47+ THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ha^ occasion to compare, to judge knowingly ; he chooses neither the 

 proper word nor the most suitable form, and cannot aim at clearness, 

 force, or elegance of style. The longer he perseveres in this thank- 

 less work, the less chance has he of ever writing the foreign language 

 in its idiomatic purity. Latin compositions of this kind have heen 

 kept up to the present time, because they were not controlled by 

 critics of the time of Augustus. 



Translation into the national language presents numerous difficul- 

 ties to those who best understand it. Lamartine called a translation 

 the most difficult of all books to make ; and we set young children at 

 this work in an idiom which is nearly unknown to them. As well 

 force them to walk with the head in a sack. It is a real tyranny. 



The hours passed out of school by the unhappy victims of routine, 

 in writing their themes and versions, leave little leisure for reading ; 

 while, on the other hand, the correction of tasks consumes time in 

 class which would be better employed in studying the great writers 

 of Athens and Rome. With an excess of zeal, the master often corrects 

 the tasks of his pupils at home, consuming time which might better be 

 given to his own improvement. 



In the intervals of the lessons, the pupils of the lyceums read what 

 the professor can hear them translate in class an insufficient amount 

 of practice for acquiring the art of reading in the school-period. They 

 translate scarcely thirty lines a day in class, two or three times a 

 week, making a small volume in a year, when the complete acquisition 

 of this art would require the reading of more than fifty volumes. The 

 remedy for this evil would be an initiative, on the part of the pupils, 

 which would lead them to read outside of the lessons of the master; 

 but, unhappily, this initiative is not encouraged. Grammar, themes, 

 memorized lessons, and translations with the dictionary, are too dis- 

 couraging, and do not dispose to voluntary effort. 



One of the worst evils of the university system is, that not a step 

 can be taken without a master. In place of exercising the pupils in 

 the imitation of good models, which would in part dispense with his 

 aid, they are pushed in a false direction, where they seek their way 

 painfully, and cannot advance without help ; while the professor dis- 

 courages them by corrections which are renewed without ceasing. 



Self-guidance is the first condition of a reasonable, improvable 

 being. Children should learn at school how to study alone to dis- 

 cover for themselves what they wish to know. In giving them no 

 initiation, in denying them their free-will, we prepare them to resign 

 themselves to the passive part imposed upon the nation by govern- 

 ments that take the initiative in all measures of social interest. We 

 thus form subjects for a tyrant, not citizens of a republic. 



III. Oral Translation. In the beginning, translation is only a 

 means, yet, strange to say, it is the means only that is regarded in the 

 lyceum, without ever thinking of the end to which it conduces. And, 



