330 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



native tongue we know the precise sense of words only by the phrases 

 in which they occur ; taken separately, they have no determined 

 meaning. A phrase cannot be translated unless it is comprehended, 

 and, to secure this comprehension, we make the translation for the 

 student by employing words to which he attaches no precise idea ! 

 How could the mind develop under such a muddle of a system ? 



The Art of speaking a Foreign Language in Public Schools. 

 Not having determined in a precise manner the relative importance 

 of the objects proposed in learning a language, the means are con- 

 founded with the end. To persevere a long time in translation, 

 whether to understand the language, to speak it, or to write it, is to 

 form a habit which excludes the possibility of thinking in that lan- 

 guage, and retaining the phraseology for use in conversation. 



In the absence of classification, and of principles known to be in 

 harmony with the constitution of man and the nature of language, 

 the true objects of study are forgotten, and the order which facilitates 

 acquisition is reversed. Pedagogy based on a knowledge of prin- 

 ciples is unhappily a science little known, and generally ignored by 

 teachers and professors. 



The natural application of these principles to the acquisition of 

 our native language offers us an infallible guide and simple processes 

 of marvelous efficacy. By what perversity or blindness are we kept 

 from, the route traced for us by Nature ? Why not avail ourselves 

 of those powerful instincts, curiosity and imitation especial sources 

 of progress in the acquisition of language ? Providence has given 

 them to man to accomplish his destiny. It is an aberration of the 

 human mind, it is almost an impiety, to reject them and seek other 

 means for learning a second language. 



Most authors of new methods make, it is true, the pretense of fol- 

 lowing Nature in their processes ; but this is an illusion. Besides, 

 they disagree among themselves, and consequently cannot all be true. 

 Truth is one. There are not two ways of imitating Nature in at- 

 taining a particular end. All these methods and those of the uni- 

 versity have this in common, that, in direct opposition to the laws of 

 our organization, and the nature of language, they pretend to teach 

 the speaking and writing of a foreign language, without depending 

 upon reading and listening without even making the least allusion 

 to the necessity of thinking in that language. While public instruc- 

 tion perseveres in this false way, no young man will speak English or 

 German on leaving college. He might be able, perhaps, in uncon- 

 nected conversation, to pronounce some commonplace phrases, but he 

 will not converse in the true meaning of the word. 



The minister wishes that, after a little time, the classes should talk 

 with their teacher in English and German ; but what conversation can 

 there be with professors, mostly foreigners, while the scholars are yet 

 in the rudiments ? The little they will have to say, which always 



