no THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



pear to be agreed that nothing teaches English grammar so easily, or 

 bo well, as Latin grammar ; and next to that they would place the 

 teaching of some other foreign grammar, such as French." Mr. Clark, 

 who carries all the favorite arguments for classics to such a height 

 that he may be suspected of a covert design to make them ridiculous, 

 alleges that " a youth who has mastered the Latin grammar, and 

 learned to apply its rules, speaks and writes English without a fault, 

 albeit innocent of Lindley Murray." 



Is this argument verified by experience ? On this point I might ap- 

 peal to the individual reader. But we have definite testimony. We have 

 the evidence of Mr. Dasent, who " has had considerable experience as an 

 examiner " for military and civil service appointments. So far from cer- 

 tifying that Latin scholars " speak and write English without a fault," 

 Mr. Dasent says : " I have known young men who write very good 

 Latin prose, indeed, and very good Latin verse. I know what good 

 Latin prose and Latin verse are, and I have known the same young men 

 utterly incapable of writing a letter in their own language, or a decent 

 essay." And again, " I think I know good writing when I see it, and 

 I must say that some, who had great classical reputation, have been the 

 worst English writers I have known. I have observed this over and 

 over again. I have known men recommended solely in consequence of 

 their university reputation, and I have found that they have been signal 

 failures in English writing splendid scholars, but utterly incaj^able 

 of expressing themselves in their own tongue. They have no choice 

 of words, and very often have a heavy, cumbrous way of expressing 

 themselves." What could be stronger than this? Coming as it does 

 from one of the few men qualified by experience to pronounce an opin- 

 ion, this evidence is not to be lightly set aside. 



Does the argument in question stand the test of reason ? It is a 

 common rejoinder to whatever is said against the existing system of 

 education, that educational results are impalpable. Now, this is not 

 one of the impalpable cases : a certain definite acquisition, the com- 

 mand of the literary usages of our language, is said to be conferred ; 

 the alleged possessors are tried and found wanting. However, for fear 

 the evidence should not be considered wide enough, and the report of 

 the Commissioners be adduced as counter-evidence, let us take the only 

 other way of determining the point let us apply the test of reason. 

 We shall find that Latin grammar, so far from being the only means 

 of teaching English grammar thoroughly, teaches hardly any English 

 grammar. And not only so : what little English grammar it does 

 teach indirectly, had better be taught directly. 



How much English grammar is acquired through Latin grammar ? 

 The names of the parts of speech, and nothing else. Latin agrees with 

 English in employing similar parts of speech. A Latin sentence, like 

 an English sentence, is made up of nouns, adjectives, verbs, conjunc- 

 tions, etc. Now, a boy that understands what a noun is, or an acljec- 



