REASON IN THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE. 475 



still worse, it is translation word by word. This occupation of the 

 mind with words is bad in many respects : it does not appeal to the 

 judgment of the pupil, who, in ignorance of the subject, translates 

 them at a venture ; it does not permit him directly to associate the 

 idea with the word of a foreign language ; it hinders the understand- 

 ing of the text ; for, the words sought by the aid of the dictionary 

 and in the order of the foreign text being found by him in a disorder 

 to which he is not accustomed, they do not present a clear and definite 

 meaning. On the other hand, no two languages ever correspond word 

 for word. In each there are a great number of phrases with no equiv- 

 alents in the other, and, consequently, ideas that cannot be rendered 

 into it. Hence it is impossible always to translate faithfully. 



Translation with a dictionary, which substitutes the fingers for the 

 intelligence, and, scorning reason, proceeds from the sign to the idea, 

 rests on the false principle of the identity of signification in the cor- 

 responding words of two languages. Moreover, by its slowness, by 

 the multiplicity of its interpretations, and the tediousness inseparable 

 from its use, it repels beginners and retards their progress. Besides, 

 to a child little versed in his own language, words translated one by 

 one present but a vague meaning, or none at all. The text, which 

 alone can determine it, he does not understand. Explain the unknown 

 by the unknown ; such is the vicious circle in which the dictionary 

 places him. 



It is, in part, to this illogical, repelling process that we must, in 

 the majority of cases, attribute the failure of linguistic study. Those 

 who say that the use of the dictionary impresses the words on the 

 memory mistake strangely. They forget that this way of finding the 

 meaning is not the fruit of reflection, and, consequently, leaves no 

 traces in the mind. It is a simple acceptance of another's word, with 

 the further uncertainty arising from the diverse interpretations of each 

 word. A few years after leaving the lyceum, what do we know of the 

 Latin and Greek learned with the dictionary ? With this pretended 

 auxiliary, observation and judgment are entirely inactive. The stu- 

 dent does not choose between different interpretations, for, not know- 

 ing the thought of the author, he cannot know what would render it 

 most faithfullv. 



Indirect reading or oral translation is insufficient, at all stages of 

 advancement, to give a neat and precise idea of the thought of the 

 writer, or appreciation of the literary value of a work. Still less, by 

 its means, could the scholar study science with profit. The search 

 for expressions corresponding to those of the original prevents the 

 mind from following the logical connection of ideas, and from aban- 

 doning itself to the meditation which such serious subjects require. 

 It is only in direct reading that the attention is left free from foreign 

 considerations, and can enter fully into the thought of the author. 



All the qualities and graces of style, which are the principal merit 



