54 THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE MIND. living language, or if it be Latin, which is the living language of the learned world ; thus lie will acquaint himself a little with it by rote as well as by rule, and by living practice as well as by reading the writings of the dead. For if a child of two years old by this method learns to speak his mother- tongue, I am sure the same method will greatly assist and facilitate the learning of any other language to those who are older. VI. Let the chief lessons and the chief exercises of schools, e. c. where the Latin is learnt, (at least for the first year or more) be thenouns, verbs, and general rules of syntax, together with a mere translation out of some Latin author into English ; and let scholars be employed and examined by their teacher, daily, in reducing the words to their original or theme, to the first case of nouns or first tense of verbs, andgiving an account of their formations and changes, their syntax and dependencies, which is called parsing. This is a most useful exercise to lead boys into a complete and thorough knowledgeof what they are doing. The English translations, which the learner has made, should be well corrected by the master, and then they should be translated back again for the next day's exercise by the child into Latin, while the Latin author is withheld from him : but he should have the Latin words given him in their first case and tense; and should never be left to seek them himself from a dictionary : and the nearer he translates it to the words of the author whence he derives his English, the more should the child be commended. Thus will he gain skill in two languages at once. I think Mr. Clarke has done good service to the public by his translations of Latin books for this end. But let the fool- ish custom of employing every silly boy to make themes of decla- mations and verses upon moral subjects in a strange tongue, be- fore he understands common sense even in his own language, be abandoned and cashiered for ever. VII. As the learner improves, let him " acquaint himself with the anomalous words, the irregular declensionof nouns and verbs, the moreuncommon connections of words in syntax, and the exceptions to the general rules of grammar ;" but let them all be reduced, as far as possible, to those several original and general rules which he has learned, as theproper rankand place to which they belong. VIII. While he is doing this, it may be " proper for him to converse with authors which are a little more difficult, with historians, orators, and poets, &c." but let his tutor inform him òf the Roman or Greek customs which occur therein. Let the ,lad then translate some parts of them into his mother tongue, or into some other well -known language, and thence back again into the original language of the author. But let the verse be translated into prose, for poesy does not belong to grammar. IX. By this time he will be able to acquaint himself with
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=