain its capacity for retaining
them, and regardless of the necessity for repro*
dncing them in their proper combinations. Thej
flatter themselves that every word which they
have seen and heard can be reproduced at plea-
sure. They learn a number of miscellaneous
words very imperfectly, and without scrutiny as to
their practical utility ; and they delude themselves
with the idea that they know them, because with
the aid of the dictionary and of the context, they
can interpret the sentences in which they stand.
They regard the power of recognition as equivalent
to the cognition of words. Yet they scoff at a
man who pretends to know everybody whom he
knows by sight.

Although they seldom attempt to combine
words, they are content to ascribe their inability to
do so to the absence of the special talent required
fpr that purpose, or else they lay the blame on tlieir

OUTLINE OF TH£ SCHEME. 23

ears. They employ the words, language, grammar,
knowing, studying, speaking, talking and learning,
in a vague indeterminate manner. They retard
their own progress by injudiciously mingling incon-
gruous parts of the process, by putting the first
last, and the last first; and they sometimes alto-
gether omit the most essential part.

In defiance of all experience, there are many
who still hold that a good scientific acquaintance
with a grammar, is practically equivalent to a
knowledge of the language to which it relates.
Now, any child who associates with foreign children,
contrives, unless there be some disturbing causes,
to speak their language in a few weeks, and be
eflTects it without learning any grammar ; and yet
there is no magic in it. By those who have never
given a thought to the subject, he is oracularly
declared to learn by ear. But he is not merely
a passive listener; his power of speech is the
result of untiring, vigorous action ; that is, of the
assiduous exercise of the memory, of the imitative
faculty, and of the vocal organs, in recalling and
repeating some practical sentences, which, by
chance, he has heard others use. His success
does not depend either on the quality of his hearing
apparatus, or of his understanding, for he inva-
riably succeeds.

The child practises oral composition on a very
small scale, but on a progressive plan, extremely

24 OUTLINE OF THE SCHEME.

simple and effective, >Yhich adults witness every
day, though without discerning that it is based
on a principle which is the essence of the lin-
guistic art.

When, in opposition to that principle, the
achievement of fluently connecting foreign words
in appropriate and idiomatic combinations,
is presumed to be attainable by grammar and
analysis, that is, by means of theory, without
practice, — the result always is, and always must
be, failure.

Now in order to acquire the colloquial use of a
language as expeditiously, as easily, and as effec-
tually as children do, we have to deduce from their
desultory, irregular operations, an orderly method,
by which time and labour may be strictly econo-
mised, and by which definite daily progress may
be secured. The leading principle is, to learn a
very little at a time; not in a loose, careless
way, but perfectly. Some words must be selected
to be learned first ; and it is essential that their
number should be so limited that they can all
be ^reproduced instantaneously, without an effort.
They should also be committed to memory, ar-
ranged in idiomatic combinations, that is, in ready-
made sentences. These ought to be of a strictly
practical nature, and they ought to be framed so
as to include, in a small compass, all the construc-
tions of the language.

^

OUTLINE OF THE SCHEME. 25

The adult beginner must not attempt to leam
more than one sentence at a time.

He must receive the pronunciation of each
sentence from a native, echoing it until he can
utter the whole combination of sounds intelligibly,
and with facility, and he must practise until he
can interchange the words of the first two sen-
tences into every possible variation, as freely as
if they belonged to his own language. If he
will thus ^'master" each sentence, and if he
will examine himself honestly, and without any
self-deception, before he begins to learn a new
one, his daily progress, whether fast or slow, will
be definite.

Let it be clearly understood that the most
fatal of all errors is the overloading of the
memory.

The beginner must not learn any unconnected
words, nor look into a book, until he has gone
through a certain course of training. If he does
not attend to these restrictions, the memory will
become clogged with imperfectly remembered
words, and will be unable to effect those rapid
movements which are essential to the attainment
of perfect fluency.

This is the only certain test, whereby it can be
discovered how many words he has " mastered."

The sentences which he commits to memory
form the basis of his first oral exercises, and

J

26 OUTLINE OF THE SCHEME*

afterwards they become the models for his future
guidance in composing new ones.

By concentrating his attention upon them,
instead of exercising it discursively upon a larger
range, he acquires an idiomatic command of
language on a small scale.

If properly selected, a few sentences will
afford him an incredible variety of expression,
and he will not fail to speak grammatically,
because, if he complies with the stipulations and
restrictions, he cannot deviate from the true
constructions except through gross inattention to
the models.

In selecting what he is to commit to memory, he
must subject each sentence and each word to the
standard of practical utility, discarding all words
which are not used every day, and substituting
those which are more frequently employed; for
if useless words be enlisted, they occupy time,
and attention, and a place in his memory, which
cannot be spared without detriment to his pro-
gress.

They who make a levy of words in mass, and
expect to find their raw recruits as useful as
disciplined soldiers, invariably discover, when they
take the field, that the greater their number, the
more unmanageable they are; and that when an
attempt is made to manoeuvre them, the result is a
miserable state of confusion.

V

OUTLINE OF THE SCHEME. 27

On the other hand, a highly disciplined
phalanx of two or three hundred useful words,
arranged in well-chosen sentences, comprising
every construction of the language, and under
the perfect control of a faithful memory, will
be of far greater service to a traveller, than two
or three thousand words, untrained to active
co-operation.

CHAPTER III.

MEMORY.

rpHE source of all our blundering over foreign
-^ languages is the mistaken notion that the
attainment of the colloquial power depends more
upon reasoning processes, than upon efforts of the
memory. That pursuit cannot be a very intel-
lectual one, in which people of the humblest
capacity succeed.

Children learn their first sentences without
reasoning about the words. They know what
meaning the whole sentence conveys, but they do
not understand each particular word, nor do they
know one part of speech from another.

They repeat some sounds which they have
heard others employing with success; and whenever
that repetition is a true imitation, the result is an
idiomatic sentence.

The memory is generally regarded as a

80 MEMORT.

repertory, in which all new ideas are sorted and
arranged, in an orderly manner, amongst our
previous experiences, so that they shall always be
forthcoming when wanted. Such is the theory,
but the practice very seldom couesponds to it;
and yet we find in some people a strong conviction
that everything received is permanently, though
indistinctly retained. Hence the practice of
attempting to learn, in one sitting, a number of
foreign words, with their strange sounds and their
multiform variations, far in excess of the power of
the memory. These, however, demand for their
retention and reproduction, a tenacity and a
vivacity which stand in strong contrast with the
lethargy of the overcrammed memory. The mode
oi action of this faculty, in the acquisition of
languages, is peculiar, and it deserves considera-
tion. The duration of any impression made upon
the memory is uncertain, varying in proportion to
the interest excited within us; to the attention
that we bestow; to the time that it remains in
undisturbed predominance ; or to the frequency of
its renewal.

Our power of recollecting sentiments or inci-
dents is intellectual, because we interweave them
amongst our experiences, and then we are able, by
the association of ideas, to retrace, recall, and con-
' template them. In this manner anything, though
not everything, may be retained.

MEMORT. 31

But foreign words, being merely strange sounds,
without any natural or obvious significance, cannot
be retraced and recalled by efforts of the intellect,
because they are not associated in the memory with
any of our feelings, habits, or ideas, and we cannot
reproduce them by conjuring up other times, scenes,
persons, or events. The impressions we receive
from them are not durable, and they can only be
made so by being frequently renewed.

The difficulty of accurately reproducing them is
proportionate to the number of sounds, that is,
of syllables, which we attempt to learn at one
effort. In this respect, the retentive power of the
memory, so far from being unlimited, is feeble in
the extreme. The mere utterance of a sentence of
a dozen syllables, of a strange language, when
heard for the first time, is difficult ; but the reten-
tion thereof demands a succession of efforts of the
memory, and of the imitative power.

Unintermitting repetition of a few sounds will
undoubtedly preserve them in the memory, and
children resort to this expedient, as if apprehensive
that they are never to hear the same combination
again. Adults may follow the same plan ; but such
drudgery is unnecessary, because we may cause
the sounds to be repeated to us for our imitation,
at intervals, as often as we please, and thus learn
them with little trouble and no fatigue to the
memory. Whatever course we pursue, the sounds

32 MEMORY.

of strange words, as soon as the attention is with-
drawn from them, begin to evaporate from the
memory, like raindrops exposed to the action of the
sun and wind ; and as every minute that passes,
without an attempt to renew them, shortens the
period of their duration, and renders them less and
less perfect, it is worse than useless to tax the
memory to recall them, thus deteriorated by the
action of time, and the intrusion of other impres-
sions. It is far better to have a native always at
command during the first few days, to utter them
afresh for our imitation, at intervals snatched from
other pursuits. Supposing a certain uniform degree
of attention to be given, the more frequently we
practise such repetitions at short intervals, and the
more carefully we imitate the sounds, the more
lasting and the more accurate will be the impres-
sions produced on the memory.

This is the true course ; and it is impossible to
learn the sounds of foreign words to perfection on
any other principle. Each sentence ought to be
thus practised until by mimicry we can echo the
sounds with success. Repetition trains the vocal
organs to utter them with ease, while it also fixes
them in the memory, so that by degrees we can
pronounce them accurately without the native's
aid.

The lapse of three hours devoted to other
occupations will often undo a morning's work

MEMORY. 33

I

to a serious extent, and a pause of six hours will
obliterate some of the sounds from the memory
altogether. On this account the intervals between \
the repetitions ought to be brief. But during the I
hours of sleep, when the faculties are in a state of
repose, we lose nothing ; because the latest impres-
sions remain undisturbed, the action of other
tiioughts is suspended, and the flight of time seems
to be arrested. For if we charge the memory
shortly before we fall asleep, and revert to the task
as soon as we awake, the impressions are as fresh,
after eight hours' rest, as if only half an hour had
elapsed since the words were learned by heart.
But in dreams the memory is often very busy, and
therefore it is only in deep, dreamless sleep that
the activity of the brain is totally suspended.

Thus far in respect to words, regarded as mere
sounds. We have now to deal with them as
representative signs, and to consider how we may
best contrive to establish so complete an amalga-
mation of the sound with the thing signified, that
the words will come spontaneously to the lips when
we want to give utterance to the ideas which they
convey. Here, again, let us observe the course of
nature, indicated in the restrictive and reiterative
method adopted by children. They maintain their \
acquisitions by repeating, at short intervals, alkthe
sentences they have learned; and they gradually

34 MEMORY.

enlarge their narrow sphere of conversation by
interchanges and transpositions of words.

It is not by reasoning, nor by deliberation that
they compose idiomatic sentences.

JThey do not translate. [ In their commerce
with foreigners they do not barter word for word.
They do not export a form of speech, an idea
clothed in language, to be exchanged for one
exactly corresponding to it ; but they import an
idiomatic combination of words, together with the
idea belonging to it; they immediately begin to
employ it for practical purposes without alteration ;
and they repeat it so often that it becomes stereo-
typed in the memory.

The words of a foreign tongue which we com-
mit to memory are prisoners of war, incessantly
trying to escape, and it requires great vigilance to
detain them ; for unless our attention be conti-
nually directed towards them, and unless we
muster them frequently, they steal away into the
forest, and disperse. But when they are bound
together in sentences, the same degree of watch-
fulness is not required, because they escape with
difficulty, and a whole gang of them may easily be
traced and recaptured at once.

When a word has escaped from the memory we
often find that no intellectual exertion can recal it.
But the lost word, when not wanted, will some-
times return unbidden, without any assignable

MEMORY. 35

cause, or any traceable connection of thought.
Our inability to command the use of it in the
moment of need, arises solely from the want of
habituation.

The more we familiarize ourselves with a
newly acquired word or phrase, by frequently em-
ploying it in conjunction with others, the sooner
and the more intimately will it become amalga-
mated with the stock in our possession, and the
more certainly will it recur to us, when required
for use.

The fact is, that any word, however insig-
nificant, with which it has ever been used in
juxtaposition, may recal the wanderer, either by
an accidental association of ideas, or by a faint
recollection — an echo, as it were, of the rhythm
of the original expression.

Again, the greater the number of words we
learn imperfectly before we begin to compose —
that is, to speak— the greater will be our difficulty
in using them in conjunction with new ones.

On the other hand, the smaller the stock of
words we learn, the greater will be our facility in
using them, and in amalgamating new ones with
them.

As everything that we do, unless we perform
it with inattention or reluctance, becomes by repe-
tition, a habit, we must accustom ourselves to make
active use of each sentence, and of each word,

30 MEMORY.

committed to memory, instead of following the
passive methods generally prevailing. The majo-
rity of men who have studied Greek for six or
eight years are unable to employ the commonest
words colloquially. The passive inert reception of
a large number of words through the eyes • and
ears, though recalled thousands of times with intel-
ligence and attention, is manifestly of little prac-
tical value for colloquial purposes, because it does
not fix them in the memory in such a manner
as to render them readily available in oral com-
position.

Mere repetition, therefore, is unavailing; and
however perfectly we may know words by sight,
such knowledge is not practical.

No doubt the memory is refreshed by every
look at the book, and the next effort to recall the
words, if made very soon afterwards, will be
facilitated thereby. But every instance in which
we actually make use of a word, or of a phrase, in
the daily practice of oral composition, produces an
impression on the memory far more efficacious
and enduring, than that which results from
recognizing it in a book, from seeking for it
cursorily in a dictionary, from writing it down,
from hearing others use it, or from all of these
combined.

To their non-observance of this principle, we
ascribe the failures which occur among men of

MEMORY. 37

education, and even among those who have a taste
for this pursuit. To their assiduous attention
to it, we trace the universal success of children.
To their partial adoption thereof we attribute
the success of couriers, of missionaries, and of
other travellers dealing with unwritten languages,
but especially of those who, under some pressure of
circumstances, have limited themselves to the
acquisition, and to the daily employment of a few
colloquial sentences for some one definite purpose.

These learn a very few words, but they learn
them practically and perfectly. But the number
of words which hard-reading men learn, unpracti-
cally and imperfectly, is so great that the memory
is evidently a sieve thrcftigh which unconnected
words escape, while it retains those that cohere in
sentences learned by rote.

But words may be said to have a threefold
nature; for, in the minds of educated men, the
sound and the meaning are inseparably connected
with the symbols that represent them to the eye.
But this ideal inseparability is a source of infinite
difficulty and confusion, from which the uneducated
are exempt. Hence it happens that many servants, '
who do not attempt to read or write, excel their
masters in picking up continental languages during
a short tour.

In the learning of languages, phonetically

(

38 MEMORY.

written, less mischief arises, because the be-
ginner is not much misled by the spelling; but
( in English we find one of the commonest sounds
I variously symbolized by a, e, i, o, u, y, eo, oe, oi,
i io, re, ou, ea, oo, and gh; as in the words aroma,
\ verse, bird, dove, murmur, myrrh, dungeon, does,
porpoise, nation, acre, courage, earth, blood, and
Edinburgh. But this is only one out of many
stumbling blocks ; for more than half of our conso-
nants may be found standing mute, and many of
them do duty for their neighbours. The letter A
is employed in nine different ways, .as in aroma,
I far, war, was, hat, hate, many, quay, beauty ; and
^ the syllable ough has eight different sounds, each
of which is represented in other words by different
combinations. The brightest intellects have been
thrown into confusion by beginning English at the
wrong end; and yet, when learned in the right
way, it is the easiest language in Europe. So fan-
tastic is that system which we complacently call
orthography, that no one can determine the pro-
nunciation of a new word of two syllables. The
/ foreigner who learns English, has to contend with
\ diflSculties not to be surpassed even in the study
of Chinese ; for the symbols used in the Celestial
i Empire may confound, but they do not mislead him.
He perseveres, however, because he imagines that ^
he is exercising his reasoning powers beneficially ;
but here is another delusion, for in reality he is

\

MEMORY. 39

only mystifjring himself by making strenuous efforts
to deduce a number of sounds, in defiance of all
logiC; from anomalous and inconsistent spellings,
irreconcileable with any fixed principles. The
sounds elude his grasp like pickpockets, who go
about begging in the disguise of cripples, and run
away, leaving their rags in the hands of those who
try to apprehend them.

It is difficult enough to learn a short sen-
tence every day, and to fix the meaning of each
word, the principle of the constructions, and
the order of the words, in the memory, so
that we can employ them all as perfectly as if
they belonged to our own tongue. But the
difficulty is greatly increased by undertaking at
the same time to learn a set of strange symbols,
or to train ourselves to employ familiar letters in
an unusual manner. The latter suggest to the
mind other sounds and other meanings, which
ought not to be remembered. But we have not
that control over the memory which enables us
to dismiss anything from it at will. Much less
can we discard things of which we are constantly
reminded by seeing them before our eyes. When
the spelling of a word suggests a variety of differ-
ent sounds, uncertainty ensues, and a difficulty is
gratuitously created which may be avoided by
merely learning the sound, unwritten.

When we have to attach uew sounds to familiar

40 MEMORY.

letters we become involved in a harassing stmggle
against habits formed in early life. While the
memory is being exerted to the utmost of its power,
or, as usually happens, strained far beyond its power,
in learning new sounds and new combinations of
words, that unnecessary and irrational conflict
ought to be avoided. This caution relates espe-
cially to those who are learning English or French.
On the same principle, English and French people,
having been trained to a very eccentric ortho*
graphy, should never look into a foreign book,
printed in the Homan character, until they have
gained some facility in speaking the new language
with an intelligible pronunciation.

Beginners ought to abjure the notion that

words are mere combinations of certain letters^ to

which they owe their origin, and that reading

is the first step to be taken. Letters are not

/ the elements of language, but ^the rudiments of

/ the art of writing, with which millions of our

V fellow men in all parts of the world are still

unacquainted.

The Chinese may be forgiven for regarding
their written symbols as the elements of language.
Instead of employing alphabetic letters, their fore-
fathers had recourse to hieroglyphics. These
indicated the thing signified, and thus they sug-
gested the sound; but in course of time the
symbols have gradually become corrupted and

MEMORY. 41

^guised, to such an extent that they now bear no
Tesemblance to the objects which they at first
pictorially represented. Nevertheless custom and
long prescription justify their retention, because
the language is now divided into many dialects^
and each written symbol is universally understood,
although it has a different name in each province.
Thus, although they do not understand one
another's speech, they can all communicate with
each other in writing. They are justly proud of
this bond of union, extending through a vast
empire, and they regard their written characters
with the deepest veneration, as the source from
which words sprung.

But our alphabetical system, in spite of all
its anomalies and gross inconsistencies, is re-
garded with almost equal veneration. By a fiction
it is held to represent sounds correctly and
logically ; whereas in reality the antagonism sub-
sisting between the established pronunciation of
many words and the sounds suggested by the
spelling is so strong, and it so completely bewilders
and misleads a beginner, that reading and spelling
must be discarded altogether at the outset. The
memory does not require the aid of the eyes,
because we stipulate that it shall never be over-
loaded. Children learn the pronunciation of a
foreign tongue quite perfectly without any artificial
assistance from letters, and it seems extraordinary

42 MEMORY.

that educated men should accept the delusive aid
of such rotten crutches, and that teachers should
encourage them in so doing.

The more words we attempt to commit to
memory in any given time, the fewer do we retain;
because each word with which we encumber the
memory beyond its strength, obstructs itis freedom
of action to the same crushing extent that an
additional stone on the back of a race-horse detracts
from his speed. It would be a great achievement
to acquire, in thirty days, three hundred words of
a language altogether strange and unknown, and
j to carry them at the racing pace with which we
use those of our own tongue. We have to natu-
ralize every individual word, so that we can employ
it with perfect freedom, and without any delibera-
tion. This degree of efficiency is not attainable,
except by diligent practice. A child spends the
livelong day in reiterating the same little sentences,
with such variations as he can adopt from the
casual conversations going on around him. He
acts upon impulse, and in utter ignorance of the
rationale of the system which nature prompts him
thus industriously to pursue. Adults may attain
! in a week, as much as he learns in a month ; because
i while we adopt the principle, we systematize the
^ process; we discard all that is not essential; we
\ avoid all that is obstructive; we bring mature
faculties to bear upon it; and, without sacrificing

\

MEMORY. 43

its simplicity, we diversify it by multiplying varia-
tions, as with a kaleidoscope.

A vague, erroneous impression prevails that
much depends upon time, and that it is neces-
sary to hold intercourse for weeks or months
with foreigners, in order to acquire the power
of speaking their language. Time, however, is
not an ally; but an enemy always on the
alert to plunder us of our acquisitions. If we
work for one hour in every twenty-four, he
obtiains an advantage over us in the ratio of
twenty-three to one. It is folly and presumption
to give such odds even to the most contemptible
foe. In order to hold our own against our inde-
fatigable enemy, we must encounter him on more
equal terms. In this contest the better part of
discretion is valour, and the only effectual strategy
is to carry the war into the hostile territory ; to
set our whole forces in motion every two or three
hours; and never to let a straggler fall into the
enemy's hands, without an immediate rush to the
rescue.

But it is not from time, nor from books,'
nor from teachers, but from the frequency and
earnestness of our own personal efforts to naturalize
useful sentences, that our success in oral compo-
sition proceeds. In the selection of those sentences,
judgment must be exercised; but when they are
once chosen, we have only to commit them to

44 MEMORY.

memory, and to obtain fluency in using all the
variations. No one can do this for us, nor even aid
us in doing it. We must be self-taught, except as
to pronunciation.

That thorough practical knowledge of a small
stock of well-chosen sentences, which exhibits itself
by fluency in using them, ought to be acquired
before we mingle with those who speak the lan-
guage.

Some people go abroad, and live in a foreign
family, without knowing ten words of the language,
trusting to reading, to grammar, to time, to ear,
to nature, to necessity, to guess-work, and to
chance to teach them ; and with all these teachers
they break down.

Instead of consorting with children, who keep
up an incessant chatter with one or two hundred
words, arranged in idiomatic sentences of different
constructions, and strictly practical, they betake
themselves to grammar and analysis, and associate
with educated adults, who carefully avoid repe-
titions, and who speak the whole language.

They are advised to go abroad and practise
talking, because " practice makes perfect," and
" use is everything." But they receive no definite,
specific instructions. They do not know what to
practise, and they are puzzled how to practise that
which they cannot do at all.

The necessity for acquiring something definite

MEMORY. 45

and useful, every day, is ignored. Talking implies
understanding what is spoken; but this essential
qualification is totally wanting, and therefore it
seems natural and necessary at first to sit and
listen.

Thus situated, the beginner has firstly to divine,
fipom the looks and gestures of two foreigners, what
subject they are talking about; then to make crude
conjectures as to the purport of some one sentence;
then to retrace the airy path through which the
winged words have flown, in order to recapture the
lost sounds ; then to allot by guess-work two or
three sounds to each word; then to assign at a
venture a meaning to each word; and finally to
treasure them up, right or wrong, in the memory,
while new sounds are still falling in rapid succes-
sion on his ear, and distracting his attention.

As reasonably might a photographer, regardless
of intervening objects, attempt to take the likenesses
of individuals walking along a crowded street.

On the other hand, those who learn useful
sentences by heart, and who seize every possible
opportunity of employing them, are invariably
successful.

In fact there is no method however obstructive
or irrational, that will not be rectified and vivified,
at any stage, by the practice of oral composition,
on the basis of a few well chosen sentences.

But as this is a perfect process, all-sufficient

46 MEMORY.

of itself, and comprehensive enough to exercise the
finest memory to the utmost of its power, we
protest against all attempts to dilute it, by com-
bining it in the first stage with grammar, or with
any book-system, because all such methods are
antagonistic to it. They overload the memory, and
confuse the intellect ; and are therefore subversive
of that principle which recommends itself to us
by its extreme simplicity, and by its never-failing
success among children.

As the power of the memory in retaining new
words is very limited, reason requires that we
should select the primary sentences in such a
manner, that they shall be capable of representing
the greatest possible number of ideas, and that we
should know the precise extent of the latent power
of expression which they possess, and definitely
ascertain and master all the different forms in
which they may be arranged, before we encumber
the memory with more words.

Thus alone can we guard against the usual
deplorable waste of time and labour.

Children learn very few words at first; but
they acquire, by assiduous practice, the art, which
is nothing more than the habit, of using them with
fluency.

Every new word has to be worked into those
practical sentences which they have learned by
rote ; and by the time they can interweave thirty or

MEMORY. 47

forty words, the chief difficulty of speaking is over-
come. Thus, when the adult student has acquired
this fluency with a few practical sentences, he is
relieved from the necessity of deliberating as to
the order in which the words are to be arranged ;
his memory becomes capable of receiving and
retaining, without confusion, more words than it
could compass at first ; and he obtains abundant
compensation for the apparently insignificant pro-
gress which he made, when restricted to learning
a very little every day.

If a beginner thinks himself too clever to
master less than thirty or forty foreign words every
day, he will find the first experiment as galling
and exhausting as the Rarey process is to an
obstreperous horse, when he is struggling against
his own weight and strength. The longer he
recalcitrates, the more thoroughly will he be con-
vinced of the injustice done to the memory by
overburdening it, and of the wisdom of hobbling it,
and circumscribing its freedom, so as to ascertain
ita power, or rather to prove its weakness at once.
However quick and retentive the memory may be,
it cannot work beyond its strength. This is a
truism, but in the acquisition of languages, it
seems to be absolutely ignored.

It is a mere schoolboy notion to try how
many words can be " got by heart" in a limited
time, irrespectively of that perfect practical

48 MEMORY.

retention of them, without which the labour is
in vain.

Most people complain of tlie treachery or
weakness of the memory, but no one can know the
extent of its incapacity until it has been formally
tested.

The knowledge of a given number of words,
is the power of using every one of them, with
promptitude and fluency, in a variety of idiomatic
combinations.

Fluency in a foreign tongue is generally attri-
buted to cleverness in adults, but in children it is
nothing more than exactitude in repeating, inter-
changing, and transposing the phrases and words
which they have learned by rote.

If we learn in the first instance nothing but
complete sentences, the power of recollecting and
reproducing them is obviously a mere exertion of
the memory, and it requires no greater range of
intellect than that which a little child possesses, to
interchange the words.

But to reproduce sentences verbatim, is to
speak idiomatically; and therefore the genuine
colloquial knowledge of a language is attained by
repeated efforts of the memory, not by vigorous
exertions of the reasoning faculties.

CHAPTER IV.

EVOLUTIONS OF LANGUAGE.

nnHE next question for consideration is how
-^ that copiousness of speech which children
exhibit, can be consistent with a very small voca-
bulary; how it takes its rise; and how we may
extract, from a few words, the greatest possible
results, and obtain them with the smallest possible
effort.

When, after a few weeks' residence abroad, a
child, ten years old, pours forth without deliberation,
hesitation, or effort, hundreds of sentences, many
of which are purely idiomatical, we know that it
is not to superior intelligence, nor to a thorough
knowledge of the principles of grammar, that he is
indebted for his success. So great is his com-
mand over the four or five scores of words which
he has treasured up, that they seem to have a

50 EVOLUTIONS OF LANGUAGE.

mysterious power of resolving themselves into
idiomatic combinations. It is evident that some
powerful agency is at work. It would be idle to
contend that such combinations result from words
learned incoherently ; for all experience runs counter
to that conjecture. We therefore trace their
parentage without hesitation to those ready-made
sentences which children first acquire. And we
find that it is not from any special aptitude, either
in the child, or in the successful linguist, that their
" mastery " of speech originates : but that there is a
property of growth and expansion in language
itself, whenever it is rightly received, and fairly
treated.

For when sentences are harmoniously com-
bined, they have a reproductive power, whereby
they yield an astonishing number of variations,
obtained by interchanges of the words. And this
increase is in geometrical progression, the result
being in proportion to the length of the sentences ;
that is, to the number of interchangeable words
which they contain. The only condition to be
observed in framing the sentences, is that there
shall be so much congruity between the individual
words in each column, that they may be changed
from one sentence to another without prejudice
either to the sense, or to the grammatical con-
struction.

EVOLUTIONS OF LANGUAGE.

51

For in any two sentences prepared according
to these stipulations, and on the following plan :

A
B

C I E
D F

G
H

K I M I O I Q
L N P E

S I U I W I Y
T V X Z

any four words, K, L, M, N, will yield four combina-
tions : as, KM, KN, LM, LN ; and any two others, as
I and J, added to them, will double the number of
combinations, thus, IKM, IKN, ILM, ILN ; JKM,
JKN, JLM, JLN. So any two other congruous
words, whether prefixed or affixed, or inserted
in the middle of any sentence, will double the
number.

To be still more explicit, two clauses are
annexed which comprise 2x2x2x2 or 16 com-
binations, each of which contains four words :

I

K

M

P

My

brother

came

in

J

L

N

P

His

servant

went

out

i¥ivro

IKNO

lEMP

TlfNP

JKMO

JZNO

JKMP

JKNP

TT.lVfO

TT.NO

ILMP

ILNP

JLMO

JLNO

JT.MP

JLNP

By this arrangement of the letters, the alpha-
betical is made to represent the idiomatic sequence,
which is thus preserved inviolate throughout all
the variations.

52

EVOLUTIONS OF LANGUAGE.

The annexed table shows the scale of progres-

sion:

4 words give 4 combinations of 2 words each.

6

»

8

3

8

»

16

4

10

»

32

5

12

»

64

6

14

ft

128

7

16

»

256

8

18

W

512

9

20

»

1024

10

40

1,024,000

20

When three sentences of ten words each are
constructed on the same principle, the combinations
amount to 59,049, that is S^P.

Now two such sentences give 1,024, or 2V^.

Therefore the number of sentences being N,
and that of the words in each sentence being x, the
direct variations produced by interchanging the
words of each column, without transposing any of
them, will be N\

As the basis, we take each word as a unit,
exactly in that form in which we find it standing
in. the original sentence.

It is obvious that a great number of words
may be put into one column ; but that arrangement
would be equivalent to the wretched system of
learning lists of nouns, verbs, &c., and it is only
mentioned in this place to be reprobated.

When twelve words are irregularly placed in

EVOLUTIONS OF LANGUAGE. 53

three columns, containing three, four, and five of
them respectively, the results are 3x4x5, or 60
combinations of three words each.

But when they are arranged in two sentences
of equal length, the results are 64 combinations of
six words each.

When there is a blank in any column, or when
the same word recurs, there can be no increase.
But there is harmony in clauses as well as in
words ; and therefore, no practically useful form
of speech need be rejected.

The results above exhibited may be greatly
increased by transposing the words ; because the
same law of progression applies to the indirect
variations thus produced.

Another addition accrues from those words
which have more than one meaning, because they
contribute to the formation of additional sentences
in another language.

The endless variety of combinations derivable
from a few words, has often been noticed ; but the
fecundity of sentences, and the law by which the
evolutions are regulated, seem to have escaped
attention. The principle is essentially practical,
because every common useful sentence, which is
constructed according to the genius of the language
to which it belongs, may be matched with another,
partially, if not wholly corresponding to it. It is evi-
dent that by a strict adoption of this arrangement

54 EVOLUTIONS OF LANGUAGE.

of words, with its limitations in consideration of
the weakness of the memory, the beginner may
regulate his progress with a degree of precisiou
approaching to mathematical certainty. But
coupled sentences are not to be considered essen-
tial, nor need they extend beyond ten words in
length.

When sentences, carefully adjusted to each
other, have been "mastered," there arises an
attraction of cohesion which binds all the words
compactly together, and which prevents any con-
fusion of tongues, by producing a feeling of repug-
nance to the introduction of any alien word. This
safeguard is unattainable by those who are learning
the words of two languages at once, in the old
incoherent fashion, instead of " mastering " them in
their proper combinations.

In showing that well-chosen sentences yield
results proportionate to their length, we detect a
weak point in most of the prevailing methods of
learning languages. One reason for the numerous
failures, the slow progress, and the generally small
success which attends the first efforts of those who
attempt to speak a language, is the practice of
beginning with very short sentences, not . har-
monizing with each other ; not strictly practical ;
not containing all the parts of speech ; and, above
all, not '' mastered."

There is an impression that logical and

EVOLUTIONS OF LANGUAGE. 55

mathematical propriety requires that we should pro-
ceed gradually from short to long sentences. But
this is a delusion, inasmuch as the reasoning powers
are not called into action, and the memory can
deal with thirty words, in three sentences, as easily
as when they are cut down into ten. But in the
former arrangement the direct variations alone are
8^.^, or 59,049 sentences of ten words each, whereas
in the latter the results cannot exceed 10?, or
1,000 sentences, having only three words each.
In practice the latter can be of little value, because
they are incapable of extension into longer sen-
tences; whereas the longer include thousands of
shorter ones, besides the direct variations enume-
rated.

We have spoken of each word as a unit; but
in truth some are twofold, and some threefold. In
the words vocaSy rogat^ pugnant^ each of the dis-
tinctive personal terminations retains its indivi-
duality as a word, and by transferring them from
one root to the others we obtain nine combina-
tions. So, vocabit and mgavimus contain three
words each, which form eight combinations when
they are interchanged: thus, vocabit^ vocabimus^
vocavity vocavimus ; rogabity rogabimuSj rogavity
rogamrrms.

With these facts before him, the beginner must
determine how many words he will " master" at
each effort; and he must restrict himself to that

56 EVOLUTIONS OF LANGUAGE.

numberi because it is by seeing and hearing addi-
tional words that the memory becomes clogged;
and because the estimates generally formed of the
power of that faculty are erroneous in the
extreme.

The bewilderment experienced by men of the
clearest intellect, after two or three weeks' study
of grammar, may be easily accounted for by the
application of this principle of evolution. If
columns were opened for sentences comprising the
most useful tenses of six verbs, together with all
the pronouns and articles, and half-a-dozen prepo-
sitions and nouns of any inflected language, the
accumulation of figures representing the result of
the combinations would be appalling. With this
burden on his back, and with his limbs bound with
the cords of hard rules, relentlessly knotted with
exceptions and qualifications, the only wonder is
that a beginner can stagger through his work
at all.

But the stronger the memory, the greater is
the confidence, the greater is the burden under-
taken, and the greater is the bewilderment pro-
duced by learning unconnected words. Thus it
is that some of the most complete failures have
occurred amongst the cleverest people. But the
same obfuscation will be produced by attempting to
learn too much, in whatever form it may be under-
taken. Therefore, while avoiding short sentences.

EVOLUTIONS OF LANGUAGE. 57

the beginner must pay due regard to the expansive
power of those which are selected to be learned
first And, if he is not too proud to learn the
pronunciation of a sentence before he begins to
use it, let him restrain his ambition, let him tread
in the little footprints of children, and let him
"master'' the first few sentences without any
thought of competing either with time, or with
other people.

It is only by chance that children learn those
expansive combinations which suddenly amplify
their power of speech. They do not search for
them, nor do they manufacture them; but when
they learn them by accident, the evolutions become
possible, and they are gradually brought into use
without any discernment of the principle on which
they expand.

Children learn to talk, not by laborious
conversational efforts for an hour at a time,
three times a week; nor by scientific analysis,
and careful study of elegant authors for six or
eight hours a day; but by never allowing half
an hour to pass by, without repeating, inter-
changing, and transposing the whole stock of
idiomatic sentences which they have learned by
heart. It is thus that they "master" all the
combinations seinatim. It is thus that the mind
becomes first imbued, and then saturated with
the foreign idiom.

58 EVOLUTIONS OF LANGUAGE.

.The "mastery" of a few words must be, in
every instance, the precursor to the more exten-
sive colloquial power. Here is the vestibule
through which all must pass, whether their pre-
liminary operations have included a score, a
hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand words.

So far as self-instruction in foreign tongues is
possible, this method will strongly recommend itself
to those who have acquired the pronunciation in
childhood; to those who are altogether indifferent
to it, and to those who can accept the two simple
propositions, that it is easier to attain fluency and
idiomatic accuracy with a few words than with
a great number ; and that it is only by practice
that fluency can be gained.

The computation given above relates avowedly
to an artificial adaptation of sentences one to
another, with a view to exhibiting the nature of
that great command of words which children
insensibly obtain, while expressing their thoughts
in foreign forms of speech. But there is no
necessity for beginners to deviate from the natural
course of learning single sentences, provided that
they secure to themselves the advantage which
inevitably follows from "mastering" practical
combinations, each containing about twenty words.
The subdivisions, or minor combinations of long
sentences, will be numerous enough to afford
abundant exercise for the memory, and therefore

\

EVOLUTIONS OF LANGUAGE. 59

the samples, which have been thrown together
for selection for ordinary use, have no special
relation to each other; and the order in which
they are placed may be reversed or altered at
pleasure.

A few coupled sentences, however, have also
been provided for those who are curious to ascer-
tain how many words they can " master*' in two
days. Such experiments ought to be conducted in
a series, in the ascending ratio ; for the descending
scale would be mere self-stultification. Three or
four efforts in each day, to '^ master " four words at
a time, at regularly divided intervals, would settle
the question very expeditiously; but an entirely
strange language must be taken up, and perfect
fluency must be made the criterion of success on
each occasion. When the conditions are faithfully
observed, the distaste which is so generally felt for
this pursuit will be counteracted, and the foreign
forms of expression, complicated and unnatural as
they may appear at first sight, will haunt the
memory even in the midst of the most congenial
occupations.

As the whole system is founded upon the detec-
tion of a speciality in the child's mode of procedure,
which has been hitherto unnoticed, and as it is im-
possible to pass an impartial judgment upon it with-
out some personal experience of the nature of the
operation of "mastering" foreign words, the candid

60 EVOLUTIONS OF LANGUAGE.

critic is entreated to qualify himself by making
one experiment with twelve or fourteen words, aU
at oncey before he condemns it. He should learn a
couple of sentences of some language quite unknown
to him, and having no resemblance to any of those
with which he may be acquainted. If the attention
be then exclusively devoted for three hours to some
other pursuit, the difficulty of rapidly reproducing
the variations of the sentences will be acknow-
ledged. But let the experiment be continued
until perfect fluency has been attained, and then it
will be admitted that the memory is severely
tasked in trying to "master" a few words with
their manifold variations all at one effort.

If, in addition to this, he desires to make the
same experiment upon others, two or three victims
should be selected, and they should be kept in
ignorance as to the object in view. It is not alto-
gether needless to remark that experiments made
by persons who have adopted decided opinions
regarding the scheme cannot possibly yield any
instructive results, because the operations of
the memory are influenced to a great extent by
alacrity on the one hand, and repugnance on the
other.

The experimentalists need not learn either
the true pronunciation, or the hieroglyphics,
or the orthography, but it must not be for-
gotten that those difficulties would have to be

60*

COUPLED SENTENCES

Wkerewith to Tut the Retentive Poioer of the Memory in *' Mastering"'
or Instantaneoushf Reproducing the Interchanged Words of gome
Ixwguage quite unknown to the T^earner,

12 3 4 5 6

Fy mlant aforchogasant ynfuan arhyd yffordd.

12 3 4 5 6

My children rode rapidly along the road.

12 3 4 5 6

Ei gweinon agodiasaut ynaraf ardraws yeae.

12 3 4 5 6

Her servants walked slowly across the field.

12 3 4 5 6 7

C Do scargad na blata an mo ngardad.

3 4 5 6 7 1-2

* C The flowers in my garden died.

I 2 3 4 5 6 7

D Nir crionad moran lilige re se macaire.

3 4 2 1 5 H 7

D Some lilies withered not near the field.

12 3 4 5 6 7

E Atani basa ku na pettelu yenduku pumpinawn.

6 7 4 5 3 12

E Why did you send my boxes to his house ?

12 3 4 5 6 7

F Mi ara lonunchi a wuttaralu yeppudu techinadu.

6 7 4 5 3 12

F When did he bring those letters from your room ?

COUPLED SENTENCES — OonUnued.

12 3 4 5 6 7

G Uska bara bhai jahaz par khelta hai.

12 S 7 6 6 4

G His big brother is playing on shipboard.

1 2 S 4 6 6 7

H Mera chota beta gari men sota tha.

12 3 7 6 6 4

H My little son was sleeping in the cart.

1 2 S 4 6 6 7

Nir criognngadar na dleaedoiride moran maiteasa mora.

3 4 1-2 6 7 6

The statesmen accomplished few great results.

1 2 S 4 6 6 7

Do gnoduigadar na caitreacuib iomad tarba oirdearea.

8 4 1-257 6

The citizens attained many important advantages.

12345 6 7 89 10

Ng do ahko iao tao sianggying difong kyi tso sangi.

12 8 4 8667 9 10

Tonr eldest brother wishes to go to a near place to do business.

12 345 6 789 10

Ngo siao ahpang we dzong yunyun zingli \a zing sangweh.

12 3485 67 9 10

My youngest uncle will come from a distant city to seek work.

1 2 S 4 5 6 7

M Anken rawkav awb ekaw ly bite aynu.

14 3 2 5 7 6

M But your father rode to our house.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

N Vy hawlak abed o my kaphar awm.

14 3 2 5 7 6

N And his servant went from their village.

EVOLUTIONS OF LANGUAGE. 61

superadded if they desired to acquire the language
in earnest.

Every Englishman's feeling leads him to prefer
the traditional policy of obtaining a potential
command over a language, by means of grammar
and analysis; and he instinctively shrinks from
subjecting his attainments to that rigorous test of
fluency which may reduce the results of three
months' hard study to an unpleasantly small
compass; perhaps to nil. But there is a great
diflFerence between the potential command, and that
real, actual '* mastery" of words which is only to be
obtained by practising oral composition. When
he first puts his memory to the proof by a
series of experiments, the results will not be
flattering. But they must not be discredited on
that account.

There are not many men who have learned
at the rate of four Latin, or two Greek words
every day; and there are very few who have
" mastered " one tenth part of that number. But
as oral composition is generally excluded from our
schools, lest perhaps we should corrupt one an-
other's classical taste, it is no reproach to us. The
fact, however, is important, as indicating that the
"mastering" of words, and the gauging of the
memory by the exercise of oral composition, have
not been brought systematically under the obser-
vation of those, who, from their position, are

62 EVOLUTIONS OF LANGUAGE.

regarded as the highest authorities on the subject
of education.

Considering that the memory is the engine prin-
cipally employed, it is very singular that we have
' no data for determining, even approximately, its
I power of" mastering" foreign words. The maximum
performances of gifted men have been recorded,
j but they only tend to foster the prevailing delusion
i of immensely overrating its power of retention,
and of assuming that its range is co-extensive with
■ that of the understanding.
/ People who go abroad to learn French or
German, on the most approved principles, studying
with the best masters, and living with a foreign
family, seldom express themselves with facility in
less than three months. At that stage, the stock
of words which they actually employ is generally
about three hundred ; although they may recognize
six, eight, or ten times that number, when they
meet with them in books. But such persons often
appear to be speechless during the first six weeks,
being incapable of disentangling a few useful
sentences from that confused mass of words, of
which they have only indistinct recollections, as of
things seen or heard long ago. It appears then^
/ that during the first three months, they attain,
\ with diflSculty, an imperfect knowledge of less than
• four words a day.

It is very clear that they make a false start ;

EVOLUTIONS OF LANGUAGE. 63

that their energies are misdirected ; and that they
encumber themselves by attempting too much at
first. When suddenly called upon to converse, at
the end of six weeks of hard study, they pump up
their words, one by one, with slow and convulsive
efforts; not with that readiness which results from
knowing a few sentences perfectly, which some-
times awakens a feeling, as of the sudden develop-
ment of a new sense, and affords a most effectual
stimulus to further exertions.

As children, ten years old, generally pick up
about three or four foreign words a day, which
they wield far better than the students aforesaid,
let no man attempt more, if he believes that chil-
dren have a natural superiority over adults. And
let those who dissent from that opinion, but have
]|iot put it to the proof, proceed cautiously at first,
lest in practice they disable their own judgment ;
and lest they become bewildered before they have
" mastered" fifty words.

Nothing is more to be deprecated than the
impetuosity . with which a youth plunges into the
intricacies of a foreign language, relying, with
unbounded confideuce, on his power of learning by
dint of laborious and protracted study. If strength
of intellect were required, he would be in the
right; but when the high-bred horse is employed
on an emergency to draw a load of hay, he is not
expected to gallop, but to take a few slow steps at

64 EVOLUTIONS OF LANGUAGE.

a time, and to wait patiently, while his load is
being gradually heaped up, and adjusted. If
he does go oflF at a gallop, he must of necessity
exert his strength in a most disadvantageous
manner.

The computations given above seem to prove
that all those who have contrived in a short
time to speak a foreign tongue idiomatically,
without books or study, must have succeeded in
proportion to their fortuitous approximation to the
practice of learning ready-made sentences of proper
length.

The great Cardinal himself must have trodden
in this path, but he did so unwittingly, for if he
had discerned the principle, he would easily have
eclipsed all his recorded achievements. We are
told that he learned sentences and phrases by heart;
and that the same words were very frequently
repeated in his conversations with foreigners. But
he did not restrict himself to sentences; he over-
charged his fine memory with unconnected words,
which were not carefully selected, but were in many
instances taken at hazard; he did not know how
to lay his trains of words with certainty ; nor did
he discover the electric spark wherewith to fire
them at will.

It is a common remark that illiterate
people employ only three or four hundred words.
This assertion, though not authenticated, passes

EVOLUTIONS OF LANGUAGE. 65

unchallenged; and yet people go on cramming
themselves with words, as if the volubility, occa-
sionally observed among the peasantry, would not
suffice for a beginner; or as if it were impos-
sible to learn too many words at once; or as if
the ccpia verbarum would necessarily lead to the
ccfpia fandi.

The poverty of the language of children and
illiterate people, is often spoken of with contempt ;
and the paucity of their words is ignorantly sup-
posed to indicate the paucity of their ideas. But
Euclid is never spoken of as a man of few \
words, or of few ideas, and yet he contrived to )
write his first six books with less than four J
hundred words.

If the most exact of all the sciences can be
luminously expounded with so small a stock of
words, and if people of great intelligence, among
the lower orders, can communicate all their ideas,
on the multifarious transactions of a busy life, with
a similar number, we scarcely require to refer to
the evolutions, to prove that beginners ought to
restrict themselves to a limited number of words,
instead of indiscriminately aspiring to a whole
language at once.

The complement for an educated man is said
to be four thousand words, and it is highly
desirable that it shpuld be gradually attained.
But people generally work without prospectively

66 EVOLUTIONS OF LANGUAGE.

fixing any limit to their acquisitions. The
dictionary gives the idea of interminability, and
great scholars parsue the study of a language for
twenty, thirty, or forty years, and it still remains
unexhausted and inexhaustible. Influenced by
such examples, and acting upon the notion that
the indefinite course is the right one, men pore
over their books, and obtain an eye-knowledge
of many thousands of words, while the colloquial
part of the work is postponed till the Greek
Kalends.

We are not bound to give credit to the asser-
tion that the illiterate employ only three or four
hundred words, but it is true that they seldom
exceed that number in conversing on any one
subject. If then one man or woman can be found
who speaks fluently and well with so small a stock,
a learner will have full exercise for his memory,
ample scope for study and practice, and sufficient
material for expressing his thoughts on all ordinary
subjects, within the same limit.

With a supply of less than a hundred foreign
words, there are many people who seem to be very
communicative on their travels. But no two
beginners ever exhibit precisely the same degree of
readiness both in understanding, and in making
themselves understood. Comparisons are therefore
useless and mischievous. Those who have the
smallest stock are often more successful in speaking

EVOLUTIONS OF LANGUAGE. 67

{ban the possessors of thousands of words. This
sort of success should be the learner's aim ; but he
is not to stop short when h% attains the minimum.
On the contrary, he ought not to make a single
day's pause in his career, but to proceed, step by
step, to the full colloquial "mastery" of the lan-
guage. Nil actum reputans^ dum quid superesset
agendum.

CHAPTER V.

THE PROCESS.

IT must be borne in mind that this scheme is
strictly initiatory, and that it is specially de-
signed for those who have not, or imagine that they
have not, the organ of language well developed. It
only professes to furnish a clue to facilitate the
pilgrim's progress through that labyrinth of words,
in which so many become bewildered in the first
week.

Adults learn to talk by various methods, more
or less philosophical ; but a child^ ten years old,
has greater success in a shorter time, and with less
exertion ; and his operations will bear comparison
in their results with the most scientific processes.
By dint of a succession of efforts of observation,
imitation, and repetition at very short intervals,
he contrives both to understand and to speak a
foreign language in a few weeks, This twofold

70 THE PROCESS.

process baffles an educated adult, because he has
been trained to observe words more than sentences;
and he tries rather to understand, than to reproduce
what is spoken. Uneducated people, on the other
hand, follow the child's course, and learn ready
made sentences, except when they are misled by
the example or the advice of their betters.

^ As a child puts no restriction on himself in
listening to the conversations going on around him,
his progress is often seriously retarded thereby.
His impulse is to revert to the sentence which was
previously running in his head, but during the
distraction of his attention, a very valuable one
may slip from the memory, not to be recovered
perhaps for months, when he may chance to hear it
again. This gives to his progress an uncertainty,
which we can avoid by learning selected sentences
in a regular systematic manner.

The confusion created in the minds of adults
by hearing a multiplicity of words, uttered at the
rate of two hundred in a minute, may be effectually
prevented by separating the two processes above
mentioned. It is a great simplification of the work

( to learn to speak first, without attempting to
understand what is spoken. It is better to learn
one practical sentence thoroughly, than to sit
listening for hours to the conversation of foreigners,
because most of the words that we hear are lost;
the few unconnected words which we recall are of

TH£ PR0C£88. 71

very little value, being guessed and learned at
hazard; and those which we partially remember do
us positive and permanent harm, through the inac-
curacy of the impressions which they leave behind.

The attention is severely tasked, but not in a
rational way, for nothing definite or practical is
gained, commensurate with the exertion put forth;
and the little that is remembered escapes again, for
want of timely recapitulations. The learner is
puzzled, fatigued, and discouraged ; and each
succeeding effort of a similar kind leads to still
further encumbrance of the memory, by increasing
the stock of half-forgotten and mis-remembered /
words. Eeading adds to this accumulation, and
grammar complicates the difficulty, and intensifies
the confusion.

It will be a boon to beginners if we can
rescue them from that false position in which they
find themselves placed when they have acquired a
bad habit of pronunciation, and have loaded the
memory with a crude, undigested mass of incohe-
rent words.

Those who only wish for a useful smattering of
a language, need not undertake more than the first
and fourth parts of the following process, before
they go abroad.

Those who condemn the system at first sight,
as slow and ineffective, must bear in mind that its
object is to exempt them from the dreary study of

72 TH£ PROCESS.

grammar^ and yet to enable them to speak with
fluency, and idiomatic purity. If, protesting
against the division of the child's process into two
parts, they resolve to travel abroad unprepared, let
them go and prosper ; but let them avoid books,
and abandon the vague hazy notion that the power
of speaking any language will come unsought, or
be acquired by mere listening.

The beginner need not be under any appre-
hension about forsaking the old beaten track;
because, as the scheme is unfolded, it will be seen
that instead of those incomplete, uncertain, inde-
finite acquirements which shrink from all scrutiny
at the outset, it will insure a steady, clearly-
defined advance from day to day.

I. During the first stage, which is to be regarded
principally as a study of pronunciation, five or six
sentences, containing altogether about a hundred
words, are to be committed to memory, one by one,
very perfectly. The true sounds and the proper
intonation of each clause are to be acquired by
employing a native to say them, over and over,
and by diligently echoing, and striving to appro-
priate his utterance of them. This exercise should
never exceed ten minutes at a time, but it may be
repeated several times a day ; and the oftener it is
resumed at intervals, the better will be the pro-
nunciation. No talking should be allowed while

THE PROCESS. 73

it is going on, because, whatever may be the
amount of success, the imitative exercise should
be continued, in order that the habit may be
confirmed.

The clause or phrase, which he undertakes to
learn first, is not to be analysed, or even divided
into words, until an easy and correct utterance of
the whole of its combined sounds has been obtained.
A translation may then be received, with a full
explanation of each word ; but the beginner must
not ask for the nominative case, or the root, or
for any other variety of any word.

As the memory is not to be trusted to reproduce
unfamiliar sounds and tones, and as the learner is
not to see their symbolic representatives on paper,
nor even to imagine the spelling, he must begin
every lesson by echoing the teacher's voice in the
utterance of all the words that have been previously
acquired.

The exclusive, restrictive character of this
scheme constitutes its strength. The learner's
path is fenced in, and he must not overleap the
barriers.

Grammars and all other books are forbidden.

On the principle that all the words of the first

. sentence are to be utilized to the utmost, before

the memory receives an additional burden, the

teacher must see what minor combinations it will

aflford, without any transposition of the words; and

74 TH£ PROCESS.

lie must utter these aloud, one after another, that

the beginner may echo them, and thus fix them in

his memory.

I The clauses of the second sentence are to be

! acquired in like manner, one by one, and the words

I are to be interchanged with those of the first, in

\ such a manner as to accomplish the gradual unifi*

] cation of the whole stock. But no changes of case

or tense are to be permitted, and the beginner

must never presume to compose a sentence inde*

pendently for himself.

Translations of the minor sentences into the
learner's mother tongue must be kept as an exer-
cise-book for constant use. When he can translate
all of them as correctly and as fluently as he uses
his native language, but not till then, he may
begin the third sentence. The first two, however,
are not be laid aside like worn-out garments, only
to be used on a rainy day. But he must diligently
recapitulate their variations, with the words of
each new clause interwoven among them. This is
the most effectual and easy way of fixing new
words in the memory, without the drudgery of
learning them by mere repetition.

If the learner ever begins a new sentence
before he has gained a perfect " mastery " over all
those preceding it, he violates the principle on
which the scheme is founded, and in so doing he
abandons it altogether. For the words are either

\

THE PROCESS. 75

known or unknown. They either float on the sur- \
face of the memory, or sink into the mud. Gra-
dations of knowledge are inadmissible, for if we
recognise any middle state, all becomes confusion
and disorder.

Facility in wielding the combinations of a sen-
tence, is not to be acquired by neglecting them,
and proceeding, re infectd^ to bestow the whole
attention upon another, equally complicated, and
capable of immensely increasing the number of
combinations, by interchanges of the words.

The notion that this may be done with
impunity, has led to the downfall of many an
enthusiastic beginner; but the fallacy is worn so
completely threadbare, that it is easy to see
through it, when it is held up to the light. It
took its rise during the time when a language was
treated as a huge mass of incoherent words. But
the sterility of unconnected words, and the waste j
of time in acquiring them, are not less conspicuous
than the fecundity of practical sentences, and the
economy of time and labour secured by learning
them by ix)te, and then " mastering " their
variations.

The difficulty or perhaps impossibility of find-
ing teachers of pronimciation, does not constitute a
defect in this system. It only leaves the learner
where it found him, out of reach of the requisite
appliances, but still on a par with the majority,

76 THE PROCESS.

who pronounce a foreign tongue just as they speak
their own. That course may be very convenient,
but nature and reason loudly protest against it.
For when our first sentence proves to be incompre-
hensible to the native to whom we address it, they
warn us, very significantly, that we ought to learn
to pronounce it intelligibly, before we undertake
the second. But routine rides roughshod over
reason and nature, and tramples them in the dust.
There is nothing which so greatly disturbs all
calculations, and produces so much confusion in
the discussion of the problem before us, as the
various degrees of difficulty experienced by begin-
ners in acquiring a foreign pronunciation. There
are some languages in which it may be attained in
two or three days to a very useful extent, by means
of numerous short lessons. If the reader, then, will
admit the possibility of thus acquiring the pronun-
elation separately at the outset, the process will
stand on its own merits, independently of the imita-
tive talents of the learners. In beginning the
classical languages, all are upon an equal footing.
The faculty of reproducing unfamiliar sounds, is not
brought into requisition ; and whether it be feebly
or powerfully developed, the learner's progress is
neither impeded nor accelerated thereby.

The philosophy of the practice of learning a
great many foreign words imperfectly, and when
they are forgotten, learning them over and over

THE PROCESS. 77

again, is inscrutable. As a Sisyphean occupation i
for little boys, it is an excellent contrivance. This ^
mysterious rite, which originated in the dark
ages, and may have been devised to check the
intrusive ardour of vulgar aspirants to literature, is
still solemnized under the significant, but imposing
name of " grounding," The metaphor implies that
the little slaves^ chained to their oars, are com-
pelled to pull hard, all day long, in shallow waters.
Their boat is generally aground, but ever and anon
they make a little headway. The wind and tide
being always against them, their progress is slow,
they often lose what they have gained, and take
the ground again. If this goes on for a year or
two, they are said to be thoroughly grounded.
The ceremony is conducted with religious austerity
and gravity, and the doctrine is inculcated that
the depravity of human nature is so great, that
without a careful study of grammar we cannot
help using bad language.

Book-grammar, however, is artificial, not natu-
rial. Children in a state of freedom instinctively
take the opposite course, pulling only as a recrea-
tion, running rapidly before the wind and tide, with
all sail set, and carefully eschewing the war of ele-
ments in which the others are perpetually engaged.

II. The second step is writing, which pre-
cedes, because it includes, reading.

78 THE PROCESS.

If the Soman letters are employed, and if
they are familiar to the learner, he may copy ten
words of that sentence which he pronounces most
correctly. He should write them in large round
hand, over and over again, for a quarter of an
hour. The memory is a deceiver, and therefore
the learner should begin each sitting by copying
the preceding lessons once, and then writing them
again from recollection.

It may be objected that ten words will call
forth no exertion of the memory ; but the design
of all these restrictions is to employ that faculty
so that its full power shall be employed in accom-
plishing a very little, very perfectly.

If an unknown character is employed, the
writing may be commenced on the third day.
The pupil should not learn more than three letters
a day; he must not see any of the other letters,
and he must not learn any of their names. He is
to copy any one of the words which he knows, but
nothing can be gained by talking about the letters,
and therefore the alphabet is not required, and it
ought not to be leai'ned.

The best plan is to trace the foreign characters
on a gigantic scale, with the finger on the table.
But if the pupil prefers making unsightly scrawls
on paper, let him always destroy his performance
as soon as he has finished it.

He is never to begin a new lesson, unless he

THE PROCESS. 79

can write out, promptly and faultlessly, every
variation that can be made artificially out of the
letters which he has already been taught. By
moving forward deliberately, he will learn more
rapidly, and much more thoroughly than those who
grasp at the whole alphabet at once, thus doing
that injustice to the memory which it is the special
design of this system to prevent.

In learning English no one should attempt to
write, until he has." mastered" one hundred words.
In French he should first " master " two hundred ;
but he must not undertake more than five words at
a time in either of those languages.

While the writing is going on, another set of
sentences, containing a hundred new words, is to
be " mastered " in the same form. In these, the
constructions omitted in the first set must be intro-
duced, together with the rest of the prepositions,
adverbs, &c., in most general use. Each of these
sentences, in its turn, is to be worked into the •
former set by interchanges; but without any alter-
ations in the tenses and cases.

In translating the variations of the English
sentences into the foreign tongue, there must be
no hesitation in the delivery ; but the learner must !
be prompted, whether he likes it or not, whenever :
a word does not come instantaneously to his lips. ^

The accurate recollection of the sentences, both
primary and secondary, will be a perfect safeguard
against grammatical errors^ and will afford 4a

80 THE PROCESS.

guarantee for the correctness, and the idiomatic
purity of these oral compositions.

III. The manner in which the words of each
sentence are capable of being transposed must now
be exhibited, and explained to the learner ; and he
must practise translating, vivd voce^ the transposed
English sentences. This will greatly enlarge and
diversify his power of composition, while it affords
him time to " master " the written characters. The
object of reserving this exercise so long is to give
the learner ample time to secure the recollection
of the sentences in their original idiomatic form,
before he breaks them up into new combinations.

IV. He must next practise the composition of
new varieties of the sentences, with the aid of a
paradigm, or table of inflections, in order to
acquire the power of using, with freedom, the
whole of the tenses and cases belonging to those
words which he has learned.

The table is to be prepared so that the eye
may command, at one view, the whole of the ter-
minations of all the variable parts of speech. No
new words are to be employed ; but the English
sentences are to be thrown into different combina-
tions, by changing one word at a time; then two;
and then three. The object is to enable the
learner to translate the altered sentences by word
of mouth, with perfect accuracy, and more readily

THE PROCESS. 81

than he could do, if he were to trust to his
memory. It is not a reasoning process that he
has to perform, but a habit which he has to ac-
quire in a quasi-mechanical manner.

The labour and difficulty of speaking a language
are in proportion to the number of items in this
table, and to their irregularity ; but as, in highly-
inflected languages, it is necessary to postpone the
acquisition of many forms, the table may be so far
reduced in its dimensions, as to present in the first
instance one half, or one fourth, or even a smaller
proportion of the variations of irregular parts of
speech. By using this table the learner becomes
practically familiarized with the terminations, far
more effectually than he could be by going through
the uninteresting labour, usually imposed upon
beginners, of learning them by rote. But even
though he may have committed them all carefully
to memory, he must nevertheless make use of the
table in the manner prescribed, and he must not
advance to the next part of the process, till he
finds that his memory outstrips his eye to such an
extent, that he can employ all the most useful
inflections with fluency, accuracy, and prompti-
tude.

Thus far extends the initiatory portion of the
process, and here all restrictions cease. The learner
may go abroad, and betake himself to books,
and revel with impunity in the luxuries of the

82 THE PK00E8S.

grammar and the dictionary. He may cram a great
many words into his memory every day, and they
will do him no harm. He may also read from
morning till night. But if he wishes to make
rapid progress in talking, he must practise oral
composition for at least three half hours every day,
although he cannot do it too often.

If the learner, however, should come thus far,
he will probably come farther, and adhere to the
scheme throughout.

V. Two whole days are now to be devoted
to perusing a foreign book, or newspaper, with a
translation ; not laboriously, nor even carefully,
but rapidly and superficially.

Two copies of the book or paper in each lan-
guage being procured, the learner should read out
a clause or a short sentence to a native, whose
business it will be to read aloud in return the
corresponding foreign words. The pupil is to
follow the reader's course with the eye, and care-
fully to echo the tones of his voice, not word by
word, but clause by clause.

The eye, the ear, and the vocal organs being
thus intelligently exercised in unison, he becomes
rapidly familiarized with the most common words,
with the characters, with the various constructions,
with the intonation, and with the true meaning
of the sentences.

This is incomparably the best way of learning

THE PROCESS. 83

to read manuscripts, hieroglyphics, or any illegible
scribblings, provided that it be done slowly, and
with frequent reiterations during the first few
lessons.

Many words recur frequently in eveiy page,
and the most common idioms appear again and
again ; and these, without any intellectual exertion
being put forth, will fix themselves in the memory
in a degree proportionate to the frequency of their
recurrence.

There must be no loitering to solve difficulties,
or to make sure of remembering any particular
words ; because this is intended to be a process of
cursory observation, not of close study,— of habitua-
tion, not of investigation, — of passive reception,
not of active exercitation of the intellect. Obscure
passages, however, should be marked with a pencil
for ulterior reference, so that the learner may occa-
sionally look back, and see that the difficulties have
vanished behind him.

The most practical sentences should be marked
with a pencil during these readings, and the ground
should be retrodden at the end of every half hour's
work, in order that those sentences may be read
very rapidly a second time; and then a fresh
start should be made. Each recapitulation should
include the whole of the marked sentences. Occa-
sionally the beginner should carry on the exercise
without looking at the foreign book; but this

\

84 TH£ PROCESS.

should only be done for a short time, when the
sentences are easy, or during the recapitulations
aforesaid.

On the morrow, let the work be resumed in
similar form for one hour; and then let all the
marked sentences be read aloud, clause by clause,
in order that the beginner may echo them, and
translate them off-hand into his own tongue.

Next let some colloquial sentences be trans-
lated briefly into -English by the teacher, and then
read by him at length in the original These are
to be echoed by the learner, to be re-translated
literally into English, and then reproduced briefly
and rapidly in the foreign language.

During these operations the learner is not to
play the critic, nor to put grammatical questions;
nor is he to offer any opposition to that continual
prompting, whereby his deliberations about each
word must be cut short, and limited to five or six
seconds. A sentence may be repeated to him, if he
requires it, but no time can be spared for discussion
or deliberation. If the obscure passages are
marked with a pencil, they can be examined at
leisure afterwards.

Next let the prompter select and recite anec-
dotes more or less briefly in English, and then read
the original aloud, clause by clause, taking care
to simplify the language when it is obscure, and
to amplify it when it is concise. The learner

THE PROCESS. 85

should translate some clauses, if he can, without
looking at the book, but he must not loiter to
cudgel his brains.

Nothing should ever be read aloud to him, unless
the purport of it has been previously mentioned.

In this fifth part of the process, the prompter
is not to guide and control the learner, but is to
be quite under his command ; with this reservation
alone, that whenever the learner falters, he must
help him. There is to be no questioning, no
lecturing, no teaching, no taxing of the memory,
but every defect of knowledge or of memory is to
be instantly supplied. The work is to be carried
on with that urgency which is employed in
cramming for some great examination, when there
are only two or three days left, and every moment
is precious.

The reports of celebrated trials, in which the
questions appear at full length, and in which the
same story is told by several people in succession,
each in his own phraseology, form the best mate-
rials for these two days' labour; because the sen-
tences are generally plain, practical, and of the
proper length.

As colloquial is very different from book-lan-
guage, and the latter is a wretched substitute for
it, narrative compositions, however elegant they
may be, are unsuitable. A grand historic style is
still more objectionable, and poetry is utterly

\

86 THE PROCESS.

useless. A comedy will always afford good practice,
but care should be taken to select the most useful
passages, and to avoid unusual words, and unprac-
tical sentences.

During the first four stages, the pupil is sup-
posed to have " mastered " two hundred of the
words in most common use ; to be quite familiar
with all the terminations of their tenses and cases ;
and to have acquired a general insight into the
structure of sentences. He is therefore in a posi-
tion to encounter hundreds of new words, without
being perplexed by them.

This fifth part of the process is designed to
show how the beginner may compress into a narrow
compass that course of observation and habitua-
tion, by means of which children, ten or twelve
years old, when taken abroad, are enabled both to
understand, and to talk a new language at the end
of a few weeks; which a little child passes through
very slowly, when struggling all alone to find what
is imitable and practical in the conversation of his
elders ; which every one who goes abroad to learn
a language by mere listening, pursues tediously,
unsatisfactorily, and unsystematically ; and which
the youth of England slowly and imperfectly work
out for themselves, by laboriously ploughing
through books, with a grammar and a dictionary
yoked together, in the vain hope of reaping what
they do not sow.

THE PROCESS. 87

The last labour under some disadvantages which
this exercise will obviate. They suffer from encoun-
tering, without due preparation, thousands of
words, many of which are useless, and most of
which are doomed to be either wholly or partially
forgotten within three hours ; from neglecting oral
composition; from committing words, instead of
sentences, to memory ; from studying a whole lan-
guage at once, instead of gradually acquiring the
power of using the most essential portion of it ;
and from a severe and toilsome application, which,
as respects the colloquial part, yields no definite
practical equivalent for the expenditure of thought,
of time, and of labour.

In this cursory operation, the beginner will
have sixteen hours of bookwork, with intervals of
leisure equally distributed through the day.

The virtue of this fifth part consists in its
transporting the learner to a foreign atmosphere,
amongst foreign sounds and idioms, for two whole
days. It quickens his faculty of comprehending
what he hears, by giving him successively in
advance, the fiiU literal translation of a clause, of
a sentence, of a paragraph ; then a briefer transla-
tion ; then a summary, and finally a mere clue.

Although sustained attention is exacted, the
intellectual exertion is very slight, the progress is
graduated, and recapitulations intervene.

It agrees with the course of nature, displayed

88 THE PROCESS.

in the attainment of their own language by little
children. The wonderment depicted in their faces,
while they listen to some stirring tale that has
been told a hundred times before, does not bespeak
stupidity or failure of memory; because any altera-
tion in the dialogue, which to their minds is the
most striking and practical part^ always arrests
their attention, and they instantly supply the
original words. But it indicates a keen obser-
vation and appreciation of the marvellous and
magical variety of that word-painting, which they
would not be able to understand, but for their
previous familiarity with the incidents. It is by
telling such stories to other children, with a little
aid at first from their parents, that a command of
words, a power of graphic description, and even a
strain of eloquence, are sometimes attained in very
early life. And it is by assiduous practice, with a
small stock of words, in a very small range of
thought, that adults obtain the free use and com-
mand of a foreign language.

VL The learner's next step is to take up an
interesting book in his own language, to select
therefrom sentences containing words with which
he is familiar in the foreign tongue; to shorten
long periods ; to amplify single clauses into com-
plete sentences, and one by one to translate them.

Easy sentences are not to be despised. In
those which are so complicated that he cannot

THE PROCESS. 89

rapidly reduce them, it will be enough to arrange
the words in the order which the foreign idiom
requires. He should also construct out of the
materials before him some imperative and interro-
gative sentences of ten or twelve words each,
increasing the length by degrees, translating them
as he goes along, marking the best of them in the
margin, and occasionally recapitulating them. The
learner is not to bind himself rigidly to the words
which he finds in the book, because this would
effectually check the freedom which he is striving
to gain in the construction of complete sentences.
He may insert other words at pleasure.

The object of this exercise is not to teach him
new words, but to impart fluency and prompti-
tude in making use of those words and phrases
which he has learned, and in throwing them into
colloquial sentences containing conjunctions, inter-
rogative adverbs, pronouns, and prepositions. These
translations are never to be written. The power
of expressing the ideas of an author in different
words, whether it be done by amplification, by
circumlocution, or by simplification, should be
carefully cultivated, in order that when the learner
engages in conversation, he may be able with
promptitude to escape from a diflSculty by making
a total change in the form of the sentence which he
wishes to deliver. This constitutes the speciality
of the accomplished linguist.

90 THE PROCESS.

A dictionary causes grievous interraption to
the trains of thought, besides involving loss of
time, uncertainty, misdirection, and confusion. It
is a chaos of words to a beginner, and it ought
never to be resorted to when a native is at hand,
or when a translation is available.

When the learner finds a noun or a verb
which he does not know how to translate, he
should either ask for the foreign word before he
begins, or, if he is practising alone, he should
substitute another one for it, always selecting for
this purpose some particularly useful verbs and
nouns (two of each), using them through the
whole sitting, and thus impressing them on his
memory. His progress in wielding those words
which he knows ought never to be interrupted by
his ignorance of individual words casually encoun-
tered. Time given to deliberation is wasted, and
there is no merit in producing a word long after it
is wanted. Promptitude is the great object, com-
bined, of course, with accuracy.

If he takes up the translation of a foreign
work for this exercise, his composition is on no
account to be compared with the original, to see
whether it corresponds or not. If he gives a
correct translation, it is enough. No man of
ordinary memory can recite an anecdote, even in
his own language, in the exact words in which he
casually heard, or read it, half an hour before.

THE PROCESS. 91

Out of a thousand listeners, no two would give
similarly worded versions of a story occupying half
an octavo page. To exact a precise counterpart
of the original text of any book from a foreigner,
more especially from one who has not attempted to
commit it to memory, and most especially from one
who has never seen the work, is preposterous.

Nothing can be more disheartening to a begin-
ner, than to be checked at every second or third
word, by cries of No, No, No, from a pedagogue,
looking at the original work, and indulging in the
insane expectation of hearing the exact words of
the author. This gross and stolid misconception
has probably conduced to the discontinuance of
Roger Ascham's method of double translations,
which is of great value at the proper time, and
under proper limitation.

If Queen Elizabeth, of glorious memory, had
submitted to be thus snubbed at the outset of her
classical career, she never would have risen to the
pre-eminence which she attained under Roger's
guidance. It was only at the very close of a long
course of study, that she acquired the power of
putting her own translations of Cicero and Demos-
thenes into the oratorical diction for which she
ultimately became so renowned. And even then
she attained it only by close study, as a preparation
for each effort.

Self-snubbing, on the odious principle above

92 THE PROCESS.

described, is extensively practised by tourists, who
may be seen in picturesque localities, with one
column of a dialogue book conscientiously folded
back, while they are saying their appointed task.
/ Now the idea of a rigorous ordeal is excellent, and
the acquisition of useful ready-made sentences is
beyond all praise. But yet the success is very
small, because they try to swallow a whole page at
one mouthful, instead of a single sentence, and
because the eye roams unrestrained through the
volume, and thus the memory is either choked or
surfeited.

This sixth exercise is an extension of the fourth
part of the process, and therefore the synopsis is to
be freely used, in order to lighten the labour, and
to remedy all defects of accuracy and fluency. It
should be practised with recapitulations every day,
in preference to any other exercise, or even to the
exclusion of every thing else.

VII. The next step in the scheme is to asso-
ciate with foreigners, to familiarize the ear to the
tones of their voices.

No one should listen to conversation until
he has " mastered " a few sentences containing
about two hundred of the most common words.
He will find difficulty enough in recognizing
those which he knows, when he first hears them
uttered by strange voices in strange and unex-
pected combinations; and of course new phrases,

THE PBOCESS. 93

containing new words, will be unintelligible to him.
He must leam to express his own thoughts, before
he can expect to converse.

He should always obtain, if possible, a clue to
the conversation, because without this an active
mind is sure to receive wrong impressions. It is
useful to frequent public places as a listener; to
ask several people in succession for the news of
the day, after having carefully read it all before-
hand; to hear the Church Service, or any well
known book, read aloud; but especially to engage
strangers in conversation on subjects which he has
previously discussed with others, in order that he
may repeat his own questions and observations,
with additions and improvements. These second-
hand conversations are by far the most instructive.

It is true that very animated gesticulations
will often enable us to conjecture what two
foreigners are saying, even when they are out of
earshot, but this is an exercise of our natural
sagacity, not of our knowledge of the language;
and as we all possessed it in infancy, and as we
never lose it entirely in after life, there is no
danger to be apprehended from keeping it in
reserve for a few weeks.

As the true sounds of a foreign sentence can-
not be retained by a beginner, unless he listens to
them undisturbedly, and hears them uttered two
or three times at least, he can do himself very little

L

\

94 THE PROCESS.

good by suddenly exposing himself, without any
training, to a Babel of words. And unless be
repeats and imitates what he hears, be may listen
for a long time without deriving any benefit
from it.

It is not to be denied that people do learn to
speak a language, even under the most unfavour-
able circumstances; but as they have no system,
and as they cannot explain how they do it, it may
be confidently assumed that they apply themselves,
like children, unconsciously, to the imitation and
repetition of sentences; and that their success
depends entirely on the suitability of what they
learn by chance.

So also, without previously learning the letters,
people may acquire the power of reading a foreign
language, if with a book open before them, they
carefully follow with their eyes, the course of a
person reading aloud to them, as slowly as they
require. Many children learn to read their own
language in this manner, without spelling, and it
is by far the best method, because children so
taught, generally learn orthography more rapidly
than others.

On the other hand, there are not a few men,
who find themselves quite helpless when travelling
in France, although they can read a French novel
as easily as one in their own language ; and can
understand a great deal of what they hear spoken.

THE PBOO£SS. 95

They cannot put their words into sentences,
because they are not in possession of any sentences
to put them into ; nor have they ever given up
one whole day to making attempts at talking; nor
have they persevered in systematic oral composi-
tion, by translating dialogues, or making imaginary
conversations even for a few minutes a day ; but
they console themselves with the reflection, that
their book-knowledge is the greatest, and most
useful attainment, and that after all ^^ any noodle
can talk if he tries."

This is a fact not to be denied, nor even
questioned for a moment ; but yet the excuse is a
very contemptible one ; because in reality they do
not know how to try, and they are conscious that
this is the cause of their own delinquency. To
try without some definite plan, which will aflford
them a rational expectation of success, is repug-
nant to their feelings, and therefore they will not
try.

When he first attempts to talk, an English-
man feels and looks very like a school-boy who
is saying a lesson, keenly watched by others who
are intent on detecting flaws in his compositions.
And as many intelligent men acknowledge that
they have blundered into a colloquial knowledge,
and as they urge others to begin in the same way,
he seriously inclines to their strongly-expressed
opinion that it is the only possible way. But this

9B THE PROCESS.

wilful premeditated blundering, this barbarous
massacre of a language in cold blood, is an outrage
to all his scholarly feelings. He shrinks from
talking till circumstances force him into it, and
then he bitterly repents that he had not initiated
himself before.

It vexes him to hear educated men setting
grammar, idiom, and pronunciation at defiance;
but he is not sure that he can acquit himself much
better. Nor does he like to expose himself to the
scoflFs of those who pretend to know more than he
does, and yet will not attempt to speak, lest they
should commit themselves.

We often hear a man who is invited to act as
interpreter to a party, decline the honour, on the
plea that "he would rather not make a fool of
himself." If he happens to be a man of reputed
ability, it requires some hardihood in a beginner
to attempt to perform the office from which the
former shrinks. It shocks him to find that all his
classical training is utterly worthless in a practical
point of view, and it irritates him to hear that he
can only blunder into correctness by ridiculous
guesses. This violation of all his feelings, and this
apprehension that he is exposing himself to ridi-
cule, cause him to appear to great disadvantage in
the eyes of foreigners.

He has never been told that each day should
have its definite lesson in the form of a colloquial

\

THE PE0CES8. 97

sentence, and that he may leam it to perfection
before he uses it in public. His school traditions
lead him to suppose that he can manufacture
foreign sentences for himself, and M thinks it
childish and shabby to learn them ready-made.

He does not know that the benefit derived
from hearing a foreigner speak to him, is as nothing /
when compared with that which results from his
own efforts to carry on the conversation; and the
idea has never occurred to him that he may prac-
tise this in solitude far better than with a pedantic
teacher, or a voluble stranger, who forces him
to speak on unfamiliar subjects, and who hurries,
interrupts, puzzles, thwarts, and disappoints him,
in the most amiable and courteous manner.

The colloquial power is often decried as an
acquisition of little merit ; but on examination it
will be found to be more difficult than descriptive
composition, because a greater variety of construc-
tions is required, together with a peculiar phraseo-
logy. It also exacts a thorough command over the
whole of the pronouns, and a practical knowledge
of the terminations of verbs, greater in the ratio of
at least two to one.

Heading, it is true, imparts an acquaintance
with ten times as many words ; but it does not
insure that " mastery" which we require.

To a traveller, the colloquial is unquestionably
the more useful acquisition, because a man who

H

98 THE PROCESS.

is able to talk, though he does not know a single
letter of the foreign character^ can, on an emer-
gency, dictate to an amanuensis; and though he
cannot rea*d, he can understand what is read to
him, and if he mistrusts one reader, he can employ
another.

Again, the colloquial power is the more valuable
at first, because they who possess it can learn to
read much more easily than those who know nothing
of the language; and in the matter of letter writing,
if they can express themselves correctly by word
of mouth when dictating to another, they will com-
pose in a superior manner during the more delibe-
rate process of writing.

But here we encounter the great scarecrow
orthography, which in English and French, and
some few other languages, presents difficulties that
can only be slowly overcome by steady and system-
atic application.

Foreigners must bear in mind that accuracy in
spelling depends entirely on careful ocular observa-
tion, and that analogy is a treacherous guide that
can never be depended upon.

When the beginner can spell his two hundred
English words correctly, he must practise writing
them every day with new words interspersed.
When he has advanced as far as five hundred, he
may copy out poetry with advantage. Let him
examine the spelling of a line of very short metre

THE PROCESS. 99

four times over, and after this slight exercise
of the attention and the memory, let him trans-
cribe it.

The special object of this is to accustom the
eye to exercise minute observation. It should not
be allowed to wander to any other part of the page.
A regular metre is recommended, in order that
each act of the memory may be as nearly uniform
as possible. Close attention must be given to the
work as long as it lasts, and each sitting should be
rigorously limited to fifteen minutes ; but the
beginner, if so disposed, may practise again and
again at intervals of at least one hour.

The copy-book ought to be kept absolutely free
from the blemish of a mis-spelt word. If three or
four mistakes occur in one sitting, a shorter metre
should be transcribed. As in talking, fluency and
precision are exacted, though not without abundant
consideration before-hand, so in writing, every line
is to be copied after deliberate ocular examination.

If the spelling of a word happens to be for-
gotten, it should not be guessed at, but omitted.
This rule ought to be inviolably observed at every
stage of progress. When a word has been omitted,
the whole line in which the blank occurs should be
written over again at the end of the page, and
once more at the end of the two next exercises.

Words that have been either mis-spelt or obli-
terated, should be gil)beted in large round text and

24147;^

100 THE PROCESS,

hung up, in their correct orthography, in front
of the beginner's customary seat. But omissions
should be regarded as praiseworthy, rather than
blameable.

Whenever the copy-book remains unblemished
during eight consecutive sittings, a longer metre
may be adopted, but not more than two syllables
should be added at each step in advance. Progress
ought to be made slowly, and no change in the
metre should be allowed until the stipulated con-
ditions have been strictly fulfilled, and confirmed
by the test of dictation.

Dictation should be resorted to about twice a
week, but it should be limited to the words already
learned, and it should always be commenced with-
out any warning. The gibbeted words should be
called for, and gradually removed as the learner
shows that he has "mastered'' them. When a
word is asked for, the whole line should be read
aloud, but only that one word should be written.

Dictation, as generally conducted, is often pro-
ductive of more harm than good, because it is
carried far beyond reasonable limits. The exercise
ought to cease when a certain number of words
have been mis-spelt, and time ought not to be
wasted in useless and wearisome transcriptions of
the commonest words over and over again.

As this exercise requires lively attention,
humorous or interesting books alone ought to be

THE FKOGESS. 101

employed. When passages are read aloud relating
to subjects of no interest, selected out of books
which the beginner has never seen, they discourage
him, because he is conscious that he must of neces-
sity commit numerous errors. Such a severe pro-
cess is only fit for competitive examinations, and
even then it is extremely uncertain. It is far
better that a beginner should receive daily encou-
ragement for the small successes which he achieves,
than that he should be annoyed and disheartened
by committing unavoidable mistakes, and by having
his ignorance exposed at every sitting.

A clear line should be drawn, if possible,
between the known and the unknown words. The
former class will include only those, in the writing
of which it has been ascertained by dictation that
the learner has never made a mistake.

The oftener the copy book is looked at for the
purpose of self-examination, the better.

This process being almost mechanical, clever
people must not promise themselves greater success
in spelling than their neighbours attain. The
work may seem endless, but that is no reason for
indiscriminately grappling with hundreds of diffi^
culties all at once. In this, as in every other
pursuit involving numerous minuti^, method is
essential to sound progress.

The learner should practise letter-writing for
half an hour every day, taking care to restrict

102 THE PROCESS.

himself to those words which he uses in talking ;
for although they form but a small portion of the
language, he will not require many more, and he
will always be safe within his own domain. The
attainment of four thousand words can only be
completed by slow degrees, and the words which
are most wanted, ought to be learned first.

Beading, though it be carried on for several
hours a day, is of little use in imparting a know-
ledge of orthography, except when it is attended
with close observation, exercised specially upon a
very few words.

Nor will reading keep up our colloquial power
over a language, although we commence the prac-
tice on the very day on which we cease to speak it,
and to hear it spoken. Nor will reading, even
when supported by close analytical study, restore
the colloquial power which has been long out of
use. In fact, it confers no more benefit in this
respect, than listening inertly to the conversation
of foreigners, does in respect to the colloquial
power. The practice of reading aloud is said to
be beneficial, but it cannot be relied upon, because
there is no active exercise of the memory involved
in it.

But if there be a daily exercise of oral compo-
sition, with a stock of well-chosen sentences,
learned thoroughly, and a synoptical table of
the cases and tenses of the nouns and verbs in

THE PROCESS. 103

constant use, reading, study, and critical discus-
sion are alike unnecessary for the restoration and
recovery even- of a long-forgotten language; and
therefore it is better to dispense with them alto-
gether, until that short and simple process shall
have been completed.

But even when it has been honestly gone
through, the tenses are very apt to escape from the
memory; and therefore those who are in earnest
should always carry about with them a reduced
synopsis, containing those parts of the verb which,
in practice, they find that they are prone either to
forget, or to misapply.

CHAPTER VI.

ON THE SELECTION OF SENTENCES.

rilHERE is nothing which, strictly speaking, can
-*- be called the beginning of a language. It
is a globe, the geography of which commences
anywhere.

There is no construction, no form of thought,
no question, no command, no part of speech, which
can rightfully claim priority. Utility is the only
consideration in the choice of the first sentences.

As every written word consists of letters
arranged in a certain established, inviolable order,
so every sentence of a new language must be
regarded as an indivisible, inseparable combination,
until the memory has grasped it securely.

The selection of certain words for the first sen*
tence may be termed arbitrary, but it no more
interferes with their ulterior employment, in what-
ever other positions they may be required, than

106 ON THE SELECTION OF SENTENCES.

the adoption of certain letters for writing a word,
prevents their introduction into other words.

When we begin by dismembering sentences,
and reducing them to their elements, as exhi-
bited in a grammar, before we have learned them
perfectly, we are unable to reproduce them in their
original form, because a state of confusion has been
created in the brain, not unlike that which is expe-
rienced by a novice in playing at chess. If, after
ransacking our brains, we can slowly recall the
words, our teachers are satisfied, even although we
cannot replace them in their original order. But
we must not be so easily satisfied; because the true
collocation of the words is of infinitely greater
importance than any thing else; and there can be
no hardship in exacting it rigorously from those
who have only to learn a very few words at a time,
and who may therefore reasonably be expected to
reproduce them with the utmost fluency, in their
proper order.

The colloquial acquisition of a language does
not require a command over the whole dictionary;
for such a power is absolutely unattainable, even
by lexicographers ; but it implies the " mastery "
over the whole range of very common words.

Our preparatory training generally exacts an
acquaintance with the whole of the syntactical
combinations, and of all the cases and tenses of all
those declinable words, which are most frequently

ON THE SELECTION OP SENTENCES. 107

used, whether regular or irregular. This is useful
knowledge for those who are to begin with books,
and to whom the recognition of words, and their
terminations, is all-important ; but it is an impedi-
ment to those from whom the reproduction of
words in their appointed places is exacted as the
chief consideration.

It is a mistake to begin by learning by rote
all the cases and tenses of all the declinable
words. Teachers recommend this course, because
of the extreme difficulty of using them, but it is on
this very ground that it is objectionable. When
we have learned them thoroughly, we are supposed
to have gained the power of using them ; but this
is a fiction, which is exposed the moment we

attempt oral composition.

Every well-chosen sentence that we " master "
in its integrity, puts us into possession of some of
those items which are exhibited in grammars, and
thus we may gradually learn the whole of them.
But those items which we learn first cannot be
distinctly and practically retained, unless we can
employ them with perfect freedom; nor will the
genuine construction and collocation remain durably
in the memory, unless recapitulation and imitative
oral composition on a limited scale are practised
every day. By not complying with these con-
ditions, and by shackling ourselves with super-
fluous formalities, we retard our progress ; and the

/

108 ON THE SELECTION OF SENTENCES.

incessant repetition of the non-essential, affords
no compensation for the non-repetition of the
essential.

It is a well-known fact that boys, who have
learned to converse fluently on their travels abroad,
and are under orders to keep up their know-
ledge of the foreign language at an English school,
very frequently return to their agonized parents
in the holidays, speaking spurious French or
German, instead of the genuine idiomatic forms of
expression, which were habitual to them before.
The grammar and exercise system, which thus
obliterates and eradicates a vernacular knowledge
of a language, and substitutes translated English
phrases, must be essentially anti- vernacular, or else
we must conclude that it has been grossly mis-
understood, and misapplied.

Many writers have remarked, that all the
constructions of a language may generally be
found in a few pages of any book ; or even within
the limits of one page. But they parade the fact
without making the right use of it. They do not
venture to draw the legitimate and obvious con-
clusion, that within that small compass we may
acquire a knowledge of all the constructions.
Neither do they venture to exhibit one such page
as a specimen ; nor do they show us practically how
we may utilize the fact which they proclaim.

In what manner a language may be condensed

ON THE SELECTION OF SENTENCES. 109

into one page, so far as the regular constructions ^
are concerned, may be inferred from inspecting the
concise syntax of our own tongue, in the folio
edition of Johnson's Dictionary. That high au-
thority gives only five rules, the whole of which
may be exemplified in a sentence of eight words.
In like manner every grammarian lays down,
according to his own views of the language of
which he treats, a set of rules, the most essential
of which may be exhibited in a few sentences.
The most copious syntax may thus be reduced to a
small compass, as may be proved by observing
how many Latin rules must be complied with in
translating English sentences extending to the
length of five lines of print.

This principle of condensation must be applied
in the preparation of sentences for beginners. The
foreign language ought to be presented to the
learner in such a manner as to show him, in the
primary sentences, the most striking contrasts to
the constructions of his own tongue, in order to
accustom him, from the outset, to employ forms of
expression which are quite at variance with his f
habits of thought. A thorough adaptation of two
languages to each other, demands the hand of an
expert in both; but very little learning and skill
are required for the compression, into a few
sentences, of all the peculiar syntactical con-
structions.

110 ON THE SELECTION OF SENTENCES.

The greatest successes ever obtained by lin-
guists have, in all probability, been due to the com-
pactness of the form in which they " mastered ''
the constructions, embodied in sentences of the
most practical description. But there is no neces-
sity for compressing them into a smaller compass
than a set of sentences, containing one hundred
words.

The danger against which every learner has to
be especially protected, is the tendency to translate
his own thoughts, word for word. There are some
languages in which every sentence so constructed,
must be wrong, although it may be grammatically
correct. Here is the vulnerable point of those
methods in which grammar is held to be the one
essential.

A beginner cannot arrange words in combina-
tions to which he is practically a stranger; but
if he learns by rote a comprehensive set of idio-
matic sentences, and naturalizes all the words by
diligent practice, restricted rigorously to that
selection, he is in actual possession of all the con-
structions, although he has never seen or heard of
a syntax.

The course of nature combines analysis and
synthesis, with a practical knowledge of all the
constructions, and with a mere sufficiency, instead
of a superabundance of words. Idiomatic sen-
tences become fixtures in the memory, and the

ON THE SELECTION OE SENTENCES. Ill

analysis of them is so simple, that it is easily per-
formed even by young children. The latter have
not, and they do not require that critical power,
which educated men display in their investigations
into the component parts of a new language, and
the peculiar constructions thereof. The process
is altogether different, and the soundness of the
principle is obvious. For sentences learned
by rote gradually dissolve themselves, and be-
come decomposed, when the words are severally
used in other combinations, in the hearing of
the child.

Thus, if he has learned the following five sylla-
bles, " Give me some of that," which to him are
but one word or utterance, indivisible in the first
instance, his attention is attracted by any portions
of it, which he may chance to hear afterwards
applied in a different manner, as " Give me that;"
" I want some of that," &c. He observes those
variations; and by degrees he comprehends them,
and employs them himself, not in supersession of
the original sentence, but in addition to it. In
this manner the analysis becomes, for all practical
purposes, complete ; and the meaning of the whole
sentence becomes more and more clearly under-
stood. He cannot be said to understand each of
the words thoroughly, but he uses them intelli-
gently and accurately. He cannot assign a score
of meanings to the preposition "of," but his

112 ON THE SELECTION OF SENTENCES.

ignorance is not inexcusable, and it is no bar to
his progress.

Such is the analysis of nature, resulting from a
series of observations and inferences, drawn by
infants from the known to the unknown; from the
whole to its parts.

The synthetic operation is merely the insertion
of other words, one by one, into their appropriate
niches in the sentences learned by rote. Each new
word corresponds grammatically with that which it
displaces. Thus, in the sentence above given,
he may introduce "him" instead of "me," and
" those " instead of " that." The substitution of
the right word, in the right form, without any
knowledge of grammar, results from that instinct
of imitation and repetition, which operates univer-
sally in the unsophisticated minds of children.

The intellectual power exercised in these opera-
tions is so trifling, that they scarcely deserve to
be called reasoning processes. And yet, if a man
attempts oral composition before he is possessed of
a stock of words engraved on his memory in purely
idiomatic combinations, all the words, cases, tenses,
and rules which his memory has retained in-
coherently, all his critical knowledge of the
language, and all his intellectual power seem to
be of no avail. He does not express himself idio-
matically, because he has not the tools wherewith
to perform the synthetical operation.

ON THE SELECTION OF SENTENCES. 113

It is not enough, however, merely to obtain
possession of the tools ; but the dexterity of the
skilled workman must be superadded by assiduous
practice in using them. To stop short of this, is
to render all the previous acquisitions lifeless and
nugatory.

The combination of analysis and synthesis, in
the child's process, is not due to any sudden deve-
lopment of his intellectual faculties ; but there is
an unwritten law of which he seems to have an
intuitive perception. It is that essence of language
which the subtle genius of the inventor of grammar
discerned, which with infinite difficulty he ex-
pressed in hard words, and in an evil hour shaped
into a system and a science.

How to separate grammar from its technicali-
ties, and -explain the constructions of a Unguage
in simple, intelligible terms, is a problem which
seems to have escaped attention, or to have
baffled inquiry. The general impression is that^
grammar is inseparable and impalpable, but it
does not necessarily follow that it is incom-
municable ; for it is an ingredient or property of
language, and there is no necessity for abstracting
it It is inherent in every sentence of every lan-
guage, and therefore those who " master " a com-
plete set of sentences are in full possession of it in
its concrete form, if such a term may be applied.
When we deal with it in the abstract, it is highly

I

114 ON THE SELECTION OF SENTENCES.

metaphysical and abstruse, and it is therefore a
most unsuitable training for the colloquial acquisi-
tion of a language.

Children taken abroad have better success,
under the unwritten law, than we obtain from
grammar. They reproduce sentences uttered by
foreigners, while our only resource is to trans-
late our own forms of speech, and to reason, where
translation misleads us, and reasoning is out of
place. The unwritten law guides children aright,
and it will, undoubtedly, be equally true to us,
unless we counteract it by some antagonistic course
of procedure.

In the child's method, the ideal syntax comes
first, in company with some of the rudiments and
elements. The rest gradually follow, mingled with
other combinations. Whenever he speaks correctly,
we say that he obeys the rule of syntax, or the law
of the language. But he obeys it unwittingly, for
the rules have never been given to him; he has
not invented them, he does not require them, and
if they were communicated to him he could not
possibly understand them. Nature imparts to him
the whole essence of the language, embodied in
those sentences which he learns by rote — the gas
with the coal. We spend months in laboriously
and needlessly extracting the gas. We smother
the fire of memory with masses of coke; but he
feeds it with the genuine fuel so frequently and so

ON THE SELECTION OF SENTENCES. 115

lightly that it is always blazing, crackling, and
sparkling.

The strict meaning of the words " elements *'
and " rudiments j^ is not very obvious. The former
term includes, perhaps, every original word which
cannot be decomposed, and every syllable or letter
which, though inseparable, has an etymological
significance of its own.

Rudiments are variously defined as " elements,"
or " ingredients," or the " first parts of education,*'
or "rude, unfinished portions," or "inaccurate,
unshapen beginnings." Such definitions are not
very instructive. But elements are unquestionably
included in rudiments; and these are unfinished,
inaccurate, unshapen fragments, as compared with
sentences or periods, which, being complete, hold a
much higher position in the eyes of grammarians.
"John walks;"— "It rains;"— "Milk is white;"
are pithy propositions which are given to explain
to us what periods are. Unfortunately these are
supposed to be models, because they are styled
complete ; and as there is also safety in small
efforts at composition, a passion for very concise
forms of speech prevails among beginners. As it
is impossible, however, to sustain a cheerful con-
versation on such terms, nature rebels against this
limitation. Such little propositions are nothing
more than rudiments of language; and although
they are also entitled to the more dignified

116 ON THE SELECTION OF SENTENCES.

appellation of sentences, or periods, they only fetter
the beginner by restricting him to very incomplete
utterances.

A sounder, because more practical, view of the
nature of rudiments is suggested by the Hebrew
orthography, wherein one word often comprises
three, and sometimes four or five of ours. The
following sentence, when written in Hebrew, would
contain only seven words, according to the divi-
sions marked :

And lie sent me J to your territory | with his wife |
and her brothers | to save them | from their enemies |
who were pnrsning them.

Each of these clauses is a rudiment, being an
unfinished portion of a sentence. It is true they
are neither unshapen nor inaccurate, and therefore
they do not harmonize with the definition, but
this will be no disadvantage to the beginner.
Although they are not periods, they are integral
portions of them, and therefore they are equally
essential to learners. Moreover, they become com-
plete propositions by implication whenever they
are employed as answers to questions.

The beginner should, therefore, learn similar
combinations, linked together in circumstantial
sentences, not selecting them with a view to
attaining the colloquial power with extreme rapi-
dity, but with the more sober consideration that

OK THE SELECTION OF SENTENCES. 117

his progress must be gradually progressive. The
combination of nouns with possessive pronouns and
prepositions will be found extremely useful, because
they may be introduced into almost every sentence J
that a beginner addresses to foreigners; and in
most languages it requires a good deal of practice
to transpose and interchange those words. In
English alone there is no difficulty in using them.

There are other considerations which recom-
mend these rudimentary forms. Sentences in all
languages naturally resolve themselves into such
clauses, and in point of length they are on a par
with those periods which are usually presented in
books for beginners. Moreover, one clause suffices
for a lesson ; the time occupied in its utterance is
only two or three seconds, and the number of times
that it can be recalled in thought during five
minutes is almost incalculable.

People studying languages abroad are not
aware how much their progress is due to their
unconscious recitations of such clauses, which they
revolve so often in a few seconds, that they make a
deep impression upon the memory. So long as
beginners lie in wait to seize upon disconnected
individual words, they make no progress, because
they disregard every little combination which they
thoroughly understand. They feel that they have
done it, and have passed beyond it, and therefore
they pay no heed to it. Forgetting that language

118 ON THE SELECTION OF SENTENCES.

is only a series of combinations, they go all wrong.
But when they are off their guard, and cease from
thwarting the operations of nature, she always re-
asserts her power, and they become the unconscious
recipients of valuable additions to their stock of
combinations, without any spontaneous exertion of
the intellect. Whenever the learner leads a con-
versation, he benefits by receiving rudimentary
answers. But when he imagines that it is out of
his power to lead, when he restricts himself to yes
and no, he subjects himself inevitably to become
a mere listener, to hear long sentences without
having any clue to the meaning, and thus to forego
the twofold advantage of practising oral compo-
sition and of receiving short answers, the nature of
which he can anticipate so far that he can readily
comprehend them.

It is difficult in the extreme to frame a set of
sentences that will satisfy anybody, and impossible
to produce one that will satisfy everybody. But
as every Englishman is by education a critic, a
selection is offered under the conviction that,
however unsuitable they may seem to be, they will
at least be suggestive, and with the proviso that
they shall every one of them be remodelled
according to the learner's own taste. He may
eject any noun or verb, with or without reason,
and substitute another which he likes better, or

ON THE SELECTION OF SENTENCES. 119

which he thinks more suited to his own especial
requirements. But the sentences must not be
shortened, because it is by extending their
range that we obtain the most useful models,
together with greater accuracy and command of
language.

It is in vain for a beginner to expect, in the
first few days, to learn a large number of words,
and to acquire also the power of using them.

Servants and tradesmen, who have to prepare
themselves for a special and well-defined narrow
sphere, are generally more successful at first than
educated men. The latter are too ambitious by
far. In their efforts to speak a whole language
with freedom and purity all at once, they are
aspiring to an accomplishment which is seldom
attained, except by thoroughly educated natives ;
and they also attempt it on wrong principles. The
superfluity of words is sufficient of itself to paralyse
them. Every word that they hear or see is a
straw, the weight of which, individually, is as
nothing, yet the whole bundle is too great for the
strongest memory.

Those who have only to speak to one foreigner,
on one subject, are in the most advantageous
position, because they can easily anticipate their
own wants, and draw up a set of sentences which i
they must use, or may use, several times every j
day. This compulsory repetition of the sentences

120 ON THE SELECTION OF SENTENCES.

which have been committed to memory, is in-
valuable.
/ Some definite limitation of the sphere of con-
versation is essential. There need be no apprehen-
sion about its being too contracted, because there
is no pursuit in which the range of expression is
not wide enough to include the whole of the con-
structions, and to afford opportunities for the
employment of every case and tense of the nouns,
pronouns, and verbs. It is not extensive know-
ledge that is required, but readiness in using
what we already possess; not power, but rather
dexterity. There is less merit in speaking well,
after a long and laborious course of study, than in
doing so with little or no training; and there is
more cleverness in making two hundred words
subserve all the purposes of life, than in employing
the whole dictionary.

In the selection and formation of sentences
for a beginner, each of them should contain about
twenty words.
/ The best sentences and words are those which
the individual learner will have most occasion to
employ in his first intercourse with foreigners.

Interrogative sentences are most required.

Negative questions are valuable, because they
generally comprise the affirmative form of expres-
sion.

A beginner must not aim at brevity.

ON THE SELECTION OF SENTENCES. 121

Circumstantiality is of infinitely greater value than
conciseness. Brevity and strength of expression
are excellent in those who have attained a high
degree of proficiency; but intelligibility, and a
free command of words must first be attained.

Complicated sentences are on no account to be
avoided, or postponed; they are more instructive
than simple ones.

Sentences, wherein the words correspond with
the order of arrangement in the learner's ver-
nacular tongue, must not on any account be pre-
sented to him at first. The preference should be
given to those in which the order is most inverted.

Antithetical sentences are good, because they
give scope for the introduction of conjunctions ; but
it should be remembered that two short sentences
coupled together, are only short sentences after all.

It is better to learn a comprehensive sentence,
which grasps within itself the substance of six
other forms of speech, than to obtain six methods
of expressing one idea.

Those every-day expressions in the learner's
own language, which cannot be represented except
by special idioms in the foreign tongue, ought to
be provided for among the first.

Individual words are not to be excluded from a
new sentence because they have previously occurred.
Such repetition is unavoidable, and, as it facilitates
the work, it is unobjectionable.

I

122 ON THE SELECTION OF SENTENCES.

Strictly synonymous words are to be avoided.

Words of general applicability are to be pre-
ferred to those of restricted or partial meaning.

Plural nouns which are formed by merely
adding a syllable to the singular, should be
employed in preference to the latter.

The learner must not trouble himself by
anticipation about the irregularities of verbs and
nouns, because each tense and case will come to
him by degrees. They ought not, on any account,
to be excluded from the sentences on the one
hand, nor ought they, on the other hand^ to be
studied, or even looked at in a grammar. A word
of that class, standing in a sentence, is as easy as
any other word, but if many anomalous forms are
scrutinized, and more especially if they are exhi-
bited in an alphabetical list, together with others
nearly resembling them, the inevitable result will
be confusion of mind, whenever any one of them
has to be used.

Of verbs the active transitive is the best, and
the most necessary tenses are the past and
the future, together with the imperative mood,
and the participles.

The passive voice may generally be dispensed
with at first. In some languages it is scarcely
ever used.

Compound tenses, being comprehensive, are
extremely useful. The Latin word rogavissemus

ON THE SELECTION OF SENTENCES. 123

is in itself a sentence^ ivhich presents to the eye
the minor forms of ragatnssemy rogavisse, rogavimus^
rogavij rogamus^ rogaSj and roga. It also com-
prises the various notions which in English are
expressed with greater precision by the auxiliaries
* might,' * could,' * would/ and * should.' To a
beginner, therefore, it is doubly comprehensive.
Elliptical forms of speech appear to be powerful
and comprehensive in their relation to other Ian*
guages in one point of view, but they are vague
and defective in another. Our translation of
rogavissemusj owing to its uncouth orthography,
is viewed as a bungling circumlocution. But
inasmuch as it contains the same number of sylla-
bles, it is equally concise; and in point of utility
and convertibility it is superior ; for whereas the
Latin syllables are unalterably fixed in one
sequence, ours may be transposed; and thus we
obtain the advantage of the interrogative and
conditional modes of expression in addition.

At the first view of a new language as
exhibited in its cabalistic characters, its dictionary
and its grammar, the labour of learning it appears
to most people to be overwhelming. But a child
is not appalled by any considerations of the mag-
nitude of the undertaking. He cheerfully sets to
work to make an epitome, and he always succeeds.
His discrimination of the practical is surprising.
His stock of phrases indicates to us that it is only

4

124 ON THE SELECTION OF SENTENCES.

by limiting the number of nouns, that we can
eflfectually circumscribe the area of our operations,
and still set in motion the whole machinery of a
language. For that which is said concerning a
noun, in a well-chosen sentence, is of far more
value to a beginner, than a list of many other
nouns, to which it may be applicable.

The practice of learning a number of nouns
every day, and of rehearsing them with their
several English equivalents annexed, is very
irrational. It is not the power of naming, but
that of predicating that we want. For this
purpose, the minor parts of speech are perpetually
required, and the structure of language cannot
be reared without them. They are often more
influential than the noun itself, which is constantly
superseded and merged in its representative
pronoun. Nouns, when isolated, are not ideas, but
fragments of dismembered sentences. Connected
speech should be the sole aim and object of the
learner.

The question " What do you call that ? " forms
an efficient substitute for the names of those
things, which being always at hand, can always be
pointed out. Those nouns, unfortunately, are the
words which we are generally advised to learn
first ; the assumption being that what we see
before us, is more easily associated with a new
sound, than a thing which is not in sight.

ON THE SELECTION OF SENTENCES. 125

It is deplorable to hear educated men argue,
like mere savages, that the proper course is to
learn the names of things first, because by naming
them we can ask for them ; as if the great object
of our intercommunion with foreigners was to beg
from them, and nothing more. We do not imagine
the learner to be an adventurer, shipwrecked on a
coast where civilization is unknown, and the lan-
guage of which has never been heard by Christian
ears. In such an emergency, a list of edibles would
be very desirable, and he would easily obtain one by
making signs ; but the diflSculty of expressing any
ideas would remain in full force, after he had
learned the name of every article in a cannibal's
possession ; and this knowledge after all would be
of no avail to save him from an uncomfortable
destiny.

It is often maintained that because nouns and 1
verbs seem, etymologically, to be the foundation of
all the other parts of speech, and because infants
often learn them first, adults ought to begin in the
same way. But this is not the infantile, but the
maternal process. It is not spontaneous learning,
but artificial teaching ; it does not pretend to be '
philosophical or scientific ; and there is no intel-
ligible method pervading it.

A child four years old, left to his own re-
sources, begins very differently. When he asso-
ciates with foreign children, he does not restrict

126 ON THE SBLECTION OF SENTENCES.

himself to single words, nor does he pick out the
nouns and verbs, but he learns practical sentences,
and that without the intervention of any adviser.
Here is the domain of instinct; but the mere
infant is not a free agent.

Science investigates the origin of language, and
sets us to work upon certain principles, according
to which each language is supposed to have been
formed word by word, thoughtfully and elaborately.

But seeing the difficulty experienced by some
men of the greatest sagacity and industry in
attempting to learn foreign words, even when
sounded in their ears, and placed before them in
writing, we are not bound to concur in the assump-
tion that so noble, perfect, and wonderful a work
as the invention of language, could have been
accomplished by uncivilized men, who had never
heard speech before they commenced their opera-
tions, and who must have been lower in intellectual
degradation than the lowest of all the tribes
mentioned in history.

Whatever its origin may have been, each lan-
guage appears before us now, as an opus operatum^
a highly-finished piece of mosaic, which children
do not pull to pieces, though the learned do.
Every learner is set to work to reconstruct the
language de novo, with all its defects and anomalies
included; and he naturally imbibes the notion that
it is impossible for any one to become possessed of

ON THE SELICTION OF SENTENCES. 127

it, unless he goes through that course. He is
compelled to re-originate it for himself, as if all
the labour, and experience of all his precursors
were of no avail, except to prove to him that he
must follow the track of those philosophical bar-
barians, whose footsteps have been effaced by the
tramplings of a thousand generations.

Verbs and nouns are unduly exalted by
teachers. They are supposed to be the most
useful parts of speech, because they can do a
little duty unsupported. But when deprived of
any of its members, speech halts and staggers like
a drunken man. Grammarians, in dissecting a
language, necessarily treat each part of speech
separately ; but that is no reason why we should
not learn sentences of a good length coherently,
and analyse them afterwards.

In a simple language the whole of the pro-
nouns and articles, and all the commonest conjunc-
tions, prepositions, and interrogative adverbs, may
be, and ought to be, introduced into the first set
of sentences ; because through them we express all
those relations of time, place, quantity, &c., to
which we incessantly refer in the every-day affairs
of life. There can be no question as to the admis-
sibility of these ; but the choice of the other words
required for the formation of a set of initiatory
sentences becomes more and more difficult, in
proportion to the narrowness of the sphere to

128 ON THE SELECTION OF SENTENCES.

which the learner designs to confine his operations.
If his view does not extend beyond a shabby smat-
tering, the difficulty of selection is extreme. On
the other hand, the facility increases with every
score of words which may be added to the pro-
gramme.
^ In some languages, such as English, Chinese,
/ and Hindustani, the whole of the inflections come
within the range of the first set of sentences. In
others, the inflections alone amount to a much
higher number. The difficulty arising from this
profusion of forms may be best obviated by limit-
ing the nouns and verbs. The grammarian gives
us one noun and one verb, as specimens of each
declension and each conjugation; and beginners,
who undertake highly inflected languages, would
work more scientifically and successfully, if they
would " master " those samples first. But still
better would it be to restrict themselves, in their
first efforts, to six or eight nouns, all of one gender,
and one declension; to the article of the same
gender, and to three or four verbs all of one con-
jugation.

If nouns have five or six cases, the addition of
a new declension should be made by inserting five
or six nouns, each in a different case, into one new
sentence, and then interchanging them. If a pre-
position governs two or three different cases, it
should be exhibited with its different powers,

ON THE SELECTION OP SENTENCES. 129

exemplified in one sentence. In like manner if
a pronoun, or any other very common word
has three or four different meanings, it should
be treated in the same way ; in combination
perhaps with one or two parts of a verb of a
new conjugation.

A limitation of the greatest importance may
be effected by excluding from the sentences the
nominatives of three of the personal pronouns;
and thus, for the relief of the beginner, reducing
the verb to one half of its bulk. The selection
of the three most useful pronouns must be
determined according to the genius of the lan-
guage. In English, /, yow, and he are much
more necessary than thou^ we^ and they ; but
the English verb has so few inflections, that
all the pronouns may be learned in the first
hundred words.

This exclusion of half the pronouns is not
altogether arbitrary, for it is analogous to the
subsisting limitation in narrative composition,
from which the first and second persons, both
singular and plural, of the pronoun and the
verb, are banished, together with all coUo-
quialities and familiarities of speech. This
accounts for the inutility of book- knowledge,
unmitigated by some more practical course of
procedure.

To carry out simplification to the utmost,

E

I

130 ON THE SELECTION OF SENTENCES.

while endeavouring to " master " the declinable
articles, nouns, and pronouns of a highly inflected
language, it would be advantageous to use only
three verbs at a time, all of one conjugation, and
to limit them to the third person singular of the
past tense. The verb then forms a pivot on which
the sentences revolve with more smoothness than
they would if the beginner had also to take
thought about the tense and person to be employed
on each occasion.

The epitome of all languages, as spoken by
children, whether natives or foreigners, is essen-
tially the same. The greatest diversity will be
found in the nouns substantive which they employ,
because different objects surround them in different
countries, conditions, and degrees of civilization.
No set of nouns, therefore, can be universally
useful. The pursuits, necessities, tastes, and habits
of travellers are widely different from one another ;
and there are countries in which our commonest
articles oif food, and many of what we call the
necessaries of life, are altogether unknown. An
arbitrary dictation of nouns being therefore inad-
missible, every learner should choose a set for
himself. But, on the other hand, the same set of
verbs is universally employed ; and these, of course,
a-re indispensable in every land for the beginner.
The most useful are those relating to motion
and transmission, because they bring into active

ON THE SELECTION OF SENTENCES. 131

operation a variety of prepositions. The re-
maining materials of the universal epitome will
be found in those two or three hundreds of
words which are most frequently employed in
common conversation.

A language thus learned in miniature may
seem, at first sight, to be miserably defective; but
m vast reduction of labour is effected by this plan,
and it creates great facility for the beginner in
i^pplementing all his deficiencies.

Each sentence ought to be linked with its.
accessor by having some word in common with it.
Those who take pleasure in artificial aids to the
memory may make a tree of any language, by
writing their first sentence, containing twenty
words, in the middle of a large sheet of paper,
perpendicularly, to represent the stem, and by
throwing out laterally firom each word, a branch
sentence, containing either that word, or else one
very obviously connected or contrasted with it.
The ramifications may be extended day by day,
until the tree attains to large dimensions ; but its
greatest utility would be in determining, by the
concurrent experience of several individuals, what
sentences and words are the most really useful for
the guidance of all beginners.

The genders might be .made to alternate in
uniform succession in every sentence ; or each side
of the tree might be devoted to one gender; or

132 ON THE SELECTION OF SENTENCES.

else the higher, the middle, and the lower parts
might be severally allotted to nouns of the three
genders.

The nouns and verbs should be coloured or
distinctively marked, both in the tree and in its
vernacular translation; so that, when practising
oral composition, the beginner may discern at a
glance the declension or conjugation to which,
they severally belong, and may employ the appro-
priate terminations with perfect confidence. In
sooth, the "scarlet conjugation" and the "blue
declension" are terms not less suitable than the
technicalities now in vogue.

On such a tree, the addition of a number
of nouns would only represent so many more
leaves. They would increase the subjects of
conversation, but they would not produce any
augmentation of the power of framing idiomatic
combinations.

The gradual formation of such a tree on paper,
exactly represents the growth of a language in the
mind of a child, or of any one who learns to talk,
without the use of books. But in one case the
tree is trained and pruned, and has its fruit
thinned, in order to improve its quality ; whereas
the natural, uncultivated plant is often encumbered
with a mass of foliage, which interferes with its
productiveness, and checks the rapidity of its
development.

CHAPTER VII.

ON FLUENCY AND LEARNING BY ROTE.

rPHE great desideratum is to be able to speak
-^ like a native ; that is, to attain the power of
employing the whole of our acquisitions so as to
exhibit facility in composing, and fluency in utter-
ing, complete idiomatic sentences of a good length.
This is generally regarded as the finishing achieve-
ment of a long course of study, though it is
strictly elemental. It is at once the simplest and
the highest attainment. It does not require a
previous study of the grammar. It is not a
Herculean labour, except when the energies are
misdirected. In fact, it aflTords no scope for the
intellectual athlete to display his powers, because it
is effected by the simple process of learning by rote.
In spite of the authority of Locke, in favour
of learning all languages, including Latin, by rote,
the practice has fallen into great disrepute, the

4

134 ON FLUENCr

abuse having been generally accepted as a valid
argument against the rational use of it. It is the
plan dictated by nature to children ; and it is by
pursuing this course that they obtain idiomatic
purity of expression, together with fluency, and
accuracy of intonation.

The beginner who adopts this method, learns a
sentence of which the purport alone has been
communicated to him. lie echoes the sounds, as
uttered by one of the aborigines, until he has
"mastered" the pronunciation and intonation,
as accurately as those who have lived for six
months among them. By the same effort he
secures the idiom.

The construction of the sentence being stu-
diously concealed from him, under the mask of the
free translation, he does not know which of the
new sounds, or how many of them, belong to each
word, and he can form no idea of the meaning of
any one syllable.

This ignorance is his safeguard in respect to
pronunciation ; for, if he understood the words, he
would infallibly employ the peculiar intonation,
the accents, the cadences, and the emphasis of his
own language, because they have become habitual
to him, and he has been taught that there is but
one rational and logical mode of uttering a
sentence.

When he learns a foreign sentence by rote, he

AND LEARNING BY ROTE. 135

intercepts those trains of thought which involun-
tarily spring from the habit of analysing every
word, of comparing it with all those which
resemble it, either in sound or spelling, whether
in his own or in other languages ; and of ponder-
ing over genders, numbers, persons, cases, tenses,
declensions, conjugations, etymology, syntax, and
prosody. Such excursions of thought are not
merely useless, but positively obstructive, because
they employ the imagination and the reasoning
powers, where they are not required ; they crowd
the memory with fanciful associations, which only
produce confusion and perplexity ; and they divert
the attention from the pronunciation, to fix it on
the spelling and the etymology.

When sentences are analysed and parsed;
before the true sounds have been learned thoroughly,
every word has to run the gauntlet, as above
described, and very few of. them escape without
incurring such maltreatment that they cannot
be recognised in their native country. The
right order of the words is also forgotten and
lost.

But when the beginner keeps his reasoning
powers in abeyance, and his imagination under
control, until he can utter the first sentence with a
good intonation, as if it were only one long word,
he puts himself on the same vantage-ground as
a child, and he gains, by dint of imitation and

I

136 ON FLUENCY

reiteration, the power of using one practical and
purely idiomatic form of speech, and of accurately
pronouncing that combination of sounds ever
afterwards.

The meaning of each word and the con-
struction of the sentence may then be explained
to him, together with the minor combinations
-which it will yield, and then he may give the
reins to his classical imagination without incurring
any risk.

This is a deviation from routine, and a reversal
of the usual order of procedure ; but it omits nothing
essential, and it does not offend against the law of
reason. The scholar learns by rote, but he learns
rationally and intelligently ; he saves time and
labour ; he gains at the outset an intelligible
pronunciation ; and he familiarizes himself, without
an effort, with all the ordinary constructions. He
also keeps his head clear, because his memory has
only to revert to a limited number of idiomatic
expressions, over which it soon exercises perfect
control, instead of traversing a sphere of extensive
reading in pursuit of words of which it can retain
only a confused, inaccurate recollection, and then
linking them together in a manner quite at
variance with the foreign idiom.

In learning by rote he commits words to
memory with extreme precision, in their esta-
blished order. The only wonder is that so

AND LEARNING BY ROTE. 137

obvious an expedient has. met with so much
obloquy, seeing that poetry is always learned by
rote, and that the true constructions, delivered
with fluency in the true intonation, and in the
true idiomatic order, constitute all the essentials
of speech.

To frame grammatical sentences in a foreign
tongue demands a very severe effort on the part of
those whose memory is burdened with unconnected
words, and with technical rules relating to them ;
because they are compelled to have recourse to
deliberation when it is the time for action. But
to interchange words already arranged in their
proper tenses, cases, and sequences, in a few select
sentences learned by rote, to frame other sentences
precisely similar to them, and to utter them without
hesitation in idiomatic form, are attainments within
the power of a small child. Some there are who
contend that the intellectual powers of man are in
the habit of soaring to such lofty heights that they
are incapable of descending to the level of childhood ;
but this method shows how they may be held
in check, and rendered quite harmless to their
owners.

The practice of writing exercises is a sorry
substitute for oral composition, because it confirms
slow people in slow habits. Fluency in using
foreign words is not called forth, and can never be
attained by a process so deliberate as that of

138 ON FLUENCY

writing. It is useless to walk one mile an hour, as
a training for a great pedestrian feat. Fluency in
the vernacular tongue is rather mechanical, than
intellectual; and it may be developed by well-
directed efforts, even in people who seem to be
naturally deficient in it.

It is very common to hear a man who has never
worked in the right way, and who has therefore
failed in his attempts to learn a language, main-
tain, with a semblance of humility, that he labours
under a special disability in regard to this pursuit.
But if a mariner will steer to the West, when he
ought to shape his course to the East, he cannot
expect to reach his port, until he has gone com-
pletely round the world.

There are some men who, if they could utter
amongst their friends such language as they
employ in their letters, would be regarded as bril-
liant speakers; yet in conversing even on the most
trivial subjects, they speak with extreme hesitation
and difficulty, because they do not exert the
requisite urgency upon themselves. They know
an immense number of choice words and phrases,
classical and poetical, but they deliberate about
them while they are talking. The proof of this
is, that they express themselves very readily and
very perspicuously when they are not thinking
about words, that is when they are in a hurry, or
are otherwise excited ; but on other occasions they

AND LEARHING BY ROTE. 139

leave this power unexercised, and in fact repressed.
Such men, and their admirers, regard fluency in a
foreign tongue as an unattainable accomplishment,
or as the result of a special faculty, which few
possess. But it may be attained even by those
who possess it not in their own language, if they
will confine themselves to a small range of words,
and practise oral composition, until they can con-
struct complete sentences more rapidly than they
can utter them.

It would be idle to discuss those miserable
excuses for hesitation of speech, which people
alternately proffer to, and accept from one another.
Fluency is found among both the silliest and the
cleverest people, and intrinsically it is worthless ;
but as the want of it indicates that the foreign
words have not been thoroughly digested, it
must be adopted as a criterion, because it forms
the only incontestible proof of daily colloquial
progress.

The distinctive characteristic then of this
scheme, is perfect fluency in producing every sen-
tence which may be expressible, whether directly
or indirectly, by transposing and interchanging
the words which have been learned by rote.
Confidence and self-possession are inspired from
the very outset, by the conviction that every sen-
tence which the beginner delivers, is exactly what

140 ON FLUENCY

an educated native would employ, and that it is
also an unexceptionable model for the formation of
neyr ones.

Whatever he attempts to say to a foreigner is
to be cast, if possible, in the mould of one of the
model sentences. He must speak with confidence,
not with the hasty, slovenly, timorous manner
of the schoolboy. As accuracy is infinitely better
than rapidity, every sentence which he tries to
frame must be thoughtfully constructed up to the
very last word, and carefully considered before he
begins to utter it. Promptitude will follow in good
time. Coughing and making strange noises during
the delivery of a sentence must not be tolerated :
these are but puerile devices to cover the defects
of the memory, and to gain time to rummage the
brains for a forgotten word.

At school we acquire the habit of stopping
short in the middle of a sentence to deliberate
about a doubtful word, and this meditation gene-
rally, resolves itself into guessing. We do not
gainsay the tentative hypothesis of science; but
guessing at words is utterly inadmissible, because
it is directly antagonistic to that precision which
is the first essential in language. Guess-work is
the source of innumerable ludicrous mistakes. It
is at once a fraud and a self-deception, — a crime
and a blunder. If the right word will not come to
the lips the instant it is required, a fictitious one

AND LEARNING BY ROTE. 141

may be employed with the foreign termination
appended to it; and afterwards a circumlocu-
tion may be used to explain it, if necessary,
to the astonished foreigner. If the sentences
which he has learned have been often recited
aloud, there can be no reason why the speaker
should . not be free from all embarrassment in
uttering them, even in the presence of a large
auditory.

Hastiness and its concomitant, hesitation, are
the deadliest foes to fluency and self-possession;
but there is a certain urgency which we must
exercise upon ourselves in speaking foreign lan-
guages. It compels us to employ those practical
sentences which we know, instead of striving to
diversify our forms of expression, by recalling
words over which we have not obtained absolute
*^ mastery" and control.

It is said that Mithridates dispensed with
interpreters, and spoke face to face with the people
of more than twenty different nations over whom
he was the ruler ; but it is not recorded that he
gained his celebrity as a linguist by hard reading.
In those days the study of manuscripts was neither
delectable nor fashionable. He probably picked up
each language, as the courier of the present day
does, by learning by rote a limited . number of
practical sentences, which were daily addressed^
under the like urgency, to the strangers who came

142 ON FLUENCY

before him, which were heard with acclamation by
his courtiers, and which gradually expanded under
the law of evolution.

This scheme unites to the knowledge of a few
words the power of using them, which is of infi-
nitely higher value to the traveller than the know-
ledge of many words without that power. The
book-system fails, because it disunites them. Those
who have merely learned to translate and to ana-
lyse foreign books cannot help perpetrating the
barbarism of connecting words together in accor-
dance with the forms of their own language. But
that indolent habit of translating English sentences
verbatim^ must be energetically opposed and sup-
pressed. The more words people learn incobe*
rently, the more they become confirmed in the
habit of translating literally firom their vernacular
tongue ; because they have less diflSculty in
exchanging word for word, in the order in which
they suggest themselves. Hence it happens that
hard readers fail, while those who have learnt
nothing but a few sentences, are compelled to re-
model the ideas which they wish to express, in order
to adapt them to those combinations ; and they are
thus prevented from translating servilely into the
foreign tongue. The paucity of words, therefore,
is converted into a positive advantiige of the
highest order.

When a learner translates a passage of a

AND LEARNING BT ROT£. 143

foreign author^ little or no attention is paid to
the fact that the context enables him to guess
the meaning of many words, and thus delu-
sively gives him the appearance of knowing them
all. But this method provides against the possi-
bility of any such delusion, because books are for-
bidden at first, and the real knowledge of the words
and constructions is indisputably proved by the
fluency exhibited in employing them in idiomatic
combinations.

CHAPTER VIIL

PRONUNCIATION^

A CORRECT pronunciation is the first and
-^ most essential consideration in speaking
foreign tongues.

It cannot be expeditiously attained, except by
carefully imitating, in other words, by repeatedly
echoing the tones of a native's voice in the utter-
ance of a few syllables, and by observing the move-
ments of his vocal organs.

The course usually followed is a slovenly, irra-
tional attempt to exact from the vocal organs, the
duty of producing, by the aid of the eye and
the memory, sounds and tones which can only
be recalled by those who have acquired them.
Recollections of unfamiliar, non-natural sounds are
so evanescent, that they cannot be relied upon
for five minutes. Persistent imitations of a few
sounds should, therefore, be carried on, not

L

146 PRONUNCIATION.

continuously, but for about ten minutes at a time.
Four such lessons in a day produce far more
advantageous results than one long hour's repe-
titions.
f Some teachers of languages have an indis-
tinctness, a roughness, or a dissonance of voice,
which completely baffles the imitative power of
the learner, and places him in a most disad-
\ vantageous position. A clear, soft, refined, and
) deliberate utterance should be considered indis-
^ pensable in teachers ; because all their tones,
accents, emphases, and cadences are to be imitated
and adopted. It is quite unnecessary to employ a
professor. A foreign friend with a pleasant voice
will do the work as effectually, and much more
agreeably. There is no better exercise than
mimicking the voices of children who speak accu-
rately, and echoing in particular the final sylla-
bles. In every case, to copy nature is the true
course.

It is generally supposed that a musical ear is
a necessary qualification ; but there are excellent
linguists who have not a particle of music in their
souls, and amongst great musicians there are some
who. pronounce foreign tongues very badly, and
some who will not attempt to do it at all. It is
/ not by the ear, but by the vocal organs, that the
• work is done ; for every child living with foreigners
pronounces their language to perfection, unless he

PRONUNCIATION. 147

happens to be deaf. The " lordly savage " has a
fine ear for a distant footfall in the forest; but this
gives him no advantage either as a musician, or as
a linguist.

Our habit of pronouncing Latin and Greek
leads us far astray as linguists, because the sounds,
and the tones in which we read them, are not
foreign, but indigenous; and thus we are misled to
Anglify the pronunciation of other languages also.

It is a great mistake to try to pronounce one
syllable or one vowel sound independently : because
the separate sound is often quite different from
that which it yields when in combination. For
the same reason, individual words ought never to '
be separately practised.

Another error, ruinous in its effects, is to learn
in company with other beginners, because, none but
the pure, genuine sounds should be heard at first.

In echoing the pronunciation of short sen-
tences, the three last syllables should be uttered
first; then the four last; then the five last; and so
forth, as in the legend of " The House that Jack
Built;" which is a master-piece for exercising
foreign children in pronouncing English.

It is well known that people who have spoken a
foreign tongue in early childhood, but have after-
wards forgotten every word of it, generally have the
power of regaining the pronuncia,tion at the first
effort. This is a great advantage, because when

148 PRONUNCIATION.

they resume it, they require nothing but a set of
written sentences, with their variations and trans-
lations; and they are exempt from that threefold
confusion of mind, which others experience from
the uncertainty that cleaves to the spelling, to the
sound, and to the meaning of each word committed
to memory. It is for the purpose of avoiding that
triple confusion, that reading and spelling are
interdicted in this scheme; and the memory and
understanding have so little given them to do,
that the attention can be concentrated on the
pronunciation.

When we learn our first lessons, we are apt to
think that if we remember the spelling of the
words, and can write them correctly, we have, at
all events, retained the substantial pai^t ; and that
the correct sounds and tone may be attended to
afterwards. Sounds may be deemed immaterial
and unsubstantial when compared with letters,
which are rendered palpable objects by means of
paper and ink ; but the words of a living language
are nothing but sounds. Sounds are the substance;
and the letters, or symbols, are their shadows.
Beginners are very apt to lose the substance by
snatching at the shadow.

The whole of the sounds of any language
may easily be included in fifty words; and it is
unpardonable to commit them to memory in a
manner in which they ought not to be uttered.

PRONUNCIATION. 149

'■ Pronunciation is a purely mechanical opera
tion. When the vocal organs are placed in a cer-
tain form, certain results follow. If they are not
placed in. that form, those results cannot be
obtained. To sound M and P, the lips must be
brought together; to sound V and F, the upper
teeth must touch the lower lip, and it is impossible
to utter them without observing these rules.

The Chinese remark that Englishmen talk with [
their lips; while neighbouring nations object that
we talk without using them. Our language does
not require either the mobility of the latter, or the
immobility of the former; but we can attain them
both by perseverance.

It often happens that there is no gradual
approximation to the right pronunciation of a new
sound. By chance it may be uttered aright at
the first, at the twentieth, or at the fiftieth
attempt ; but after all, the habit must be acquired,
and this can only be formed by reiterated imita-
tion. On the other hand, people may fail after
many earnest endeavours; but the only cause of
failure is, that the organs have not been put
exactly into the right position. Beginners who
are unsuccessful should closely observe the vocal
organs of those foreigners who speak most ener-
getically, and have the greatest degree of mobility
of countenance.

Some persons volunteer to call themselves very

150 PRONUNCIATION.

/ ^^ stupid " about pronunciatioD, forgetting that the
/ operation is one which calls forth no exercise of
I mental power, and that it can only be attained (eyen
j by the cleyerest people) by means of the unintellec-
: tual process of parrotry.

The less reasoning that is brought to bear upon
the sounds, when they are first uttered for imita-
tion, the better chance will there be of success.
When they are actually acquired, reason may and
will assert her rights; but then there will be
nothing left for her either to do, or to undo, in this
respect. The difficulty of analysing foreign sounds
is freely acknowledged by those who have studied
the subject most carefully, and therefore the learner
should not loiter to theorize about them.

Every tribe, having a language of its own, has
some peculiar tones and some movements of the
vocal organs, which the learner has to discover and
adopt It is therefore instructive to watch, very

C narrowly, the manner in which our own language
is uttered by a foreigner ; to mark the tones, to
\ ( note what words he mispronounces, and to echo
' \ those tones and sounds.

The beginner may likewise derive advantage
from echoing his teacher's voice in reading Latin
prose, for this will not only be of advantage to
him in his immediate purpose, but it will also
qualify him to pronounce Latin intelligibly when
he travels abroad. The latter object is worth the

PftONUNCIATION. 151

trouble of five or six hours' practice at first, and
ten minutes a day afterwards.

By reading a comedy aloud, in company with
a man from Somersetshire, Kilkenny, Kirkcud-
bright, or Carnarvonshire, a foreigner may acquire
whichever of those dialects may be deemed most
desirable; and so those provincials, by reversing
the process, may, in like manner, attain the
genuine foreign tone by assiduously mimicking his
voice in return.

When the learner first pronounces one of the
new sounds correctly, he generally succeeds with
others closely following it, because the vocal organs
happen to be in the right position. This sudden
success should therefore be promptly and vigor-
ously followed up, and not one word of his own
language should be interposed, lest the organs
should relapse into their wonted and natural posi-
tion.

As there are some combinations of letters, in
which a sound is more easily attainable than in
oHiers, the beginner should exercise himself with
various words, containing that sound which he finds
the most impracticable. When he has discovered
one in which he can pronounce it successfully, he
may revert to those which baffled him before; but
it is a waste of time to carry on a long struggle
with one unyielding word. ,

The teacher's office is not to be a sinecure.

152 1>R0NUNCUTI0N.

He is never to sit listening, and correcting his pupil
while reading aloud. This is mere charlatanry.
During the first two months, whatever progress
may have been made, at least three fourths of each
sitting should be devoted to imitations of his utter-
ance. He ought, therefore, to be a good reader.

Although there may be only three or four new
sounds to be learned in a new language, there iis a
foreign tone which pervades every utterance. This
intonation is far more important than the power of
imitating each individual sound; and therefore
efforts should be made to acquire it as soon as pos-
sible, on a small scale. For this purpose a few
questions, of six or eight syllables each, and con-
taining none of the peculiar sounds of the foreign
tongue, should be frequently echoed every day,
without being translated, or analysed, or studied.
But the principal object of each day's work should
be to obtain a perfect intonation and pronuncia-
tion of the short lesson of the day. This course
is far more effective and rational than that of
learning sounds to day, and trusting to the ear, the
eye, and the memory to reproduce them to-morrow.

Some persons live almost exclusively among
foreigners for many years, and listen very hard,
but yet miss the mark after all, solely through the
want of imitation, systematically conducted. But
it is never too late to*try again. Beginners who
pronounce well, and who are said to have a good

PRONUNCIATION. 153

ear, utter the sounds correctly at the first efibrt, and
of course reproduce them with ease. Many owe
their success to their having imitated, perhaps only
for a few minutes, and then perhaps unconsciously,
the tones of some congenial voice. There are
voices which impress their stamp on the listener,
in tones that never cease to be reverberated.

An Englishman generally seems to imagine
that he can pronounce other tongues, without
deviating from his habitual mode of using his
vocal organs. He thinks it indecorous to make
faces, and ridiculous to utter unusual sounds; yet ^
the mouth must be opened, sometimes very wide; \
the throat must be distended ; the pitch of the
voice must be altered ; and instead of pronouncing
one syllable of every word with emphasis, while
others are suppressed and half-smothered, he must i
employ a sustained articulation, so that every indi- \
vidual syllable shall be equally audible. This last \
exercise ought to be practised in reading English /
aloud, for five minutes every day, as' a prelude to j
a lesson in the pronunciation of a foreign language.

Apart from loudness, there is a certain vehe-
mence of utterance required for some languages.
It is necessary to observe and cultivate this, because
if the natives are compelled to make a vigorous
effort to utter the sounds, we cannot possibly do so '
without still greater exertion.

There is in most people a feeling of trepidation

154 PRONUNCUTION.

at the sound of their own voices, which operates
very much to their disadvantage in speaking foreign
tongues. This feeling may be overcome by daily
reading some poetry in their own language in a
very loud voice, and very slowly, taking care
that not a syllable shall escape unheard, or be
slurred over, in violation of the rhythm. When
they have thus reconciled themselves to their own
voices in very slow utterance, they will not tremble
to hear them uttering foreign sounds.

In pronunciation, the force of habit is great,
and it is well exhibited in that struggle that we go
through in attempting to throw off the conventional
artificial tone, in which we are taught to read in
childhood. A very long series of careful exertions
is required, before we can read uniformly in the
natural tone. But this paradoxical effort to be
natural, as we know to our cost, is in most instances
unsuccessful; and although we universally express
so much intolerance for bad reading, the evil is
constantly augmented and even aggravated by
bad examples.

H is easier to learn to pronounce a foreign
language than to correct a vicious mode of uttering
our own tongue. And it greatly conduces to such
correction to practise a foreign intonation, even
without exercising the memory at all in retaining
the words. The pronunciation of the mother
tongue may then be improved by echoing the

PRONUNCIATION. 155

colloquial tones of a good voice for two or three
hours a day, and by inaudibly following and con-
stantly observing the cadences of good speakers
engaged in reading, or in casual conversation.

In learning a foreign intonation we have not
to modify our habitual mode of utterance, but
rather to substitute another that is altogether
different from it. Yet whether we are learning
something quite new, or unlearning and con-
tending against inveterate habit, the instructions
may all be resolved into two words — "persistent
imitation."

CHAPTER IX.

ENGLISH.

rpHE English is a very composite language; and
-■- yet, in the simplicity of its constructions, it
is unrivalled amongst the languages of Europe.
In this respect it is particularly suited to the
natural method of learning foreign tongues.

It is said to be deficient in euphony. But this
scarcely deserves a thought, because the softest
language loses all its melody when spoken in
dissonant tones, and the harshest may be listened
to with pleasure by the most fastidious ear, when
uttered by a clear, soft voice. It is, therefore, of
great importance that the teacher should possess
that qualification.

In speaking English, foreigners must abstain
from loudness, from gesticulation, from opening the
mouth wide, from guttural and nasal sounds, and
from all vehemence of utterance. The voice and

158 ENGLISH.

the movements must be as subdued as those of the
teacher from whom they receive the pronunciation.
They ought carefully to observe that peculiarity
which results from our laying emphatic stress upon
one syllable of each word at the expense of the
others.

The converse of these rules must be observed
by an Englishman learning a foreign tongue. He
should work himself up to be as animated as his
preceptor; as loud, as vehement, as gesticulative.
He must not shrink from drawling out the long
sounds, nor from opening his mouth wide, and
expanding his throat.

There is one English sound, and only one,
which calls for remark, because it defies the efforts
of all those who are not taught how to place the
tongue while endeavouring to produce it. It is
represented by two sign-posts, T and H, which
only mislead the beginner by pointing in two
wrong directions. The sound is made by dwelling
on the letter S, or hissing for twenty or thirty
seconds, during which the tongue must be gradu-
ally brought into contact with the upper front
teeth, and slightly advanced beyond them. A
variation of the sound is produced by buzzing on
the letter Z, and advancing the tongue in the same
manner.

The erroneous impression that English is a
very diflicult language has arisen chiefly, or

ENGLISH. 159

perhaps solely, from the mischievous practice of
exposing beginners to the dangers and difficulties
of our orthography. This is a fortress which is
far too strong to be taken by a sudden assault, and
it must therefore be masked at the beginning of
the campaign. In other words, the learner must
not see, nor must he even imagine, the spelling
of one word, until he has gained the colloquial
" mastery *' over one hundred.

The simplicity of the language will be acknow-
ledged when the paucity of inflections is seen in
the table at page 166. Many of the verbs are on \
the following small scale, viz., cut^ cuts^ cutting.
Another class has four forms, as look, looks, looking, \
looked. And the largest class has five forms, as j
speak, speaks, speaking, spoke, spoken. The auxi-
liary verbs, by which the various compound tenses
are framed, have altogether only twenty-five forms, y

Nouns have only one case, the genitive, which, ,
in most instances, is identical with the sign of the j
plural number.

Pronouns have a genitive and an accusative '
case also.

The dative and ablative eases are unknown,
except in the adverbial nouns, here, there, where ;
which have for their datives, hither^ thither, whithet ;
and for their ablatives, hence, thence, whence.

The syntax, as given by Dr Johnson, contains \
only five rules, which are exemplified in the following 1

160 ENGLISH.

short sentence; — "Your friend's brother wishes
us to go with him." The constructions are so simple
that any educated man may learn the whole of
them in one sitting, and compose similar sentences
with perfect ease.

When a grammatical difficulty occurs to a
foreigner, let him remember that language takes
precedence of grammar in this scheme, and that
the scientific solution of a puzzling question is of
no importance, when compared with the power of
employing the constructions correctly. After he
knows the language, he may give his whole life to
the study of grammar.

Some writers inconsiderately maintain that
ours is the natural and logical order of arranging
words in sentences; but every other nation like-
wise regards their own as the most natural and
rational. The people at the Antipodes think that
our order should be reversed, and they are quite as
competent to judge as we are.

In like manner Englishmen try to persuade the
Chinese that our system of writing sounds is
simpler and more rational than theirs; but when
the numerous discordant uses of the letter A are
explained to the Mandarin, he is as much and as
justly amazed at the ignorance of his teachers, as
they are at his. Italians or Germans would have
some show of reason if they recommended their
orthography ; but we have none.

ENGLISH. 161

There are some truths, which it is deemed
indecorous to state in plain explicit terms. It is
necessary therefore to crave the forbearance of the
reader, for the remark that English has never
been considered worthy of being studied by other
nations, as a vehicle for conveying instruction in
the science of grammar. It is utterly unfit for that
pui*pose, and let foreigners therefore beware of
wasting one moment on the study. There is
a scantiness in the syntactical forms and in-
flections, which renders the grammar intensely
difficult. The science of grammar was invented by
men who spoke and wrote two highly complicated
languages, Greek and Sanscrit. But Latin was
found to be the most suitable medium for illustrating
the science in Europe ; and its grammar, although
in many respects inapplicable to other languages,
and totally unsuitable to some, is adopted as the
universal model. Thus our grammars of the Chi-
nese language are full of information which is
incomprehensible to the most astute and accom-
plished Mandarin. The grammarians enlarge in
technical terms on moods, tenses, persons, cases,
concord, government, &c., although these have no
existence either in the Chinese language, or in the
imagination of the people. Logic and metaphysics
are called in to contribute to the explanation
of the mysterious science; but without illustra-
tions drawn from foreign languages, containing

M

162 ENGLISH.

exemplifications of the principles propounded,
grammar must continue to be a most unintelli-
gible study. English is almost as simple in its
constructions as Chinese, and the study of its
grammar can only be an impediment to a foreigner
who wishes to learn the language colloquially.

But although the constructions are so few and
so simple, and although the inflections are on so
small a scale, the efforts of beginners will be frus-
trated, unless they acquiesce in the restrictions
suggested, but especially in this, that the collo-
quial attainment must precede all study of the
written language. When the object of the learner,
however, is solely to read our literature, the course
to be pursued is altogether different. On this
subject let him refer to the chapter on Book-wort.

Annexed is a list of the commonest words of
the language, both declinable and indeclinable.
Four of these, on an average, will be found in
every line of an English book, and in every col-
loquial sentence containing a dozen words. This
list is not to be learned by heart, nor is it intended
to be used in any way by the beginner. Its object
is merely to shew which are the most essential
words in all languages, in order that they may be
introduced into the sentences which are to be
translated and given to beginners. There are no
nouns included in the list, because it is for the
learner himself to select and insert those which

ENGLISU. 163

he will have most occasion to use at first. It may
be said that the list contains merely what all
grammars exhibit; but this method prohibits the
use of grammars and all other English books at
the outset.

Some sentences have been given on page 165,
from which, with the aid of an interpreter,
the foreigner is to make a selection for his own
use, altering them, or enlarging them, or substi-
tuting others for them, according to his own con-
venience, but never reducing them in length.

The synopsis of the language is to be kept
open before the learner, to help him to any case or
tense which he may require, when he attempts to
compose variations of those sentences which he has
committed to memory.

164

A [JST OF THE COMMONEST ENGLISH WORDS,

DECLINABLE AND INDBCLINABI.E.

A, an

but

I

not

stfll

npoti

abont

if

now

such

npper

after

Directly

in, into

us

again

down

instead of

Of

Than

ago

during

it

off

that

Very

all

its

often

the

almost

Each

on

their

We

alone

either

Large

only

them

well

also

else

last

or

then

what

ahhongh

enough

lest

other

•here

when

always

every

let

our

therefore

where

among

except

like

ours

these

which

and

out of

they

while

another

Far

Many

over

this

who

any

few

me

own

those

whole

as

first

mine

though

whom

at

for

more

Perhaps

through
to, till
to-day
together

whose

awaj

forward
from

most
much

Quickly

why
will

Back

my

quite

with

because

He

Rather

to-morrow

without

before

her

Near

too

behind

here

neither

Several

towards

Yes

below

hers

never

she

yesterday

beside

him

next

since

Under

yet

best

his

no

slowly

unless

you

better

how

none

some

until

your

between

however

nor

soon

up

yours

beyond

came

Saw

Am

Find

Is

stopped

are

can

found

seen

can't

Made

selling

Taken

Be

come

Given

makes

sends

telling

been

couldn't

may

sent

told

being
bought

Did

going
gone

might
must

shall
shan't

took

bringing

do

shouldn't

Wanted

brought

does

Had

Ought

showed

was

buying

doing

has

shown

won't

done

have

Procure

sold

wouldn't

Called

don't
five

having

putting

twenty

One

nine

twelve

fifty

two

six

ten

thirteen

thirty

hundred

three

seven

eleven

fifteen

forty

thousand

four

eight

165

SAMPLES OF SENTENCES

CONTAINING FROM TWENTY TO THIRTY OF THE COMMONEST WORDS.

.Why did you not ask him to come, with two or three of his
friends, to see my brother's gardens ?

Can you let me haye a sitting-room on the first floor at the front
of the house, and two bed-rooms on the second floor at the back ?

Send this letter, if you please, to No. 15 West street, and tell the
messenger to wait for an answer.

When the man who bronght this parcel for me yesterday evening
calls again, give it back to him, and tell him that this is not what
I ordered at the shop.

Tell the porter to call me at half-past seven o'clock to-morrow
morning, and to bring me a cup of coffee and a jug of hot water.

Will you enquire at what hour the earliest fast train starts for
Windsor, and whether there is an hotel at the station where it stops ?

Let me see the bill of fare and the list of wines, that I may order
dinner for a party of four, whom I expect to arrive bere this evening
at a quarter past six.

Ask your groom what it was that he received through the little
window of the horse box when the train stopped at the Stafford
station ?

Take this back to the shop, and say that I don't like the colour,
and that I will call again the next time I come up to town.

Ask him what has become of the books which he promised to
send me last week, before I started for the sea -side.

Where can I procure some cigars of the same sort as those which
you bought for me at Genoa, when we met there six months ago ?

If I had not met your servant in the street, I should not have
known that you had returned with your family from Spain.

lf)6

PARADIGM OR SYNOPSIS,

SHOWING *TBE VARIATIONS OF THE C0MU0HE8T DECLINABLE
WORDS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

I

me

my

mine

He

him

his

his

She

her

her

hers

It

it

its

We

us

our

ours

You

you

your

yours

They

them

their

theirs

Who

whom

whose

This,

these. That,

those.

Take

takes

taking

took

taken

Have

lias

having

had

had

Do

does

doing

did

done

Want

wants

wanting

wanted

wanted

Be, being, been.
Am, is, was, were.
Can, could. May, might.
Shall, should. Will, would.
Large, larger, largest.
Person, person's. Persons, persons'.

CHAPTER X.

TELOOGOO.

^PHIS ancient language is supposed to have been
-■- introduced into Hindostan by Scythian tribes,
before the arrival of the Brahmins, who gradually
drove them down to the southward, where they
now occupy a territory of nearly 100,000 square
miles, in the Madras Presidency, with a population
of about 15,000,000 souls.

The language is very different in its forms from
those of Europe, and it is classed in the Turanian
order.

How to utilize that minute knowledge of Latin
and Greek which we acquire in the most valuable
decade of our little lives, is a point not much
regarded by teachers of modern languages. The
methods are generally supposed to be antagonistic
and irreconcileable. It is possible, however, to put
languages in apposition to each other, by means of

168 TELOOGOO.

translations into Latin and Greek, and to grail
foreign terminations on familiar words, so as to
explain peculiar constructions without having re-
course to a grammar. Venerable prejudices will be
shocked; but the extreme torture to which Latin
has been put by the Hamiltonian system shall be
carefully avoided. In that scheme, as applied to
the colloquial acquisition of modem tongues, the
ne plus ultra of error has been attained, inasmuch
as the idiomatic order of the words is remorselessly
sacrificed.

In Teloogoo every word ends with a vowel, an
arrangement highly conducive to euphony. A
I question is asked by changing the final vowel of
I, a word or of a sentence into a. Have they re-
turned, or have they fallen? would be rendered
Rediera? Cecidera? But when a question begins
with an essentially interrogative word, as " Who,*'
" when," or " where," the final vowel is not changed
into a. So quis, quando, &c., do not accept the
assistance of "an" or "ne."
/ Emphasis is bestowed on a word by changing

its final vowel into e. Thus to the question fore-
going, Cecidere, non rediere would be a fitting
reply.

Doubt is expressed by changing the final
vowel into 6. Thus Rediero, cecidero, would
mean I do not know whether they have returned
or fallen.

TELOOGOO. 169

The letter N is often inserted for euphony's
sake, as in Greek and English. Thus, Fluviona ?
praeliona? Was it in the river, or in the battle
that they fell?

There is a past participle which in Latin is
only found in deponent verbs as fatus, egressus,
&c. It is formed, as it were, by removing the last
syllable from viximus, duximus, &c., retaining the
short sound of the second syllable. In translating
the following words : " He reigned for twenty
years, led his armies into remote countries, lived to
a great age and died childless," — each clause would
end with a verb, and they would stand thus:
Eexi, duxi, vixi, obiit. Two verbs cannot be
united by a conjunction, and therefore this par-
ticiple, which is indeclinable, is always on active
service, absorbing the conjunctions employed in
English and Latin.

When the syllable te is added to the same par-
ticiple it absorbs the conjunction if. Thus, Nos
legite, if we read.

When the syllable na is added to it, it absorbs
the definite article, and the relative pronoun in all
their cases. Thus, I did not see the book which
you sent, Tu misina librum non vidi. He will keep
the letter which I wrote, Ego scripsina epistolam
retinebit. I do not know the name of the town
to which they came. lUi venina oppidi nomen
nescio.

170 TELOOGOO.

Another relative participle is similarly em-
ployed to indicate present and future time.

The tenses in common use are only two,

I the present which does duty for the future, as

) when we say, "I am going to-morrow;" and
the perfect which is the past participle above
described, with various terminations affixed
thereto.

. The third person singular has two distinct ter-
minations ; one masculine, the other feminine and

1 neuter. In the third person plural, however,
women share with men the honours of the first
termination, while the second is only used with
neuter nouns. So the Greeks employed both eia-Lv
and eoTLv in the plural.

^ There is a declinable verbal noun, the want of

/ which is awkwardly supplied in Latin and Greek
by the infinitive mood, and in English by the pre-
sent participle. Under the mystical appellation of
gerund, the passive participle is pressed into the
service in Latin, to obviate that difficulty of
expressing the cases which the Greeks overcame

i by means of their declinable definite article. In
active verbs, this form retains its transitive power ;
and although declinable throughout as a noun, it
is not used in conjunction with possessive pro-
nouns and adjectives, but with personal pronouns
and adverbs. Thus its force as a verb continues
unimpaired. Its termination is " dum ;" a fact

TELOOGOO. 171

which may perhaps suggest reflections to the
learned.

There are negative forms of the verbal noun,
the imperative mood, and the relative parti-
ciples above mentioned. There is also a negative
aorist, which is framed, not by the addition of a
negative particle, but by the pretermission of the
affirmative affix, which intervenes betwieen the
root and the distinctive personal terminations of
the present tense. It is worthy of notice that
these terminations are affixed to the personal pro-
nouns, as well as to the verb, and therefore they
are, in their nature, distinct from the pronouns.

The Teloogoo paradigm inserted at page 184,
gives a remarkable series of words in the first
three columns. The monosyllables at the head of
each list severally represent ''this," "that," and
"what;" and the words placed below them, in-
dicating time, place, quantity, person, and manner,
are for the most part declinable representatives of
our adverbs " here," " there," " where ; " " now,"
" then," " when," &c. The advantage of having
them presented to the learner, so that each of
these words forms a clue to two others, will be
manifest at the first glance.

In Teloogoo the conjunction awrf, when coupling
two substantives, is used doubly, like the Latin que.
When it is affixed to who^ and followed by a nega-
tive verb as " Quisque nequit," it signifies " no

172 TELOOGOO.

one can." "Quidque agere nequeo" means "I
can do nothing at all." When added to the number
" two/' it signifies *< both.'* When added to " three,"
" four," or any other higher number, it means " All
three," " All four," &c. The omission of the con-
junction in such phrases is not allowable.

Many Sanscrit nouns substantive ending in um,
are freely employed ; and in these the last syllable
is liable to elision, as in Latin verse. In like
manner, the final vowel of one word is sometimes
merged in the initial vowel of the next word.

There are two forms of the pronoun we. One
is dual, including the person or persons addressed.
The other is the editorial and imperial "We."
The latter is always used by Europeans, and by the
great men of the land ; but it is inadmissible when
the speaker includes the person addressed. The
first-mentioned form seems to have sprung from
the institution by which property is held in common
by a whole family ; so that the words meum and
tuum cannot be employed without giving oflFence.
The North American tribes have a similar form of
speech ; but it is not clear that they ever enjoyed
a despotism which predominated over meum and
tuum so eflFectually, as to merge them both in a
singular nostrum^ and thus to render a distinctive
dual or plural form essential to the peace of all
undivided families.

A servant or dependant always uses the singular

TELOOGOO. 173

I when he addresses his master. It would be
insolence oil his part to use the royal We. In i
speaking to men of good position, the constant /
repetition of the word thou is distasteful to them; ,
but if their official superior always addresses them '•■
in the plural number, it is liable to be miscon-
strued as a symptom of subservience on his part, j
There is no other form of address, because the
idea of equality is not expressible, being neither
admitted nor understood. The safe course for an
official, is to use the plural number freely and pro-
miscuously even to ordinary people; or else to
employ the singular invariably in public. It is
more courteous to drop the singular when it can
easily and naturally be avoided; but it is very
difficult to extemporize the requisite circumlocu-
tions, and a beginner cannot fail to shackle himself
by attempting it.

Punctuation is not required in Teloogoo. The
verb is the last word in every sentence, and every
clause ; and the order of the words is very much
inverted. In the translation of an English letter,
the final verb of the first sentence is converted
into a participle, which receives some conjunctive
affix equivalent to ds^ since^ although^ whm^ where^
&c., and it is thus united to the second sentence.
By this arrangement the divisions of the subject
are marked in a manner which, though perfectly
lucid to the Oriental mind, is extremely fatiguing

174 TELOOGOO.

to those who are accustomed to the luxury of
having points to regulate their breathing. Many
of our countrymen exhibit great intolerance for
forms of thought, and expressions, which are so
much at variance with our classical models. And
there are few who submit, at first, with a good
grace to the practice of connecting different sen-
tences together by means of links, which the
languages of Europe do not possess.

This reluctance to adopt Oriental forms of
thought must be overcome at the outset, by learn-
ing long sentences, containing as many of the
antagonistic forms of speech as possible. If the
beginner affects conciseness he will find himself in
this predicament, that orders addressed to Hindoos,
with great consideration for the grammatical pro-
prieties, will be imperfectly understood, because
they are deficient in circumstantiality. He must
divest himself of the habit of omitting every word
which may, either classically or logically, be deemed
superfluous. Those standards are altogether inap-
plicable in the East. By attempting to practise
economy of time, the beginner may save two or
three seconds ; but there may be a great expendi-
ture of temper incurred in expounding his own
oracular phraseology, or in witnessing the miscar-
riage of a project through the misapprehension of
the person addressed.

There is a pedantry in employing superfine

TELOOGOO. 175

book-language in speaking to illiterate foreigners,
whose thoughts run in very different channels from
our own. On the other hand, it is an egregious
mistake to descend to the lowest dialect, in order
to render our speech more intelligible to the
vulgar. This is an error which is generally
defended and inculcated by the indolent, who have
never risen to a higher attainment. The learner's
object should be to make himself universally intel-
ligible ; and for this purpose the pure and simple
Teloogoo is the best

To be intelligible to the Hindoos, we must
accept facts as we find them. In Europe certain
signs and gestures are supposed to be natural and )
universal ; but if we beckon to a Hindoo, he retires ; \ \
and if we reverse the signal, he approaches. Even
the dogs misunderstand us; for the Hindoo snaps
his fingers as a menace and a hint to withdraw; but *
English dogs put a different interpretation on the
movement, and so the Brahmin incurs defilement
by his own act.

There are no words in Teloogoo corresponding ^
to Yes and No. It is therefore unclassical and -
illogical to insist upon what we call a categorical
answer. It is equally absurd on our part to em-
ploy, indiscriminately, the words, which most nearly
correspond to Yes and No. They signify " There
is," and " There is not." Numerous are the mis-
understandings that arise from the proud defiance

176 TELOOGOO.

with which Englishmen trample upon the laws of
the language, and then impute stupidity, with a
stupidity still greater, because less excusable, than
that of the uneducated servant. In some parts
of Ireland, the people are as abstemious as the
Hindoos in the use of Yes and No. The correct
answer to a question requires the use of the verb :
Have you heard? I heard it yesterday. Do you
want ? I want. Did he send ? He sent. The
indolent response " There is," completely bewilders
the questioner. The necessity for attending to this
peculiarity from the very beginning, is obvious
enough.

It is necessary to discard every interjection
and exclamation to which we are accustomed
in English ; and to bear in mind that it is not
safe to translate anything literally into Teloogoo.
It is better to say to a servant "Hear," than
" Here." Instead of " Go and see," we must say,
" Having looked, come." Instead of "Go to
your dinner," it must be "Having eaten your
dinner, come." The Hindoos omit the going. We
omit the coming. And this omission in Teloogoo
may lead to a long absence on the servant's part.

There are no adjectives corresponding to uUus
and nullusj nor is there an adverb precisely corre-
sponding to noTij because the negative aorist takes
the part generally performed by that word. There
are two different substantive verbs signifying There

TELOOGOO. 177

is not, and It is not. The former relates to mere
existence ; the latter to quality. These give rise
to very precise distinctions. The correct use of
these words in Teloogoo demands an exercise of
thoughtfulness which, if applied to the collections
of fallacies exhibited by Whately, Mills, and
other writers on Logic, would form a valuable
combination of the study of Grammar with its
sister science.

Among the Hindoos the word ^eak or say is
constantly superseded by the words command and
submit Every word of the great is an order;
every word of the inferior is a submissive repre-
sentation, or prayer. The circumlocution depart-
ment of the language will be found very extensive j
but there are also many gems of concise and elegant
phraseology.

The greatest source of confusion to beginners
attempting the colloquial part, is the absence of
certain active transitive verbs, which seem to us
to be indispensable. There are no words which
correspond exactly with havcy want, like, love^ jindy
meet, see, understand, bring, and take atcay. These
constitute obstacles which some people never com-
pletely overcome. Passive and neuter verbs, or
circumlocutions, are employed to express those
ideas. Have is disposed of as in Latin. " Have
you a house?" "Is there a house to you?'*

N

178 TELOOGOO.

Instead of saying " Did you meet the Rajah?" the
Hindoo says "Did the Rajah come opposite to
you?" or "Has he passed along this road?''
For " Have you seen any camels? " he says *' Have
any camels appeared to you?" For ''Have you
found the book ? " " Has the book been found to
you?" or "Has it appeared to you?" For "Do
you understand ? " he says " Is it known to you ? "
For "I want some fruit," he says "Some fruit
must be to me." For " I don't like that," he says
" That is not agreeable to me.'* ** Bring dinner "
is expressed by " Having taken the dinner, come ! "
" Take away that," is " Having taken that, go! "
The notion that in seeing, understanding, &c.,
we are passive, is here shadowed forth in the
language.

When foreigners speak unintelligible English,
we are prone to make merry with them, rather
than to condemn ourselves for oiu* ignorance
and inability to fathom their meaning. But
when the scene is reversed, our ideas are
reversed, and we are dissatisfied with the luck-
less wight who cannot understand his own lan-
guage, when burlesqued both in phraseology and
intonation.

There is sometimes such a total disregard
of pronunciation among Englishmen, that their
Teloogoo is utterly useless to them. Quantity,

TELOOGOO. 179

quality, and intonation are sacrificed, for the sake
of a rapid delivery in reading and translating
examination papers.

It is necessary to bear in mind that every
vowel sound remains uninfluenced by the consonant
which succeeds it. Whether it be long or short,
the pronunciation is uniformly the same. The
stress is always laid on the long syllable, and the
duration of the sound is not merely nominally, but I
actually equal to that of two short syllables. When
a short vowel comes before two consonants, it
attracts one of them to itself to form the first
syllable, and the voice rests upon it long enough
to give time for the intermediate utterance of
another short syllable. This gives the true quan-
tity and rhythm to perfection. In the recitation
of Latin verse, such words as pocula and litera,
do not receive justice in respect to the time
occupied in uttering the first syllable, because in
accentuating a syllable we generally make it ex-
tremely short. Such mispronunciation in Teloogoo
involves a series of false quantities which, com-
bined with false pronunciation, renders the words
unintelligible. Schoolboys are taught to give two i
different sounds to a vowel to show that they
know the prosody, and then the duration of time
is violated with impunity. We utter all our dis- ^
syllables like the trochee, or the pyrrhic; but we
never pronounce two long syllables so as to form i

180 TELOOGOO.

a spondee. Hence the impracticability of English
hexameters.

Our poets make monosyllables either short or
long in English ; but in speaking we give them
a very short sound. We also make some vowel-
sounds so extremely short, that three of them
would not exceed the duration of one long sound
in Teloogoo. This clipping of the sounds is quite
opposed to the measured modulated utterance of
the Hindoos.

A careful separation of syllables is essential.
The Teloogoo word for "antelope" is "lady:"
but the first syllable is fully three times as long as
we pronounce it, and then the sound of D begins.
If we pronounce the word in our accustomed
way, making the first syllable "laid," it is in-
comprehensible to a Hindoo. His orthography,
being phonetic, leaves no scope for guess-work,
or imagination. Ours, on the contrary, is so full
of vagaries, that we are prone to indulge in
the conceits suggested by innumerable grotesque
similarities amongst words differently spelt, and
startling differences between those which resemble
each other in sound or spelling. Our training,
moreover, being chiefly analytical and critical,
we find it hard to believe that the Hindoo
cannot understand a sentence of his own tongue,
which we would readily submit to the scrutiny
of a Board of Examiners. Nevertheless the

TELOOGOO. 181

fault cannot possibly be on his side, when he
is puzzled by the words of his own language;
and therefore it behoves us to look to our
pronunciation.

The enunciation of the people is very distinct,
and there are no harsh or difficult sounds in the
language. They have no vowel sounds which are
foreign to us ; but there are some of ours which are
foreign to them, and which we must therefore
scrupulously eschew. These are the vowel sounds
in "mat," "war," and "lot." The third is
the short sound of the second, but as a safe-
guard, it is better to treat them as three
separate rocks on which we are sure to strike,
if we imagine the English spelling of the Teloogoo
words.

Many Englishmen are unable to discriminate
between the dental and palatal sounds of T, D, N,
&c. The palatal is formed by turning the tongue
upwards and backwards, and the dental is attained
by bringing the tongue in contact with the upper
front teeth, and advancing it a little out of the
mouth, before pronouncing the consonant. It may
be practised in English by uttering words be-
ginning with T or D, but not TH. Great care
must be taken not to aspirate the sound. After
ten minutes' practice, the peculiar effect produced
will, perhaps, become perceptible to the learner;
but whether he can detect it or not, he need

182 TELOOGOO.

not be discouraged; because he cannot fail to
utter the right sound if he puts his tongue
in the right place. The habit of keeping the
tongue always ready to touch the front teeth,
before uttering the dentals, must be acquired
as soon as possible. By obserying this rule, and
by studying a very deliberate articulation of each
syllable, a good pronunciation may be rapidly
attained.

The Dravidian languages so closely resemble
each other, that this sketch of Teloogoo will form
an introduction to them all. To the general
reader, who will glance at the sentences, it will
show the intrinsically diflferent character of those
languages as vehicles of thought. To the young
officer destined for the public service in South
India, it will show the advisability of adopting the
child's method, in order to overcome, one by one,
those difficulties to which a multitude of his
predecessors have reluctantly been compelled to
succumb, in consequence of their endeavouring to
grapple with them all at once.

A few samples of sentences are annexed,
marked with figures, to show the manner in which
the words are arranged in Teloogoo. They relate
only to subjects upon which an Englishman must
necessarily communicate with the natives, and
which he ought therefore to have on the tip of his
tongue. The Teloogoo sentences are given in the

TELOOGOO.

183

Euglish character, the vowels being marked to
indicate the pronunciation, in the following
manner :

a as in America

ii as in pull

a „ star

u „ rule

1 „ iu

e „ pen

1 „ magazine

e „ there

6 „ potato

ei „ height

o „ groan

aii „ cloud

181

PARADIGM

OT TUB

COMMONEST INFLECTIONS IN TELOOGOO.

1

&

eemi

IdY

&dx

edi

dim

d&nY

deni

dinlkl

danlkl

dSnikl

dinnX

dannY

dennl

IvI

ftvl

§vl

TUT

vati

vetl

Titik!

yatYkI

vetiki

Titlnl

Titlni

yetlnl

Ikk&d&

ftkkSd&

ekk&d&

Ippikda

ftppAdil

6ppttdfi

yud&

&t&dli

IntS

&nt&

ent&

Ind&rtt

&nd&r&

end&rii

fnnl

&nnl

ennY

Indfi

&nda

«ndtL

Itla

atlft

«tla

lY&t&U

fty&tU&

ev&t&l&

Tidtt

vadtt

«vWii

Tirtt

vart

6v&rii

Tindlii

yftndm

eyySndm

i78n&

Sy&n&

ey&n&

lm«

am$

nenii Dlyil tanii

na nl t&n&

nakft jUka t&nSkii

n&nna nlnnu t&nnii

memtl mlrd tamtl

ma ml tUm&

makil mikii tSm&kii

m&mmdn& mimmiln& t&mmiln&

mSn&mii
manS
m&nSkil
m&n&mt&nS

II liilii y& y&ltl

II liilS y& ySia

llkl ItiUkft y&kft y&lSkti

llnl imanli y&ntt yftl&nti

ftnnanii

amii

dnnawfi

arii

ttnn&da

arii

ttnn&dl

&vl

ttndl

Unfi

tamti

tawtt

terii

tadu

ttru

tiinn&di

tiinn&Yi

tfindi

tiknvi

manfi

inamfi

Inawtt

inartt

inadu

inaru

in&di

In&vl

Indi

tin!

timl

tivi

tin

«ntt

rl

ttntt

firtt
ttntt

tt

damd

umtt

dSmti

mi

&ndi

&

ilt{inn&

&d&mfi

iitii

iit&

i

edi

ina
e

&nii

amii

&wii

irii

adii

&ra

&di

Swa

Smi

Skii

&ni

ak&ndi

Sk&

&kiinda

mH millft mil ala

ptl mills ptL alS

miinSkii mtll&kti aniki alakfi

miinil mill&nti Snnl alSntl

da

dti

U

rtl

di

m

11

tl

diki

nikl

llkl

tiki

nl

nl

liinii

rttntl

IS

t&

184*

TELOOGOO SENTENCES.

19 44ik II T8

1. Ni IjagratS w&im yi velft wttdlan^ memii s&wan ygll&dan&kii

10 II 12 13 14 16 16 17 18

leka poylndl g&n&kX ma gtlrrannX layamtt loki tisiik8ni y^l&m&nl

10 so

gtirrSpiiyaiilto chSppli.

20 10 17-18 «.. 13 14 16 16

1. Tell the horse-keeper to take away my horse to the stable,

12 3 1 2 7 10-11

because by your carelessness I have been prevented from going out

8 4-5 6

to ride this morning.

12 8 46 678

2. Niwtl c&mSl dh5rSvari bSs&kft tw&r&ga p&ritgSttI nlnn& t^l&warlkl

10 II 12 13 14 16

vadS.ldnftncM dlgln& dh5r&l&l5 ySv&r&Ina ma per&t& wt&tt&ral&Ina

16-17 18 10 20 21

miitS,l^na tistlkSw&chlnaro ISdo t^tistlk5 ra.

6 11 2-3 4 20

2. Run thou quickly to the Colonel's house, and Inquire whether

12 11 10 10 9 8 7

any of the gentlemen who landed from the ship at daybreak yesterday

18 18 16 17 16 13-14 10 10

have brought letters or parcels for me or not.

12 3 4 6 6 7 8

3. A dh6rEvarii memtl pSmpIncMn^ wtlttSrfim ni d^gSrS tistlkont

9 10 11 12 13 14 IS m

rep&tlkl tame wastamanl shSltLvichlnSndiiktl vartl ye dov&nil w&star5

17 18 10 20 21 22 23 24 25

&dlnni ye vel&ktl wSstaro ^dlnnl niwii y^ndilkii adiginawii kawii.

12 1 2 8 76454

8. When that gentleman received from you the letter which

3 4 12 10 11 23 24 22

I sent, and said that he himself would come to-morrow, why did you

26 24 14 16 17-21 IS 10 13 \li-20

not ask by which road and at what time he was coming ?

CHAPTER XL

HINDUSTANI.

nr^HIS language is spoken all over India as a \
-*- lingua franca. There is so great a variety i'
and latitude in its pronunciation, that no one can
fail to speak it intelligibly. In this respect, as
well as in the simplicity of its constructions, it
affords an excellent subject for an experiment
in "mastering" a hundred words, with very little
exertion.

One characteristic of the language is, that
the terminations a and I are used to represent
the masculine and feminine singular.; and e to
represent both genders in the plural number of
verbs, as well as of substantives, adjectives, and
possessive pronouns. Thus the. learner is saved
from the perplexity arising from the diversities
of terminations which are to be found in other
languages.

186 HINDUSTANI.

There is a genitive affix which varies accord-
ing to the gender of the noun following it. Thus,
the Rajah's son, the Rajah's daughter, and the
Rajah's houses, would be translated Rajaka, Ra-
jaki, and Rajake.

There are several series of words, relating to
time, place, quantity, &c., which represent now,
then, when, here, hither, there, thither, where,
whither, &c. The initial letter of each being
distinctive, facilitates the acquisition of the whole
range.

The tenses are formed with beautiful simpli-
city, and there are only three irregular verbs in
the language.

The nouns have a genitive, a dative, and an
accusative case, but the two latter are identical.
In neuter nouns the nominative is employed as
the accusative, without assuming the affix. Post-
positions supply all the other contingencies in
which nouns are employed.

All the constructions will be found exemplified
in the appended sentences, with the exception of
one anomaly, which need not be learned at first.

The beginner is not to look at the synopsis
until he has mastered a hundred words; but after
that, he may study it as much as he pleases.

187

HINDUSTANI SENTENCES.,

1S84667 8 9 10

1. St&no — &gar t&nke bhai ajke roz char gh&nteke &ndSr ttlmkQ

It 12 13 U 15 10 17 18 19 20 81

nei» mfle to t&sku btllabhejk&r ilsse pfichh5 klh §pka dost bftnata

28 23 24 as 8« 27 88 20 80 SI

SO chizka nam kya h&I &t&r ttska khUrid kitlna bal.

1 8 10 11 12 12 8 4 6—8 9

1. Hear ! if you do not find (or meet) tbeir brotber to-day before

7 8 16 18 14 It 17 16 ^6 26 24 28

four o'clock, send for him and ask him what is the name of the

83 82H)20 21 2730 318829

article which his friend constmcts, and what is its price.

18 84667 89

2. Tilm hilmanl gh&rku j&ldi jakSr w6h nSt&kSr sSnduk me»

10 II 18 13 U 16 16 17 18 19

r&kha so kagh&z Stir do kitabonku w&bansS m&ngak&r B&nd&r men

20 81 82 23 H 26 X i7 28 29 29

hM. SO p&lt&nka Major sahlbke pass jSlhaz p&r bhejneke waste tajar

30

kSro.

5 4 8 2 8 6 17 16 16 12

2. Gro quickly to my house, and procure from thence the paper

13 14 16 II 6 7 to 9 8

and the two books which that servant placed in the box, and

30^1 ......28 29. 27 26 83-4 22 22 21

prepare them to be sent by ship to the Major of the Regiment which

20 10 18

is at Bunder.

1 8 346678 9 10

3. NSdike tLst&rilfse Iss kh&tt lekar aya so ad&miku btllak&r iisse

11 12 13 14 16 IR 17 18 19 20 21 22

bold klh aj shamku sade sat gh&nteku Jay sahlbkS pass h&m jawab

23

bhejenge.

9 8 7 6-'t 8 4 2 2 2 1

3. Call the man who brought this letter from the other side of

11 9 11 10 12 81 23 23 22 2U 19 IS 17

the river, and tell him that I will send an answer to Mr Jay at

16-18 17 13 14

half-past six o'clock this evening.

1234 6 6 789 10 11

4. Isske slwal j&b ttlmku kh&bar malum hota hal klh tlnke lashk&r

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 2U 21

iiss gaon men pahtlncha h&I t£ib Adjutant sahlbka gh5rewaleke pass

22 23 24 26 26 27 i8 29 3U 31 38 33

jakar tlsse puchho klh h&m Sadras men kh&rid kiye so ghora k&han

34 35 ne 37 H8 39 10 41 4i 43 44 45

h&I &tlr w&hanse k&b nlk&la h&I Mr itlne dinonke der kiss s&babse

46 47

h5wi h&I.

8 13 4 6-;-S 6 9 10 11

4. Besides this, when you receive tidings that their detachment

16-16 14 12 IS 17 22 21 1«-19 '

has arrived in that village, then go over to the Adjutant's

20 22 24 83 33 32 34 31 2<) '^9-30 2S

horse-keeper and ask him where the horse is which I bought in

27 35 37 38-38 36 36 ...40-44-45-41... 41 42

Sadras, and when he set out from thence, and why so many days'

43 46-47

delay has occurred.

J

188
HINDUSTANI PARADIGM,

OR STNOPSIS OF THE TERMINATIONS OF ALL THE VARIABLE
PARTS OF SPEECH.

m&Ifi

h&m

m&rd

m&rd

merft— l—S

h&mara— I— e

mirdka— I— c

mardonka— i

m&jhka

h&mku

mfijhe

kTtab

kltaben

kitabka— l~e

kitabonka— 1

ta

tttm

tera

trtmh&r&-l— €

ti&jhku

t&mku

roti

rot!ya»

tiijhe

rStlyonka

ktitta

kiitte

ylb

ye

k&ttonka

i8ka-!-e

Inka— I— e

isku

Inku

fi?r

gtro

wfth

we

glra— I

e-lii

iiska— I— 5

tlnka— 1— e

tisku

tiaku

ta— i

te— 1»

kon

kon

kiska-1-^

k!nk&— I— e

on

en
5

§

en

J5

jo

jtska— l—e

jinka— I— €

6nga-i

enge— ia

so

so

ega-I

oge-ln

tiska— I— 5

ttnka— I— e

ega-i

enge -In

kya

kya

na

kXr

kaheka— i—e

kaheka— i—e

neka— e— I

k6

kol

sab

boil

b&Yn

kislka -I—e

sabbonka— I— e

hai

b5

bai

batn

kilcb

ap

klsfika— 1— e

apna— 1— e

tba— I

tbe-in

♦^* Tbe Holies indie

ate tbe nasal sounds.

For the pronunciation of the vowels, see page 183.

CHAPTER XII,

ON GRAMMAR.

QOME knowledge of grammar is generally
*^ considered to be an essential preliminary to
the attainment of a language; but there is no
dialect that has not been acquired, and spoken in
idiomatic form by foreign children, without such a
preparation.

Cobbett, the grammarian, has proved very con-
clusively that grammar is extremely and almost
hopelessly difficult of attainment; for he shows that
English statesmen, whose eloquence had often
elicited applause from the most critical assembly
in the world, were guilty of errors, neither few
nor venial, even in the studied composition of
speeches to be delivered from the throne.

Regarded as a science, grammar is very de-
ficient in exactitude and consistency, because it
admits of many exceptions to its general rules;

190 ON GRAMMAR.

and in its universal form it is so meagre and un-
practical, that there is probably not a language to
be found, in which some violation of its leading
principles does not occur.

There is great ambiguity in the word '* gram-
mar." It is a Protean term, for which it is hard
to find an unexceptionable definition.

In our great schools it is held to be the most
effective, because it is the most complicated method
of imparting by slow degrees a thorough knowledge
of two magnificent languages. No attempt is made
to teach boys to spedk Latin and Greek. The
avowed object is to exercise their understandings
upon the structure of these languages. They are
employed in the solution of diflSculties in accord-
ance with those principles with which they are
supposed to be imbued in the first place, by
learning the whole grammar by heart.

Grammar is not the art of teaching languages,

nor is it the art of learning them, nor is it a device

for simplifying the art of learning them, for no

grammarian or lexicographer has so defined it ;

and yet, through some strange infatuation, this

virtue is almost universally ascribed to it.

\ Incorrect language is generally called '* bad

i grammar; " and thus the terms language and gram-

^ mar are confounded.

Grammar originally signified merely the art
of writing, and the study of written language.

ON GRAMMAR. 191

During a long course of years it was generally \
defined to be the art of speaking, as well as of
writing correctly. This definition is unique in
respect to the last word; and it is very unphilo-
sophical; because on the one hand cmrectly is
precisely equivalent to grammatically, (which i
merely leads us back to our starting point,) and
on the other, we meet with people quite ignorant
of grammar, who nevertheless speak and write
more elegantly than some of those who are con-
versant with the grammars of several languages. '

Grammar is sometimes defined to be the law
by which language is regulated; but in reality,
grammar is deduced from language, and is not the
regulator, but the regulatee. Locke defines it as
" the art which teaches us the relations of words
to each other." But whatever the true definition
may be, tliere are hundreds of millions of men
who have the gift of speech, and who pass their
lives very pleasantly, without ever hearing of the
" relations of words to each other ; " and therefore
it is clear that such knowledge is not essential as
an introduction to the colloquial acquisition of any
language. We also know that there are barbarous \
tribes who speak very complicated and highly
refined languages which, till the present genera-
tion, never came into the clutches of a gram- •
marian, and in which this recondite science has
till now been nameless and unknown.

#»

192 Ox\ GRAMMAR.

Grammarians endeavour to induct us into the
art of constructing correct sentences by reasoning
processes. But children construct them without
any such training; and reasoning, when misdi-
rected, as it generally is in this pursuit, obstructs
our progress, because it perpetually recalls our
attention to the forms of our own language, than
which nothing ought to be more carefully avoided.
J The most powerful reasoners are not the best
j linguists. On the contrary, they are often found
; to be very poor performers. But the reasoning
faculty, when rightly directed, can never be an
obstacle to our progress in any pursuit. It is
only when we misapply it by diverging from the
true course, that it fails us; and it is only from
misguidance that men of education are defeated in
this pursuit; the practical acquisition of language
being postponed and made subservient to the
study of grammar.

Grammars contain from fifty to five hundred
pages of instruction ; but so great is the awe in
which the writers are held, that no one ventures
to insinuate that there is any deficiency in the
smaller, or any superfluity in those on the larger
scale. But the short grammar looks very like a
protest against elaborate explanations of points of
construction, which are upon the level of the capa-
city of little children. And the preference for the
shortest grammars, exhibited by those who are in

ON GRAMMAR. 193

the habit of learning languages, implies the con-
viction in the minds of experienced men, that that
study is merely a loitering on the threshold.

Whatever a grammarian thinks fit to propound
concerning a language, is generally received as
grammar. In expounding the principles on which
the constructions seem to him to have been origi-
nally planned and instituted, it is his prerogative
to philosophize without restriction, to frame rules
at his discretion, and to cite examples ad libitum
to illustrate them, together with exceptions to
establish them.

But unfortunately teachers do not discern that
the examples are in reality the laws, and that
the syntactical rules are but corollaries drawn
from them. They make grammar the paramount
consideration, and treat the language as subordi-
nate to it, and therefore we protest against them
as unsuitable guides for beginners who are intent
upon learning to speak the language.

When it is conceded that all that emanates
from the brain of the grammarian is grammar, let
it be noted that not one word of .the language
sprang from that source, and therefore that every
word of his paradigms and examples belongs of
right, not to him, but to the language from
which he borrowed them.

It is essential to draw a clear line of distinc-
tion, not merely between the two words, but

I

194 ON GRAMMAR.

between the two things, in order to satisfy the
beginner who adopts this system that he is not
omitting anything essential when he dispenses with
a grammarian's assistance.

There may be a legion of grammarians, each
with a sound method of his own; but the language
of which they treat continues unchanged and unin-
fluenced by them. Each of them may excel his
predecessors in some respects ; but there is not one
amongst them whose rules or opinions are neces-
sary for the guidance of a foreigner, who is begin-
ning to learn the language.

A modem grammar puts us into possession of
all that is valuable in the researches of former
grammarians, accompanied by the writer's own
reflections, emendations, and additions. Words
are classified, facts are stated, technical terms are
employed and explained, and laws are framed, by
means of which we are expected to reason about
words and constructions. The various steps of the
grammarian's own reasonings are not exhibited ;
but in the application of the grammar to the study
of the written language, our teachers are supposed
to conduct us to the same results, throi(!jgh the same
course of investigation.

If, however, they do not fully understand that
reasoning, or if they possess not the faculty of
teaching, the principal object is frustrated. The
rules being practically annulled by their exceptions,

ON GRAMMAR. 195

the stady bewilders and perplexes the understanding,
and it becomes intensely wearisome^ except when
that interest is awakened which it is the province
of the teacher to impart to every pursuit which
occupies the attention of youth. When the reason-
ing powers, however, are baffled, when all interest
has been lost, and harsh tyranny has intervened,
no progress takes place, except in making a mere
acquaintance with words and constructions; and
the education is virtually suspended.

As there have been many teachers who could
not appreciate, and were therefore quite incapable
of carrying out, the objects of the classical course
of study, it is no wonder that hundreds of educated
men, having received in their youth no clear views
on the subject, feel dissatisfied that their sons must
be educated according to a system which produced
such small results in themselves. They think that
the time is wasted, because the close critical study
of a language for ten years, does not qualify men
to speak it, or at least to write it with elegance
and freedom. They do not see that there is a
great difference between studying, and acquiring
a language. To frequent picture galleries in com-
pany with men of artistic genius, and to hear
them descant, from day to day, upon the excel<^
lencies and defects of the finest works of art, is
a course of study, by which the judgment and
taste are greatly improved and developed ; but it

#

196 ON QRAMMAR.

is not painting, nor will it ever make a man a
painter, unless he handles a brush and lays on
colours. In like manner we study Latin and Greek
for many years, but we are not led on to the
ultimate ** mastery " of them.

Foreigners wonder why we wilfully and habit-
ually pretermit the practice of oral composition in
Latin ; and even our own countrymen, who, being
accustomed to the phenomenon, ought to be able
to account for it, are puzzled by the utter incapacity
of some very good scholars in this respect.

Grammarians give us most abundant and
minute information on every point connected with
the languages which they respectively undertake
to analyse and delineate ; but it is not a part of
their programme to qualify us to speak. They
only provide that, when we do attempt oral com-
position, we shall be thoroughly furnished with
the'requisite materials and principles.

Grammar is the only avenue of approach to the
scientific study of a language, because thereby alone
can we appreciate and employ those technical terms
which custom has sanctioned, and has now pre-
scribed as essential for the philosophical analysis
and discussion of words and constructions. The
power!^ of [using technical \ terms 'Js a necessary
part of science, because it abridges discussion,
and conduces to precision of speech. But the
deepest thinkers complain the most loudly of the

ON GRAMMAR. 197

inadequacy of words to produce an identity of
thought between the writer and the reader. In by-
gone times, scientific men reasoned with no less
force than the moderns, without the aid of many
of the technical terms now in general use. The dis-
advantage under which they laboured was, that
they were forced to express themselves more dif-
fusely. Economy in the use of words is invaluable,
but, in the instruction of youth, perspicuity ought
not to be sacrificed for the sake of conciseness.
When there is no clear appreciation of the technical
terms of grammar on the part of the learner, time
is lost, and progress is arrested.

Grammar is the scientific point of view of a lan-
guage ; but when we desire to learn it colloquially
we must take the practical view also. The techni-
calities of grammar obstruct the learner's progress,
because it requires, firstly, a course of study to
understand them ; secondly, of habituation to use
them with facility ; and thirdly, of thought and
experience to apply them correctly. Grammar
itself is at the same time a foreign language, and
an extremely abstruse science. Uneducated people
should therefore pass it by, when they want to
speak a new language. But educated men, who
already possess a good knowledge of grammar,
must also abstain from the study, because they
need only to receive Latin, Greek, and English
translations of foreign sentences to qualify them to

#

198 ON QRAMMAR.

understand, at first sight, all forms of speech
which are analogous to those familiar constnictionsL
Those anomalous forms, some of which baffle the
subtlety of even the most learned men, ought not
to occupy the attention of the beginner. The
only sound principle is to adopt them first, and
study them afterwards.

The most inexplicable idioms are employed with
equal propriety by the child, and by the professor;
and it is not less logical and philosophical to say,
" What is the foreign word for him f " than to ask
for the accusative case, singular number, mascu-
line gender, of the third personal pronoun. Again :
we may say, Translate " Ye would have been
flogged^^ instead of asking for the second person
plural of the preterpluperfect tense indicative
mood of the passive voice of the active transitive
verb to flog. Science delights in the use of those
twenty technical terms, but the plain questions are
more intelligible and more practical.

The interdict laid upon translations, and every
kind of assistance to boys in our schools, betrays
that there is a more direct way of becoming prac-
^ tically acquainted with the classical languages.
However, no public avowal of this fact escapes
from the lips or pens of our teachers, because
they maintain the theory that knowledge which has
been attained without the regular scientific course
of study, is mere ignorance in disguise.

ON 6RAMMA&. 199

There is no disparagement of classical educa-
tion conveyed in the declaration that a previous
knowledge of grammar is unnecessary to fit us
for the colloquial acquisition of any language, how-
ever complicated it may be. The study of Latin
and Greek is a most admirable contrivance as an
instrument ci education, when a competent teacher
and an earnest pupil are brought together. And
this method, which shows how a valuable accom-
plishment may be gained by adults, without put-
ting forth -any intellectual effort, will be found to
be quite in harmony with the classical course.

The priority which this scheme gives to the
colloquial element changes the whole aspect of the
question ; because hitherto oral composition has
not been the first, but the last step.

The strength of the classical system consists in i
the analytical examination of written language.^/
The pupil is expected to show how the arrange-
ment of the words, their orthography, their etymo-
l^SJ) &^ th^ii* variations of case, tense, gender,
number, and person, conform to that code of laws
which grammarians have deduced from the usage
of the best writers.

Grammar is the foundation of that system.
It is a complicated contrivance fer making
language a scientific study. The pupil is ex-
pected to bring a clear and thorough comprehension
of all the minutest details of grammar to his

f

200 ON GRAMMAR.

analysis of the written language ; and this process
tests, while it is supposed to improve, his knowledge
of grammar.

Latin is the instrument through which he
studies grammar ; while at the same time grammar
is the instrument through which he studies Latin.
But studying a language is not acquiring it ; and
there is no limit to the refinements of grammar.
The study of that science as the instrument of
acquisition being interminable, the acquisition itself
is hopelessly deferred.
/ Amongst continental scholars, the power of
,^ speaking Latin is held to be an essential part
; of the classical course. An excellent plain style
is often attained at an early stage, for they are
not expected nor encouraged to employ oratorical
. language, and they do not affect it. The con-
sequence is, that when they have occasion to speak
before scholars of high classical reputation, they
are in a better position, and are more likely to
acquit themselves well, than those who have not
practised oral composition at all.

The most obvious and convincing proof of
a thorough knowledge of the anatomy of any
language, is the exhibition of promptitude and
precision in oral composition. Thus alone can it
be ascertained whether a free command over all
the constructions has become habitual. If it has
not become habitual, and almost natural, it is of

ON QRAMMAB. 201

comparatively little value. Written translations
yield no conclusive evidence even of a good style
of writing, because they afford time for the com-
poser to deliberate, to revise, and to refer every
word to some precedent. Style is the result of
habit, and those who do not practise, cannot have
a fixed style.

But oral composition finds no place in our
classical education ; and the custom is to practise
the demolition and pulverization of sentences, with
a view to the microscopic examination of each
atom, and the rehearsal of the laws to which
they are subject.

But some rules are obscure; and some con-
structions are inexplicable ; and precedents are
in conflict with each other ; and there are some
points respecting which the learned are at variance;
and when the pupil misunderstands them, his
foundation is unsound, and the superstructure must
be unsightly and faulty. One fertile source of
misconception and error, is the impression conveyed
by the grammar that the language is perfect, being ,
in exact conformity with the laws of pure reason. 1

However, when the whole of the rules are
thoroughly understood by the learner, his intel-
lectual faculties are beneficially exercised in dis-
secting, in classifying, and in generalising ; in the
use of technical terms, in the application of prin-
ciples, and in the power of systematic investigation,

#

202 OH GRAMMAR.

by logical analysis. At the same time he becomes
familiar with the noble sentiments, and the sublime
language of the great orators, poets, and philo-
sophers of old. As it is needless to point out the
benefits of such a course of study, so it would be
absurd to call them in question.

But there are many people who have adopted
the notion that the high attainments of our clas-
sical scholars, prove that their method and their
course of study are the best for acquiring a modern
language. They omit all considerations of the
time required to carry them through such a
course. They wilfully shut their eyes to that
manifest and unquestionable superiority which is
displayed by children in respect to readiness in
the composition of idiomatic sentences ; and they
shrink from a comparison which shivers their
theory to atoms, and exposes the futility of their
endeavours to attain a colloquial use of a language^
through the circuitous course of studying a very
rough science.

Not knowing the process by which children
learn to frame idiomatic sentences, people have
recourse to one founded upon diametrically opposite
principles. This being generally accepted as an
improvement on the course of nature, has been
adopted to the total subversion and suppression
thereof. Theory has been permitted to take prece-
dence of, and to preponderate over practice, almost

ON GKAIIMAR. 203

to its exdusion. Let the practical therefore,
assume its right position, and let theory be kept
in due subordination.

Every rule of syntax is a generalization from
a series of uniform expressions. It declares in
scientific terms that the words appear in that
specific form, for certain ingeniously invented
reasons; but in reality the true reason in every
instance is, that the usage of the language requires
it. Usage is the only law. Usage constitutes the \
whole code. A rule merely enunciates a fact,
which no prior reasoning on the part of a foreigner
could possibly have discovered, and regarding
which no ulterior reasoning can be of any avail. )
In syntax the rules are not connected with each
other; the order of their arrangement is purely
arbitrary throughout ; and they do not form a
chain of reasoning.

It is as easy to learn elegant as inelegant
phraseology by heart; and the construction of new
sentences, according to a model committed to
memory, is an extremely simple operation even
to the illiterate. As example is better than pre-
cept, let us discard the inferior article altogether.
Let the beginner commit to memory some collo-
quial sentences, framed or selected so as to
exemplify those laws of language which gram-
marians present to us under the denomination of
rules of syntax. When the learner has proved his

I

204 ON GRAMMAR.

intelligent appreciation of the principles on which
the first sentence is constructed, by composing,
with different sets of words, ten or twelve sen-
tences precisely in accordance therewith, there can
be no necessity for him to commit to memory the
grammarian's scientific precepts. And if he will
daily practise the composition of new sentences,
precisely corresponding to each of the models which
he has thus learned to copy, there can be no danger
of his ever forgetting how to construct them.

Thus a practical command over a language,
founded upon an accurate knowledge of its struc-
ture, may be gradually acquired, without the
labour of learning any technical terms or formal
rules; and the pupil who diligently exercises
himself in oral composition, with the models en-
graved on his memory, and a complete paradigm
of all the verbs, nouns, and pronouns always lying
open before him, acquires the habit of expressing
himself fluently and accurately, without looking
into a grammar. Moreover, he shows himself to
be in possession of the analytical process practised
in our schools ; because when he makes an intel-
ligent application of his models, by fluently com-
posing new sentences exactly corresponding to
them, he surpasses his comrades in constructive
skill, as far as he who can separate, and then
reunite all the parts of a watch, excels those who
can only take it to pieces.

ON GRAMMAR. 205

Language existed long before grammar was
invented^ and the faculty of acquiring a foreign
tongue by imitation, and of speaking it exactly
as the natives do, is innate and universal in man-
kind. It is not a science, nor does it depend on
the acquisition of any science.

The colloquial command of a living language
is of the highest utility to a traveller, however
ignorant he may be of scientific grammar ; but the
most profound knowledge of the grammar, without
some practical command over the language, appears
in many instances to operate as a disqualification
for the colloquial attainment. This incongruous \
conjunction of profundity with incompetency, which j
is very common in England, is a stumbling block (
to beginners. One youth shrinks from under-
taking that which has foiled his betters, while
another is furnished with an argument against
the introductory study of grammar, which his
teacher overrules, and denounces in the most
emphatic terms, although he does not and cannot
refute it.

Grammar and logic have been called twin
science^ and the term is not inapplicable, because
the difierence between them is sometimes undis-
tinguishable. As logic does not profess to endow
us with the power of reasoning, but only to show
us a process whereby we may acquire the habit
of reasoning correctly, that is, according to rules

206 ON GRAMMAR.

prescribed by logicians ; so grammar ^^ does not pro-
fess to endow us with the power of speaking/' but
only to show ns how we may acquire the habit of
speaking correctly, or according to roles invented
by grammarians.

The definition of grammar as the art of
speaking correctly, being generally accepted, has
given rise to the tradition that it is impossible to
speak a language correctly except by that study.
Now the rules of syntax are drawn from certain
sentences, and these are given as examples to
prove that the rules have been logically deduced.
The pupil first learns a rule, which is proved by
examples, and then in the course of his studies he
meets with the examples, which are proved in
their turn by the rules. He then begins to see
tiiat he has only been galloping round a heavy
course, and has come back to the starting-post.

The grammarian theorizes for our instruction
in his science, and he gives us the materials for
attaining a critical knowledge of the language.
But a child obtains a practical knowledge of a
foreign tongue without theorizing at all, and yet
he unconsciously conforms to abstruse and scientific
rules. Total ignorance of the science is no bar to
his attainment of the most complicated language,
and it need be no impediment to the progress of
an adult.

The lovers of routine consider that it is very

ON GRAMMAR. 207

contemptible to learn to speak a foreign language,
without knowing the why and wherefore, and
without learning tb read and write. But in the
first place usage is the only reason for every thing;
and in the second place a free*born Briton is not
to be coerced. He will not work more than is
absolutely requisite, during a short pleasure-ex«
cursion; he will not begin a study which will cost
him time and toil; nor will he be led by those who,
though they can read and write to admiration, and
have a profound knowledge of the grammar, yet
have not the power of bringing their learning into
practical effect in the most ordinary conversation.

But to resume the parallel. In reasoning,
soundness is the main point; and in speaking
foreign tongues, idiomatic diction. But soundness
of judgment and idiomatic speech, are found in
people altogether untaught. Logic and grammar
instruct the beginner gradually in the art of
detecting, by critical revision, the fallacies in his
own reasonings, and the errors in his own composi-
tions; but they do not, at the outset, help him
to originate. He cannot reason and compose cor*
recUy, till he has gone through the prescribed
course; and even when it is completed, his per«
fbrmances betray that he is not armed at all
points.

To speak a language correcdj/y after a long series
of laborious efforts in composing, revising, and

208 ON GRAMMAR.

recomposing, is a very humble achievement, seeing

that children accomplish it^^ scdtumj and exceed

it too, by speaking idiomatically. But to speak a

language otherwise than idiomatically, is to speak

it imperfectly. Now grammar, according to its

/ usual definition, does not even profess to teach us

[ to speak idiomatically ; and we find some men,

I deeply versed in grammar, who speak very

uncouthly.

But children speak idiomatically without learn-
ing any grammar, and as we have shown that
adults may do likewise, we contend that the study
of grammar is extraneous, and unnecessary for
beginners, and that every correct sentence uttered
by an uneducated man supports this assertion.
J There are thousands of Englishmen who know
the Latin and French grammars thoroughly, and
can interpret the best authors, who are neverthe-
less incapable of speaking those languages, and
; who stand aghast when suddenly called upon to
' converse.

Experience shows that 'the power of composing
colloquial sentences with fluency, does not spring
firom a thorough knowledge of grammar; nor from
deep and extensive critical acquaintance with the
best authors; nor from learning thousands of
detached words by heart; nor from treasuring up
choice passages from the poets and orators in the
memory; nor from any or all of those combined:

ON GRAMMAR. 209

and yet we daily see highly intellectual men, who
are not insane in any other respect, preparing
themselves for a continental tour, by a ruthless
vivisection of the languages of Europe. They
well know that this is not the right course, but
they object to other methods, as being merely the
old system in disguise.

On the other hand, illiterate people and chil-
dren acquire the power of speaking the most diffi-
cult languages with fluency, by learning a very few
practical sentences, and by ringing the changes on
them. As speech is nothing but a succession
of sentences, this is the natural and rational
course. It is also the simplest and most effective.
Children and imbeciles succeed, in spite of their
ignorance of grammar and books ; and highly
educated men fail in consequence of their enter-
taining the delusion that a course of grammar,
and familiarity with books, and an acquaintance
with an unlimited number of words, are essential
preliminaries. Hence it happens that the accom-
plished gladiator of the Imperial Circus is often
defeated in his own arena by an untrained rustic.

The beginner, in whose classical education oral
composition has not been practised, will meet with
nothing but disappointment, unless he pursues a
different course in learning a living language.
When a man has committed to memory a few
well selected sentences, each containing different

210 ON GRAMMAR.

/ constructions, and has acquired the power of putting
> them together in all their variations, one rapid
perusal of the grammar will suffice to convince
him that he is already in possession of the whole
syntax of the language. Then will that fluency
in speaking foreign tongues, which is too generally
allowed to be dormant, become rapidly developed
within him ; and together with the power of con-
necting words with exactness and readiness, he
will attain that self-possession, the want of which
strikes many Englishmen dumb, when they first
have occasion to speak to foreigners.
^ The siege of Troy lasted for ten years, and our
classical education often occupies a longer period ;
but the moderns generally demolish a fortress
within a few weeks, and the stronghold of a living
language, if persistently assailed at the right point
of attack, may be overpowered in the same space
of time.

It is a waste of labour to travel through the
wildernesses of Latin or Sanscrit lore, as a prepara-
tion for learning minor languages. While one
youth is struggling through a twelve-months' study
of Latin, another may easily learn to speak both
French and Spanish, and if they then begin Italian
together, he who has devoted his time to grammar,
parsing, and translating from Latin into English,
will be left far behind ; because his competitor is
already perfectly familiar with that set of Latin

ON GRAMMAR. 211

words, which is generally current in all the
cognate languages, and he has them ready on the
tip of his tongue. Moreover his practical training
has especially qualified him for the undertaking;
whereas the attention of the other has been
drawn to different objects, his memory has not
been vigorously exercised in reproducing and re-
arranging what he has acquired, and his delibera-
tive method is hostile to the readiness required for
colloquial progress.

On the other hand, no benefit can result from
learning Latin first, except in training the intel-
lect. But fortunately for mankind in general,
intellectual vigour is not required in this pursuit.
Every construction which is identical in the two\
languages will be learned equally well in Italian,
and the memory will thus be relieved from learning
two sets of words and rules ; and every syntactical
rule in Latin which is not common to both will
occasion delay, and will be of no use. A con-
struction is not difficult to a learner, merely 1
because the grammarian cannot reconcile it with /
scientific principles, and there is no form of speech >
which is not acquired and accurately employed by '-.
foreign children.

When learning foreign tongues, Englishmen
are often more impeded than benefited by their
knowledge of Latin and Greek. Anomalous con- '
structions, which puzzle them and check their /

212 ON GRAMMAR.

I progress, produce no such effect on those who have
' been differently trained. The former, believing in
the perfection of the classical system, and in the
infallibility of the great principles of grammar,
which they regard as the true solyent of all diffi-
culties, are not content to receive an anomaly as a
fact, uncouth perhaps, but yet unavoidable and
indispensable. They do not adopt it cheerfully,
and reserve it for ulterior investigation ; but they
demur, and leave it as a stumbling-block in their
own path. Many good scholars are utterly and
irretrievably confounded by the following French
construction, which seems to them to defy all the
proprieties : " The letter which you sent yester-
day," "Epistola quod tu heri transmissam habes;*'
" The books which he gave me," " Libri qu(Sd mihi
datos habet." They are told that the French word
for qudd represents also all the cases and genders
of the relative pronoun, and that they must men-
tally substitute quam in the first sentence, and
qiu)s in the second; but still the construction
appears to be indefensible, because there is no
precedent for it in Latin. But if they will look
homewards, they will find an analogous form of
speech, whenever a man declares that he knows a
French lesson, merely because "he has said it,"
perhaps a month ago. This is the virulent
epidemic fallacy which cuts off thousands of
aspiring young linguists, and for the cure of which

ON GRAMMAR. 213

Vfe recommend homceopathic treatment with infini-
tesimal doses of words. To learn a lesson perfectly
is not the end. It is merely a preliminary step to
obtaining the " mastery " over the words.

Our classical system studiously excludes and
anathematizes all colloquial profanations of Latin
and Greek. Its votaries also exhibit a repugnance
and contempt for other languages, which become
aggravated when they see the rapid and unde-
niable success of men of inferior education and
capacity.

Such feelings spring from the conviction that
the critical knowledge obtained at school and
college, is far greater and higher than the coUo*
quial command of words. Yet, as the greater
does not include the minor accomplishment, and
they cannot see clearly how it leads to it, they
secretly mistrust their own conclusions. They
manifest great diffidence when invited to translate
a few lines impromptu into Latin or Greek. The
truth is, as some candidly avow, that they are
afraid of committing grammatical errors.

According to the classical theory, a partial or
incomplete knowledge of grammar is useless. One
trifling mistake gives a shock to a classical reputa-
tion. The standard is too high. It is unattain-
able and unapproachable by those who never make
an attempt, except with their pen, to reach it
Even among those who have a thorough knowledge

2U ON GRAMMAR.

of Latin and Greek grammar, there are very
few who can speak those languages readily^ and
there is little disposition on the part of scholars
in general to admit that it would be a step in
advance of their existing attainments. Never-
theless they would be very glad to find themselves
in possession of the power of composing vivd voce,
as accurately and elegantly as they can write the
classical languages; but they regard the propo-
sition as visionary, and they will not entertain it.

There was a time when it was deemed impos-
sible, except for a few highly gifted individuals,
to shoot birds flying ; and the same sort of feeling
makes every one look askance at the suggestion
for making oral composition in Latin a common
attainment. The bugbear of colloquial familiari-
ties and Latinized slang might, as of old, be
invoked with success against so dangerous an
innovation ; but this in reality is a mere begging
of the question. There is a lurking apprehension
•that oral composition would expose the hoUowness
of a great deal of very good-looking scholarship.
On the other hand, the discovery that the showy
accomplishment of the linguist is always symp-
tomatic of a deficiency of brains, is greatly
applauded. The honour of confuting this asser-
tion is reserved for some man of unquestionable
capacity; but in the meantime it will be proved
that oral composition is within the power of

ON GRAMMAR. 215

every beginner who "masters" a few practical
sentences.

The time seems to have come for the determi-^
nation of the question, how far the positive acqui-
sition of Latin and Greek ought to be exacted in
our public schools. Oral composition is the prac-
tical application of the principles of grammar to
the words that we hnoWj whether it be done uncon-
sciously through imitation and repetition, or con-
sciously through grammar and repetition. In
either case it must be commenced with the employ-
ment of a few words. It is easier to learn ^
sentences intelligently by heart, than to apply j
principles; and the power of framing sentences
fluently affords the soundest proof of a thorough
knowledge of principles. It seems to have escaped
attention that language has a power of explaining
and revealing itself, far beyond the conceptions of
those who have never committed obscure passages
to memory very perfectly^ with a view to diligently
employing the involved constructions in oral com-
position. The manner in which foreign languages
develop themselves in children, is calculated to
elicit our admiration; but we involuntarily observe
the defects and the drolleries more than the felicity
with which they use words, the meaning of which
has never been explained to them, and construc-
tions, of which the principles are far beyond their
comprehension. In a scholastic point of view that

216 ON ORIMMAR.

knowledge has not been le^timately attained.
There remains therefore the important question,
whether boys should be restrained from obtaining
such knowledge in Latin, concurrently with the
usual scholastic course.

The system here recommended is equally
suited for all languages, whether living or dead.
But the latter term is no more applicable to a
language than to a neglected musical instrument.
So long as it remains cast aside, it is mute; but
when touched by a master-hand, it will discourse
most excellent music. As far as Latin .and Greek
are concerned, we do not cast them aside; but so
long as we occupy ourselves in merely pulling
those noble instruments to pieces, we cannot rea-
sonably expect to be able to use them.

CHAPTER XIII.

ON BOOK-WORK.

SPHERE are many individuals who have attained
-*- a goodly reputation as linguists on very easy
tenns, by reading foreign books with translations.
In cognate languages^ wherein many words are
identical, there is so little diflBiculty in this process
that the restrictions here proposed will probably
be regarded as superfluous. But even to those
who have had a classical education the limitations
are essential.

Dull and dismal as the study may be con-
sidered by the majority of mankind, it rapidly
recommends itself to those who undertake it
with due consideration for the fickleness of the
memory. It is much easier to recognise and
understand what is placed before the eyes, than to
reproduce words from memory, and therefore the
progress in reading will necessarily be faster than

218 ON BOOK- WORK.

in talking. On the supposition that the sole object
of the learner is to become acquainted with the
literature of another language, whether ancient or
modern, the following plan is recommended :

Let the learner select some interesting narra-
tive, in which no poetry or colloquy is introduced,
and let him employ a friend to mark with figures
the passage selected to be read first. The num-
bers will show which of the words correspond to
each other in the translation into his own lan-
guage.

No lesson should exceed fifteen minutes in
length, nor should more than twenty new words,
even in a cognate language, be studied at one
time. In those of a different order, such as Welsh
or Polish, a much smaller number will suffice.

The first lesson, being the basis, should be very
carefully studied, and recapitulated in conjunction
with its followers for several days in succession.

Two lessons a day, with an interval of four
or five hours between them, will yield ample
results, especially if intermediate recapitulations
be adopted. The principle to be observed in fixing
the number of words, is to make the work extremely
easy for the memory, and to reduce it in each lesson,
if the test shows that the memory has failed or
faltered in it. This exercise will so effectually
familiarize the eye to the. foreign words, that when
they are written on separate slips of paper, and

ON BOOK-WORK. 219

drawn out of a bag^ the meaning of each will occur
to the recollection instantaneously. This perfection
ought to be attained in each lesson ; and a new one
is not to be undertaken unless the test has been
rigorously applied just before beginning it. To
apply it at the end of a lesson is of no use
■whatever.

The foreign words must not be even muttered
by the student. The eye is to perform the whole
operation. But if in its restless activity, it
wanders away amongst a mass of other words,
imperfect impressions will inevitably be made upon
the memory, and these will produce confusion,
distraction^ and disgust. This danger may be
averted by writing out one lesson at a time, and
no more; by then laying aside the book; and by
refraining from looking into it at other times.
The paper on which the lessons are consecutively
written should be employed in its stead, and the
more the eye wanders over that, the more perfect
will be the recollection of its contents. A casual
perusal of the book vitiates the experiment as to
the power of the memory.

If the learner thinks that his time will be well
employed in learning some hundreds of words by
sight in one month, let the experiment be fairly
made, without modification of any kind. At the
end of that period, he may read unrestrictedly;
and if he will resort to frequent recapitulations

220 ON BOOK-WORK.

rapidly conducted, and use translations instead of
dictionaries, he will make great progress.

To French people reading English, and vice
versdy this process will be found very easy and
efficacious, because a great number of words are
identical in the two languages; and the similarity
of their constructions in narrative composition is
such, that many lines in every page may be trans-
lated word for word, in the order in which they
stand.

It must never be forgotten that the memory is
the chief agent. To the understanding the work
is as nothing. When one lesson is left unfinished,
it is unreasonable to expect to make up for it
in a new one. Time lost must be redeemed ; and
what is left incomplete to-day must be resumed
to-morrow.

If these rules are followed, there never will
pass a day in which the learner will not be con-
scious of an augmentation of his knowledge. But
the scheme will be treated with injustice^ unless
the experiments are carried so far as to obtain
some familiarity with all the ordinary 'construc-
tions.

Those who have good assistance will perhaps
learn more pleasantly than others; but that is
no reason why they should go on faster. If they
listen to explanations and dissertations, they
will be led out of the prescribed limits, and

ON BOOK- WORK. 221

lose both the benefit that accrues from allowing
the language to reveal itself, and the pleasure
which results from self-instruction. No teacher
can impart the knowledge and power which are
acquired by unassisted exertions.

Owing to the continual reappearance of the
commonest words, this exercise will be found to
aflFord a much more extensive acquaintance with
the language than might at first sight be anti-
cipated. At the end of a few days, the bulk of
each lesson will be greatly increased. But words
that are not quite identical with those previously
encountered, are not to be treated as old ones.
When there is the slightest diflerence in spelling,
they must be reckoned amongst the new ones;
because every affix and prefix constitutes a sepa-
rate word, although the orthographical system may
render them in one sense inseparable.

H.

ences of Ten Words each.

1 2 5 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

His servarcina fonnd my sister's little book in their carriage.

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11- ) I 1.2.3.14.15.16.7.8.9.10 | 1.2,3.4.5.6.7.8.9.20 | 1.2.3.4.15.16.17.8.19.10
Ij: 1.5.8.9.10 I 9.5.8.4.7.8.9.10 | 9.2.8.4.5.10 | 9.2.8.9.5.6.10 | 9.2.8.9.5.6.7

9j; 11.5.3.9.7 I 14.2.8.9.10 | 19.5.3.4.6.7.8.9.10 | 19.2.3.4.6.10 \ 19.2.3.4.6.7
19J14.2.8.9.7.8.9.5.10 | 11.2.3.9.7.8.9.5.10 | 11.5.3.4.10 | 1.15.8.4.6.7.8.9.10

I^ H.IO I 9.15.8.4.7.8.9.10 | 9.12.8.4 5.10 | 9.12.3.9.5.6.10 j 9.12.3.9.5.6.7
9a!l3.4.7.8.9.18 | 1.5.18.9.7 | 4.2.13.9.10 | 9.5.18.4.6.7.8.9.10 | 9.2.13.4.6.10

9^ ^.6.10 i 4.2.18.4.5.6.7 | 4.2.13.9 7.8.9.5.10 | 1.2.13 9.7.8.9.5.10 | 1.5.18.4.10
1J..8.14.6.7 I 1.5.3.19.10 | 9.5.3.14.7.8.9.10 \ 9.2.3.14.5.10 | 9.2.8.19.5.6.10

9j; i.3.4.17.8.9.10 I 1.5.8.4.17 j 1.5.3.9.17 | 4.2.3.9.20 | 9.5.3.4.16.7.8.9.10
9j; .2.3.4. 15.6.7 | 4.2.3.9.17.8.9.5.10 | 1.2.3.9.17.8 9.5.10 | 11.15.8.4.6.7.8.9.10
ll.;.9.10 I 9.2.8.4.15.6.20 | 9.12.3.9.15.6.17 | 9.2.8.14.6.20 | 19.12.8.4.6.20

tie set of figures constitutes a complete sentence, evolved

}a

)B

of 21 words in length, and always excluding 63

CHAPTER XIV.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

^HIS labyrinth, or wilderness of words, is put
-*- forth to show the extraordinary expansibility
of sentences, and to meet the objections of those
who despise small beginnings, and set a high value
on lists of unconnected words. The Hebrews use
the phrase micfhar dbarim to signify " wilderness
of words." The former term is derived from the
latter, and the combination is eminently expressive.
The diagram indicates the scope of the exercise
afforded to foreigners by committing two sentences
to memory, and then proceeding to "master"
them. For this purpose a few of the variations
must be translated for them; and in changing
the words from singular to plural, and from
masculine to feminine, and vice versdy the com-
prehensiveness of the English forms will be'^dis-
cemed by comparison. The greater number of

224 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

words required in other languages to express
the same ideas, will convince foreigners that the
constructions in English are distinguished for their
simplicity. In this point of view the mere study
of the two sentences will be instructive and encou-
raging ; but the whole theory on which this
system is based, namely the incapacity of the
memory to perform more than a fraction of the
work usually imposed upon it in this pursuit, may
be fully tested within the same limits. If dif-
ferent individuals co-operating to make a syste-
matic experiment, would subdivide the sentences
into shorter couples, they might also ascertain the
power of retention which they severally possess.
In such a contest the criterion would be their com-
parative promptitude in translating the inter-
changes with the same fluency which they display^
in speaking their mother tongue; for it is the
combination of promptitude with fluency that
constitutes the " mastery " of all the evolutions
of the 20 words.

The figures here represented will suggest to
those who take pleasure in such computations, the
attempt to discover what sort of sentences in their
own language will, when coupled, yield the greatest
number of variations ; how the syntax of their own,
or any other language, can be exemplified in the
smallest space ; what are the most comprehensively-
useful forms of colloquial speech for foreigners to

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 225

commit to memory ; how many words of a foreign
tongue are acquired by a child, week by week,
when associating with other children of four, six,
eight, or ten years old ; and how many words are
actually employed by adults, who have gone abroad
totally unacquainted with the language, and have
resided among foreigners for any period from two
months to two years. The latter points can be
best determined by writing down the sentences
which they utter, extending to not less than eight
words in length. With the aid of a shorthand
writer, such experiments could be made very
rapidly.

If an Englishman procures translations of the
two sentences into a foreign tongue, in order to
" master " them, he will find that their evolutions
being fewer, will come into a much more manage-
able compass than the diagram presents.

The fact that educated men employ only 4,000
words, has been left lying idle for a long time.
The only useful purpose to which it can be applied,
is to adopt it as the limit for a vocabulary for the
learners of foreign tongues, in order to keep them
within reasonable restraint. The first vocabulary \
ranges from 100 to 300 words; the second may con- \
tain about 700 more, and the third should comprise
3,000 more. A book of selections from the best
dramatic authors, limited to the said 4,000 words,
would be a very useful production. No man

Q

226 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

requires more words in a foreign tongne than he
actually employs in speaking his own; and the
more carefiiUy he excludes all others, the sooner
will he ^^ master " the four thousand.

In that vast preparation which goes on to
instruct pupils how to use an unlimited number of
unknown words with grammatical propriety, the
difficulty with regard to genders occupies a promi-
nent place. For instance, a vague notion prevails
that it is possible by eflForts of intellect to deter-
mine whether a German noun requires devy die^
or das.

There is no part of a language in which the
principle of limitation is more valuable than in
relation to the genders. The supersession of the
noun from its leading position harmonizes with
this idea. The study of a German grammar creates
gigantic difficulties. The articles generally come
first in order, and as the 'definite one has four
cases of three genders, there ought, according to
the theory that the language is perfect, to be
twenty-four diflFerent contingencies for which the
article has to provide. But, as there is no diver-
sity of genders in the plural number, there are
only sixteen contingencies altogether, and only
six forms to meet them all. Now the prac-
tical knowledge of the articles apart £rom the
nouns, is an abstrusity, which is supposed to be
simplified by giving names to the contingencies.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 227

And so far as the reasoning faculty is concerned,
the substitute suffices for those who are familiar
with those terms, though not to others. But the
practical knowledge can only be evinced by the
application of the article, and it is therefore
unattainable in the abstract.

Conceding that the study of language is most
philosophically conducted by investigating each
part of speech independently, the simplest test of
the accuracy of a man's knowledge of the article,
would be to put a Greek book into the hands
of the classical student, and to require him to give
the German article corresponding to each of those
which he found in the passage placed before
him. In the case of a non-classical student, it
should be an English book containing pencil
marks, to show the genders, cases, and numbers.
If he could comply with this requisition at the
first sight of each word, his knowledge would be
satisfactorily established. But as there are no
adequate tests employed, it is assumed after a
certain time, that his knowledge of the articles
is sufficient He then passes on through inde-
pendent tribes of pronouns, till he arrives at the
territory of the nouns. They are of three genders,
and there are plenty of rules to explain them,
but they are so encumbered with exceptions that
they only produce disorder and confusion in the
mind of the learner.

228 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

It is an unfathomable mystery and a subject
of endless consideration among zealous teachers^
how to render the genders reasonably easy to
beginners. The plan which they adopt, merely in
default of a better, is avowedly wrong; but they
never take counsel with the shepherd to find out
how he happens to recognize each individual
out of a thousand sheep at the first glance.

If, according to grammatical theory, there are
in German sixteen contingencies for the definite
article, the smallest number of illustrations neces-
sary for the exemplification of each of these would
be three. Now sentences are the only possible
illustrations, and therefore forty-eight sentences
must be studied before the article can be clearly
understood. The natural process therefore is the
most strictly grammatical, because it gives the
learner a knowledge of the genders and cases of
a number of nouns, combined with the command
of the definite article. But this is not the chief
among the parts of speech. It is true, that without
the article it is impossible to talk ; but it is also
impossible to do so with the article alone. The
fusion of all the parts of speech is their normal
state ; and the practical acquisition of a language
ought not to be postponed until each of them has
undergone a minute investigation.

The condition of the article is one of servile
dependence. He has no separate existence, and he

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 229

is in a false position when treated as an inde-
pendent member of the family.

The theory that the study of the article in all
its cases conduces to the development of the intel-
lectual faculties, is not supported by the observa-
tions of teachers. The elements in their separate
state are too ethereal a food for the mind* It is
not found in practice, that they call forth subtle
speculations, either as to the nature of the unseen
nouns in the background, or as to the various rea-
sons which impel the Teuton to make so much
parade of cases, and so many distinctions for the
little word the^ while some of those distinctions are
devoid of differences, and some of the differences
remain undistinguished. The various forms have
to discharge inconsistent functions, one represent-
ing both masculine and feminine; another both
singular and plural ; one doing duty as nominative
masculine, genitive feminine, and dative feminine
in the singular, and genitive of all three genders
in the plural; besides officiating as a masculine
relative pronoun. The best way of securing this
Proteus is to seize him in all his different forms;
to bind them fast together in one sentence, with a
set of nouns containing no ambiguities as to their
genders, and to commit it to memory. When he
is thus fettered, the feeblest may overpower and
" master" him.

The "mastery" of the article necessarily

230 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

inyolves a practical familiarity with all the cases of
at least one noun of each gender in each declen-
sion, and therefore it is a mere waste of time to
attempt to learn the article by itself. A child
delivers a sentence as if he had learned it by
heart ; and so he does learn it, and in a manner
much more perfect than that in which lessons are
generally acquired. He has learned all the con-
structions by chance ; he has learned the nouns with
their articles sticking to them; he has added by
chance to his primary sentences, others which have
harmonized with them ; and the coupled sentences
have been interwoven with each other, till the
germs of millions of possible sentences are collected
in his brain. As the well-worn silk stockings of
Sir John maintained their identity through long
years of continual worsted darnings, during which
the original fabric was wholly superseded by the
substitute, so the individuality of that original
sentence which formed a basis for one which has
just been uttered, though apparently merged and
lost, is still there, and it is the same essence which
has transmigrated into a new corporeal receptacle.
It is a mistake either to analyse too far,
or to generalize too far. We cut down sen-
tences into words, syllables, and letters, to
teach how they ought to be reconstructed; and
we generalize about genders, in which each
sepfurate word must form the subject of a special

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 231

acquisition. K several nouns having one termina-
tion, have one form of the article generally attached
to them, the feeblest understanding will draw the
inference, and make the rule for itself, just as well
as the grammarian. It will also make the exceptions
in common words, in like manner, without any
deliberation. The fact that a rustic uses some of
them incorrectly, proves nothing more than that
his parents and comrades did the same ; but if in
nine cases out of ten he employs them correctly,
that modicum of credit which is due to the natural
process is either denied, or very grudgingly con-
ceded, because it is held to be totally neutralized
by the errors which are constantly recurring*
Whether it may be possible to rectify that one-
tenth of a rustic's phraseology, without putting him
through a long course of technical grammar, may
be determined by having respect to the fact, that
in his mind habit has already superseded the neces-
sity for learning the rules relating to nine-tenths
of the grammar. It has been ascertained that even
in the language of well-educated youths there is a
large percentage of grammatical inaccuracy, which (
it is the crammer's vocation to eliminate; and'
ultimately that there are very few, indeed, who
attain to perfection.

That standard of criticism which exacts
perfection, and will not tolerate mediocrity, is
too lofty for ordinary men. Perfection is an

232 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

admirable standard, but it is only a discouragement
when applied to beginners, because it is a goal far
beyond their reach. In the scheme here advocated,
however, there is great encouragement to the
learner, because his goal is always within easy
reach. The " mastery " of a sentence with all its
variations is a clearly-defined termination to each
separate effort; and so long as he continues to
restrict himself to one at a time, his knowledge
of the little that he has undertaken may be
absolutely perfect.
/ When a boy is sent to school at six or seven
years of age to have his phraseology rectified after
too much intercourse with servants, it is generally
supposed that his study of grammar is the cause
of his improvement. But the actual corrective is
not to be found in the schoolroom, but in the play-
ground, where the shafts of ridicule pointed to one
error at a time, operate much more powerfully
than the philosophy of grammar. So the illiterate
may be gradually weaned from inaccurate forms of
speech by dealing with them, one by one, in a
systematic manner. When a man elevates himself
in society by his own efforts, he reads hard and
studies the best authors; but in fact, the blemishes
of his phraseology are only removed by a slow
process of self-correction, not systematic, but yet of
an analogous nature to that which has just been
indicated.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 233

In a merely initiatory process, no design can
be entertained either of assuming any pretensions
to scholarship on the one hand, or of ignoring it on
the other. A considerable command over the con-
structions, caseS; and tenses is attainable in an
empirical manner ; and yet the knowledge is real
and thorough. The empirical is generally con-
demned as superficial; but when there are no pre-
tensions to scholarship, there can be no reason for
making deep diggings in quest of that which is so
completely on the surface that any body can pick
it up.

Most of the current opinions regarding the
learning of languages are evasive and dis-
couraging, and they frequently give cover to some
fallacy. Generally speaking, every one discoursing
on the subject, begins by avowing that he is no
linguist, and thus establishes a screen to protect
himself. When called on to explain the right way
of setting to work, the usual reply is, that we must
first learn the names of a good many things, and
then a few imperatives; but they do not venture
to say how many nouns and verbs are wanted, nor
can they specify the third step.

Some say that we must thiiik in a foreign
language before we can speak it well ; but they do
not explain how to begin that process of thinking
in an unknown tongue. If they mean merely that
those who think in it, speak it well; and that those

2S4 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

who speak it well, think in it, there is nothing
puzzling or alarming in the proposition. But it is
not by thinking in a language, but by not thinking in
it; that children speak it idiomatically and fluently.
A boy who has been reproved for some habitual
inelegance of speech, generally resumes it in the
playground; and if called to order, he replies, that
he said it ^^ without thinking." This is obviously
a true and valid excuse. For that which has been
learned by rote does not call for any thinking, in
the elevated sense of the word ; and it is to save
beginners from what looks like hard thinking,
when they ought to be talking, that the plan of
learning practical sentences by rote is advocated.

Whether that very hard thinking, which after
a long course of critical analysis, seems to be
called forth, when the first attempts are made
to compose sentences orally, can be considered a
genuine intellectual effort, or only a severe struggle
to think, let every man determine from his own
experience.

There is an impulse given by success, with
which everyone is familiar.: That feeling often
amounts to triumph, when the power of delivering
complete sentences in a newly acquired language
is suddenly attained. It is a triumph over the
confusion of brain which ensues from attempting to
think about too many things at once. To obviate
that difficulty, we limit the number of the beginner's

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 235

considerations to a minimum. Success is the
necessary result; and success communicates that
stimulus which is so much wanted in this pursuit,
to counteract the disappointments that await those
who make precocious attempts to converse.

Some say that it is useless to learn foreign \
tongues, because they are so soon forgotten. It is
true that when utterly neglected they are gradually
lost, but it is very easy to maintain them in full
vigour by devoting a few minutes twice a week
to oral composition in each language; and it
is discreditable to lose an elegant accomplish-
ment through a childish distaste for so light
a work.

Some say that it is with words, as with birds.
The larger the covey within ear or gunshot, the more
they expect to bag by firing promiscuously into the
thickest part. It is not good sportsmanship ; but
as it seems to save trouble, as it requires no discri-
mination, nor even intelligence, and as many good
performers commenced in that way, the simple
process of listening is very popular, and it is gene-
rally considered to be sound and effective. But
unfortunately even when the learner makes a suc-
cessful shot he does not take the trouble to secure
the game. He would rather be seen with an empty
game-bag, than with three little birds as the result
of a whole day's sport; and his arithmetical lore
does not suggest to him that the results of three

236 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

months* acquisitions, even on that small scale,
would form a very respectable stock of words.

To wait passively for the formation of a habit
which is essentially active, betrays rather a defi-
ciency than a superabundance of sagacity. But
the subject has been rendered so obscure by the
general acceptance of crude unexamined notions,
that there are few who endeavour either to reason
out the causes of their own failure, or to overcome
that abject helplessness and incapacity for self-
instruction, which are engendered by unsound
methods of teaching.

The powers of attention and of retention are
never equal in any two persons, nor are the results
ever precisely equal for two days in succession
in the same person. To work at about half power
is the only way to ensure regularity of progress.
We know that doubling the steam power will not
make a proportionate addition to the speed of a
ship^ and we may learn something from that fact
in regard to the exercise of the memory. The
latter is admitted to be a leaky vessel, a cask
from which the wine is constantly escaping. In
the instance of a child, the useless words are
always running out, because he does not employ
any but the commonest; but with adults the
case is reversed, because they neglect the common
to grasp at new ones. They are also influenced
by their caprice, to relinquish words or forms

IflSGKLLANEOUS NOTES. 237

of speech which are not to their taste; forgetting
that what are called the obliquities, delinquencies,
and deformities of a language, are the very things
to which they ought to attend most. They are the
points of divergence and contrast which constitute
the characteristics of the language, and without
which a foreigner cannot speak it well.

The habit of speaking a foreign tongue is not
the result of continuous study. All our training,
however, tends to produce the impression that as
nothing great is attainable without hard labour,
so this small accomplishment exacts severe study.
The second-hand performance of learning ready-
made combinations is thought unworthy of a
scholar. The only exception is made in favour of
the most unpractical portion of a language —
poetry. In an educational course, the exercise of
the understanding is the prominent consideration,
and the critical study of language does call forth
severe intellectual exertion. Hence arises very
naturally the inference that this attainment, which
little children make light of, is very diflScult, and
thence springs that universal repugnance, which
extends even to a small experiment with twenty
words of an outlandish tongue.

The commencement of a language is always
repulsive and alarming; but if it is ever to
be spoken, it is impossible to escape from the
initiation. Here it is presented in a smaller

238 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:

compass than in any grammar or manual, and the
power of expression resulting from the thorough
knowledge of one hundred words is shown to
transcend all the highest flights of imagination.
The contemplation of the first plunge into a
river on a cold morning may be disagreeable;
but no improyement in the temperature can be
effected by standing shivering in the keen East
wind, nor is it of any use to move to the right or
left to look for a warmer place.

It would be tedious to recite the groundless

objections, which, under an infinite variety of

modifications, are arrayed in opposition to this

pursuit. When driven from one hiding place,

the objector takes refuge in others, from which

it is mere waste of time to try to dislodge him.

One of the greatest obstacles to colloquial

progress is the dearth of imagination, and the

want of method, both in teachers and pupils.

They do not know what to talk about, nor in what

manner to diversify their conversation without

I using unknown words. Every thing said is either

\ too easy or too difficult, and there is no medium.

When the pupils try to converse with foreigners,

they deviate still farther from the proper course;

because strangers can have no idea of their

vocabulary, nor of the extent of their knowledge.

r This defect can only be remedied by constantly

[ shuffling the words, and translating the variations

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 239

of the sentences which have been committed to
memory.

In our scholastic career, oratorical and logical
diction forming the standard to which we are
expected to aspire, our compositions are very
properly judged with severity. But the same
criteria are cruelly inappropriate when applied
to the speaking of modern tongues, by people
who, with all their best exertions, can never rise
beyond mediocrity, either in thought, or in the
mode of expressing it in their own language. The
half-witted resolution never to attempt to talk the
foreign tongue, until they can do it better than
certain friends of theirs, is the illegitimate off-
spring of that high standard. They are determined
to reach the higher branches of the tree, without
touching the stem or the lower branches. Child-
ren use a ladder, which makes the ascent easy;
but the bystanders imagine that it is accomplished
by the flights of a genius, which they are themselves
conscious that they do not possess.

Many refuse to deal with easy sentences,
because no credit can accrue from them; and
they prefer those which, being difficult, in-
volve them in no reproach if they break down
in the attempt to translate them. They are
ashamed of being thought mere beginners; and
therefore they place themselves in an advanced
position, which they cannot maintain, except by

240 MI8C£LLAN£0US NOTES*

observing that golden silence, which far surpasses
the silver of their speech. If, when called on to
translate easy sentences, they resent the proposal
as an insult to their understanding, and if they
also refuse to practise in private, they can never
succeed. With great labour^ and admirable inge-
nuity, they build a ship of surpassing magnitude ;
but when she is completed, they find out that the
noble structure is a great deal too large to be
launched.

We have not a word to say in depreciation of
that extensive eye-knowledge of a living language,
which many men, to their great mortification, dis-
cover to be inoperative when they go abroad ; inas-
much as they can neither understand, nor make
themselves understood. But viewing the colloquial
as the grand desideratum, we regard as unreal and
impractical all that cannot be readily reproduced.
In plain terms, we treat it as unknown. The
magnificence of the unknown has passed into a
proverb. The practically known may be, in com-
parison, as a mole-hill beside a mountain; but
teachers labour indefatigably in adding to the
mountain, while the mole-hill is completely over-
looked. All the new acquisitions are carefully
treasured up; and they are recollected when the
familiar words are reproduced before the eyes
in books. But the practical part is neglected,
inasmuch as no set of words has been separated

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 241

for daily employment in oral composition. The
consequence is that to many who imagine them-
selves to be in the right course, the labour appears
to be aimless, endless, and hopeless.

When the industrious student attempts to con-
verse, his extensive knowledge of words is his
first difficulty, and he deplores his inability to
deploy them with readiness. But his accurate
critical knowledge of the constructions is another
obstacle; because when he detects himself tripping
in the formation of a sentence, his school habits
prompt him to stop short, in a state of discomfiture.
But the remedy is very simple ; for if he will lay
aside his books, and exercise himself with a few
coupled sentences, he must succeed. With all his
large store of knowledge about the language, he
has not made a beginning in the colloquial part ;
but he may do so at any moment by " mastering "
any sentence which he may please to select as
the basis of his new undertaking. This fresh
departure is the only effectual course for learners
at every stage of advancement. The stream of
their eloquence, although dammed up at first, will
burst forth with vigour wten the restrictions are
removed; and the narrower the channel in which
it is confined, the greater will be its impetuosity.

We have shown that imitation is one of the
sources of success. It was by practising imitative
composition that Sir William Jones distinguished

R

242 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

himself as a linguist. Latin versification is imita-
tive, and it tends to produce good scholarship. It
is beneficial, because the beginner has before him
the translations of perfect models; because his
efforts are definite and limited; and because in
each lesson a series of successes is gained under
urgency. Oral exercises in prose on the same
limited scale would soon lead to great facility in
composition in any language.

During a long course of study, it often happens
that for several months at a time no progress is
made. The teacher and the pupil are both con-
scious of this very untoward fact; but they are
unable to explain it, seeing that there is no abate*
ment of zeal or attention on either side. They
have unbounded confidence in the efficacy of
parsing, and of rehearsing the same rules day by
day ; and they have implicit faith in the virtue of
turning over the leaves of a dictionary, and then
guessing which is the right translation of a word.
The failure is, therefore, quite unaccountable to both
of them. But if oral composition were resorted to,
there would be a lively exercitation of the memory,
which, by revealing with precision the deficiency in
the learner's practical knowledge of any one con-
struction, would lead to a selection of sentences
which, in one sitting, would supply that defect.
In such exercises, none but very well known,
familiar words should be introduced into the

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 243

sentences at first ; and a dictionary shoald not be
employed at all. The mischief done by the in-
sertion of one or two unknown words in each
sentence, outweighs all the benefit to be derived
from the practice of oral translation.

It is worthy of remark that teachers of lan-
guages seldom select what is purely practical for
a pupil to commit to memory ; nor do they limit
him to learning so little, that he cannot help
retaining every word. They feel a delicacy about
marking off one portion of a lesson to be retained,
because that would be equivalent to dooming the
rest to oblivion. That result, they well know,
is inevitable; but they dare not formally recognize
and grapple with the fact. The practice of re-
capitulation is adopted, but not to much purpose ;
because too much has been undertaken each day;
and therefore the exhumation and rehearsal of the
words leads only to a galvanic resuscitation of
them, as a preliminary to their being recommitted
to the tomb.

Some teachers recommend themselves to public
notice by announcing that they do not require
their pupils to learn anything by heart. They
ask a boy's parents to reflect how much they
themselves learned, and how little they have
retained, of the passages committed to memory in
early life.

There are people who recite poetry in

244 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

profusion, which they profess that they never com-
mitted to memory. How the verses happen to be
reproduced exactly in the author's words, they are
not at liberty to explain ; but we are left to infer
that it is the result of headwork, and not of the
humble faculty of memory, much less of the
despised practice of learning by rote.

When there is pleasure taken in a task, it
becomes stamped on the memory by frequent
unconscious recitations. When little interest is
taken in it, periodical repetition alone will enable
the memory to retain it. But when the' task is
absolutely disagreeable, as is generally the case in
learning a foreign language, very frequent repeti-
tions become indispensable ; for without them our
acquisitions can make no durable lodgment either
in the head, or in the heart, or in the memory.

In England, females are said to have a parti-
cular aptitude for languages; but men might pos-
sibly succeed equally well, if they heard French
or German talked for hours every day, and if they
were compelled to join in the conversation, instead
of perpetually puzzling themselves with the ana-
lysis of tough sentences. School girls speak more
fluently and idiomatically than boys do, because
their method is more practical. Not being sub-
jected to the depressing, demoralizing influence,
produced by being stopped short, whenever an
inaccuracy or a difficulty occurs, girls display more

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 245

self-possession, and less hesitationi in stringing
words together.

Moreover, needlework and other feminine pur-
suits, are favourable to language-learning, because
they leave the vocal organs at full liberty. Thus
a party of foreign needlewomen might arrange to
have useful sentences uttered for imitation and
repetition every hour, without any serious impedi-
ment either to their handiwork or their conver-
sation. This is the principle already in operation
in schools, where there is a perpetual recurrence
of a set of questions and remarks, relating to
the implements, the materials, or the ingenuities
required in the various occupations in which
the girls are engaged. But, as they are their
own models, their pronunciation and phraseology
are necessarily imperfect; and as the repetitions
are not systematic, the sentences not being spoken
exactly in the same words every time, the results
are not so satisfactory as they ought to be.

The mild Hindoo, whose education is generally
as scanty as his wardrobe, exhibits great facility
in picking up a language colloquially. He knows
what sentences he will have to use as a traveller;
he employs some one to tell him how to say them ;
and he learns them by rote, one at a time. His
wants are very few ; he uses his whole stock of
words every day; and, by imperceptibly small
additions, it increases. But as he learns it from

246 MISOELLANSOUS N0TI8.

those who speak inelegantly, as his knowledge is
very limited, and as he has no idea of explaining
the rationale of his plan, an Englishman scorns to
adopt it And yet the colloquial facility of the
illiterate servant, at the end of each week's
chatter, is, in many instances, greater than that
of his educated master, at the end of each
month's study.

Blind people have also good success, because
they do not impede their own progress by reading
and writing; and they discern the difference
between knowing words thoroughly, and knowing
them by sight.

The plan of bringing a foreign nurse into a
family, in order that children may learn her lan-
guage, is supposed to be perfect, because it is
generally successful: but the process is almost
always slow, and sometimes, from want of sym-
pathy between her and the children, it foils
altogether. But every child has an irresistible
impulse to imitate other children ; for when sepa-
rated from his own comrades, and thrown into
the company of little foreigners, for three hours a
day, he makes rapid progress in conversing with
them.

Why this law of nature has not been more
generally adopted as the basis of action, by parents
and missionaries, it is hard to say. The scheme
works itself out to perfection in the torrid zone.

MI80KLLANEOUS NOTES. 247

where children who play with their little neigh^
bonrs in the streets all day long, are often heard to (
speak three or four languages vernacularly.

It is a mistake to suppose that one language )
comes more naturally to Br child than another. \
Amongst the English residents in Bengal, there are
many children who speak nothing but Hindustani.
They do not even understand a word of English,
because neither their parents nor their attendants
employ it in speaking to them. In other parts of
India, English children generally speak two, and
sometimes three or four languages. This is also
very common on the shores of the Mediterranean.
Everything depends on their models, and a child
who hears no language, will never learn to speak at
all. If two or three infants were brought up in
seclusion, attended by well-educated deaf and
dumb nurses, they would imitate the sounds of
birds and beasts, and would communicate with
each other and with their nurses by signs and
shouts ; but they would never be able to talk,
except with their fingers.

If two English boys, three or four years old,^
associated during play hours with two little /
foreigners, it seems probable that that language
would obtain the ascendancy which pertained to {
the individual who, by strength of character, \
could exercise supremacy over the rest. Such
experiments might easily be made in any large

248 MISOELLAKEOUS NOTES.

city, and it would be interesting to observe the
results.

When a missionary lands in a foreign country,
with two or three children, he ignores the well-
known fact that they are far more competent than
he is, to teach the little savages English. If the
latter were well scrubbed, and admitted, one at a
time, to play with his children for three hours a
day, they would talk in a few months, or perhaps
weeks, as fluently and copiously as their white
playmates. Moreover, the language would be
genuine English, not the gibberish usually spoken
by foreigners. Five or six children, of diflerent
ages, might thus learn to speak in the first twelve
months, and the number might easily be doubled
in each succeeding year.

Nothing but the injudicious interference of the
white man could arrest the success of this plan.
The white children should be prevented from
learning the foreign tongue at first, because if
they could converse in it they would cease from
speaking English, and the scheme would utterly
fail. Even at three years of age, children show
this amount of discrimination; for they see, or
feel, that the fitness of things requires that each
person should be addressed in his own language.

Care should be taken not to allow anybody to
speak broken English in presence of any of the
children of either race; because a few minutes

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 249

spent in company with such a person would corrupt
their language.

By the adoption of these suggestions in a
Mission, a great waste of time and temper might
be spared. The white children would become the
unconscious instruments of civilisation, by teaching
their playmates to speak our language; and, in
after-life, they would be the fittest agents for pro-
claiming the Gospel to the heathen, in the purity
of the native tongue.

There would spring up an English-speaking
community, amongst whom every new missionary
might be actively employed from the day of his
arrival in the country, instead of devoting himself
almost exclusively to study. At present many of
the missionaries are not allowed to learn foreign
languages in England. This fact is full of signifi-
cance. But if there be any virtue in the child's
process, the young men might learn the pronun-
ciation from a native in England, and then they
might employ their time very profitably during the
voyage, in committing a stock of well-chosen texts
to memory. By this means they would involun-
tarily learn to express their thoughts with fluency
in Biblical language, and to converse with the
natives, within a very few days after their arrival
at their destination.

It does not seem to have been laid down that
when men speaking uninflected languages approach

li

250 MI8CELLANS0US NOTES.

the grammar of a highly inflected one, a greater
degree of caation should be exercised than when
the conditions are reyersed. A German comes
down hill to learn English, but it is a hard
pull for an Englishman to ascend to German. A
classical education is, no doubt, a good training in
relation to the power of understanding inflections ;
but the amount of intelligence required in this
respect is very minute indeed. It also imparts
thoughtfulness about each individual word to be
uttered, but the said thoughtfulness is only an
impediment to fluency of speech. A German can
/ do himself no harm by seeing that my and his
I represent twelve words in his own dialect, but an
'^ Englishman is bewildered by seeing that there are
six ways of translating each of those words into
German.

The paradigms of the two languages indicate
their relative difficulty. When the system of begin-
ning with sentences is adopted, the complications
of the grammar, every one of which is a novelty
and a puzzle, are kept out of sight. On taking
up the paradigm, beginners meet with the contents
of perhaps a hundred pages of grammar closely
condensed; but they find on inspection that many
of the items have been " mastered," and that the
synopsis is not so intricate as it looks. They soon
discover by analogy the relations of the known
to the unknown words; and it is on this account

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 251

that all explanations and technical terms have
been excluded from the paradigms.

If scientific principles are to be employed in
teaching, with a view to the attainment of rapid
progress, all that is irregular and exceptional in a
language ought to be excluded, until that which is
regular has been "mastered." There ought to be
no laws laid down for the learner, except such as
are to ji>e inflexibly observed; and those which are
liable to be constantly broken ought not to be
mixed up with them. Exceptions may prove rules
theoretically, but in practice they disprove them.

In order to qualify a traveller to undertake
new languages in an independent manner, it is
desirable that he should invent or adopt some
phonetic system, and become perfectly familiar in
practice with its minutest details. But even when it
is thoroughly known, it will be of no use in respect
to an unfamiliar tone or sound. It is only after
the pronunciation has been acquired, that any
writing can be useful. Phonetic practice is an
excellent discipline for those whose handwriting is
illegible; but to undertake it at the same time with
the commencement of a new language is to aggra-
vate the difficulties of both. In the first instance
it ought to be applied to a foreign language which
the learner can pronounce well, and then to his
own ; for this experience will lead him to an appre-
ciation of its exact value, in regard to the utterance

252 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

of sounds which he has not previously learned to
pronounce.

It is generally considered very easy to make
acquaintance with a language, so far as to under-
stand what people say. This, however, is merely
inferential knowledge, inasmuch as it depends
largely on the observation exercised upon the
matter in which the foreigners may be engaged,
the tones of their voices, and the expression of
their faces. But as a positive knowledge is often
acquired in that manner by mere habituation,
without the use of books, it stands to reason that
great benefit may be derived from having passages
read aloud to us, in which it has been previously
ascertained that the words are all common and the
sentences short and simple. To have the same
sentences daily read very rapidly by a foreigner,
with a few additions to them, would necessarily
lead to perfect familiarity with them in a short
time, without laying any burden on the memory.
Every addition being fully explained beforehand,
the exercise would be much easier than that of
listening to desultory conversations; while it
would also be a valuable aid to that general
familiarization with the sounds of the spoken
language which, to some people, is very difficult
of attainment.

This exercise may be despised, as too easy. It
certainly does not call for any intellectual vigour,

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 253

but its simplicity forms its strongest recommenda*
tion; for graduated exercises might be made,
which would soon lead to a rapid apprehension of
all ordinary passages in books. By parity of rea-
soning, the same process ought to be introduced
into the study of Latin. Some passage being
thoroughly explained, studied, analyzed, and under-
stood, the pupil might reasonably be expected,
without the aid of his eyes, to give the English
translation. At first, one short sentence would be
suflScient for a very tender beginner; but whatever
stage of progress he may have reached there should
be special care taken that it should not cost him
any effort. It might be carried on separately, and
independently of the ordinary work, and as the
time occupied would be extremely short, there
would be no hardship in it. The knowledge of
the constructions thus acquired, would enable the
pupil more readily to understand his ordinary
lessons ; and the test of its soundness would be the
daily introduction into each sentence, of some one
alien word, borrowed from another quarter, but
well known to the pupil.

The strictly imitative character of this method
is such, that a foreigner might be furnished
with nothing but Shakspearian sentences, purely
comical, or highly tragical, according to the
humour of his preceptor. The reproduction of
these in the ordinary transactions of life, would

254 lOSCELLANEOUS NOTES.

produce very exhilarating effects. So Plato and
Xenophon would afford charming conversational
Greek, for two men assisting one another in oral
composition. For graver work, apart firom the
colloquial branch, the " mastery " of a chapter of
the Old Testament in Hebrew would enable a man,
in testing this scheme by himself, to rub off the
rust that may have accumulated upon his early
acquisitions; but the grammars of that language
are not to be touched by beginners. The syntax
is a series of anomalies and discords, and the
paradigms are appalling, when approached without
due preparation.

In changing from one language to another in
colloquial exercises, it is advisable to rehearse one
or two sentences of the new one, in order to banish
that which has just been used. When a beginner
is learning two languages at once, he may chance
to intermingle them unless he takes this pre-
caution. But it is better to learn one at a time;
for the results thus obtained will be greater, and
there will be less chance of concision.

The object of this work has been to show how
the first approaches to a new language ought to be
conducted, so as to avert l^e disappointment and
mortificaticMi which are often experienced when
men fail, after devoting themselves earnestly, and
bestowing a great deal of valuable time on the
attainment The different degree of talent which

MISCELLINSOUS NOTES. 255

people possess forms a subject of much talk, but not
of much thought The remark is generally made,
in self-justification, that no two men have the same
turn for thb pursuit By referring it to a special
faculty or taste, it is gently removed beyond the
pale of discussion. But no man can be said to
have tested his own powers if, after overwhelming
his memory with a crushing load, he has succumbed*
Unless he does common justice to himself, without
instituting any comparison with others, his expe-
rience under such circumstances is worth nothing.
It has no bearing on the subject at all. The pre-
dominance of chance in the progress of children,
learning foreign languages, has been noticed ; and
the law of numbers, applied to words, shows how
half a dozen short colloquial sentences, accidentally
picked up, may form the foundation for a rapidly
acquired familiarity with even a difficult language.
But it is not easy to say what constitutes difficulty
in a language, seeing that the feeblest intellect is
amply sufficient for the work. The inability to
communicate with precision the manner in which
any individual has '^ mastered " a language, in a
short time, with very little exertion, is universally
acknowledged. It is said that no two minds can
go through the same identical process; and hence
the opinions and l^e skill of the most accomplished
teachers are often set at nought. After all, a lan-
guage, when acquired by a thousand men in a

256 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

thousand different ways, is the same, and their
inability to retrace their path through the wilder-
ness is very remarkable. It shows the absence of
methodical procedure, or a deviation from it, of
which they cannot be unconscious.

There is the same want of method in the opera-
tions of those who, when thrown amongst savages,
have contrived to learn a little of their language,
but so little that when they recount their adven-
tures, they shrink from any attempt to give a
detailed account of the manner in which, and the
rate at which they acquired it. How to act under
such circumstances is a problem which may be
solved without much diflSculty by men of some
experience as linguists. It is not necessary to
traverse oceans and continents to find barbarians
to practise upon. Every foreigner landing on our
shores with his family, if altogether ignorant of
our language, is as much a barbarian to us, as we
are to him. The most ready way of learning
some sentences would be to fraternise with his
children; to offer them attractive gifts; to note
down their utterances; and to imitate, repeat, and
verify them, in a series of small experiments. It
would not be so easy to deal with old, taciturn,
sensible savages, who could see the uselessness of
dealing out words to a white-faced stranger, whose
presence had no tendency to inspire them with
garrulity. But even with them the process ought

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 257

to be conducted on the same principle ; and they
should be conciliated and rendered communicative
by pleasant surprises. The names of things might
of course be quickly extracted from them, but
very little good would result from learning even a
large number of bare words.

When learned men are consulted as to what
they consider the most important point for a
beginner, they are fond of giving Hamlet's oracular
reply, -'Words, Words, Words." In advising a
young architect, it would be equally rational to
say " Bricks, Bricks, Bricks." Hamlet had some
method in his madness, but there is a melancholy
negation of method here. The natural course is
to learn the most useful sentences, and assiduously
to interchange new words with them. For a
beginner, therefore, the true motto is "Action,
Action, Action."

NOTE.

TT7HILE this work has been going through the press, a
' * machine of singularly ingenious construction has been
invented and patented, by an enthusiastic admirer of the
system which it describes. Adopting the theory of the
quasi-mechanical nature of the operation by which idio-
matic sentences, when learned by rote, germinate and
expand into a whole language, and being experimentally
convinced of its truth by his personal application of it to
ancient Greek, Mr Long has devised an apparatus which,
when turned on its axis, exhibits an endless succession of
the variations of four sentences of twenty-one words each.
It consists of a box eighteen inches in length and six in
depth, having three rows of windows in front, each of
which faces a little chamber, wherein cubes are placed
which rotate whenever the box is turned. Each cube has
a word written on each of its four sides, and by means
of a device for producing irregularity in their rotations, a
fresh combination of twenty-one words appears at the little
windows after each revolution of the box. The cubes are
removable at pleasure, and the learner may write upon
them whatever words he may select, due consideration
being made, as provided for in Pages 50 and 51, for pre-
venting any deviation from idiom, grammar, or sense.

260 NOTE.

The application of colours, as suggested in Page 132,
to the English nouns or verbs, so as to indicate to the
learner the declensions and conjugations to which they
severally belong, is effected by the insertion of ground
glass on the facets of the cubes, and the use of coloured
chalks to write upon them.

The sentences may be reduced to any length. K they
are of seven words each, so as to occupy only one row of
windows, the number of combinations of that length will
be 4!, or 16,384. If they fill two rows, there will be 4\*,
or 268,000,000 combinations of fourteen words each. If the
three rows are filled up, 4V, or 4,000,000,000,000 of com-
binations of twenty-one words each will result. It is not
intended that the beginner shall go through all these
evolutions, because it would require more than 100,000
years to do so.

The impartiality of this apparatus in giving sentences
to be translated into Greek, is equal to that of a first-class
Examiner.

In its property of excluding from before the eyes all
those words that are not wanted at the moment, there is a
remarkable coincidence with the theory enounced on that
subject. Nature shows that they ought to be so banished
from sight.

That dearth of imagination and method in teachers and
pupils, which is deplored in Page 238, is remedied by this
contrivance, because it shuffles the whole of the known
words, and it is impossible that any unknown word can
intrude to disturb or confuse the learner. While it thus
performs the functions of an exercise-book of unimaginable
dimensions, it affords graduated lessons, exactly to the

NOTE.

261

number required in each individual instance, at any stage
of progress.

The machine represents the brainbox of a person who
has learned exactly 84 words of a foreign language, and
has neither seen nor heard one word more. It secures limi-
tation, exclusion, interchanging, repetition, and imitation.
That instantaneous production of the words in gramma-
tical and idiomatic sequence, which constitutes " mastery,"
is also personated. The machine is therefore an interest-
ing embodiment and exemplification in walnut- wood of the
whole system.

But it has other virtues also ; for problems in arith-
metic may be introduced into it, so as to lead learners
gently on from numeration to the stiffest questions in the
Rule of Three. The art of Short-hand writing is commu-
nicable thereby ; and there are many educational purposes,
which it will subserve in a more agreeable manner than
the generality of merely mechanical performers. Let it
not be supposed that it supplies brains or information.
Its vocation as an instrument of education will be to
receive into its mystic chambers that lesson which the
pupil first of all commits to memory, with its variations.
The lesson may be very short, and the items few in number,
but by slow degrees they increase. And as little by little
is added to them, that amalgamation of them, which is the
great object of teaching, is effected by requiring the pupil
to reproduce the previously imparted knowledge, to apply
the principles thereof, and to " master " one thing before
he undertakes another.

But there is another remarkable purpose to which Mr
Long has adapted this machine. The metabolical presen-
tation of words, suggested to his inventive faculty the idea

262 NOTE.

of prodacing musical combinations on similar principles.
The provision whereby grammar and idiom are preserved
intact, throughout that inconceivable number of sentences,
being so applied to bars of music, that the time and key
are in the first instance secured, the revolutions of the
machine produce Eolian measures, in the same multitu-
dinous variety. This analogy appears again in Page 116,
v^here the interchangeable rudiments of a sentence are
manifestly the bars in the music of speech.

This beautifully simple apparatus shows that much of
what is called the intellectual, is subject to mechanical
laws; whilst it also elucidates one of the many occult
harmonies in creation.

THE END.

JfftlNTKD £1 C. W. JIST5XLL, LITTLK PCLTKIIST STBIXT, HATMAIXKI, W.

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