184 



naturally applied to their parents, and their food; and thus in all 

 languages, the words for father and mother, as well as those for 

 food,* commence with ba, pa, fa, va, or ma, followed, in the former 

 case, by *' ter," '* der," " ther," or *' dre," the different forms of the 

 termination denoting an agent. 



The same process of smalysis might be applied to the words denoting 

 other natural relations, such as brother, sister, daughter. 



Though much more might be said on this all-embracing subject, the 

 limits usually assigned to these papers, oblige me to confine myself to a 

 few brief remarks on the value of philolog)% as applied to the purposes 

 of education. 



In the teaching of ancient and modern languages, the latter more 

 especially, many great fundamental rules may be given to the pupil, as 

 well as a continuous comparison of, and runuing commentarj^ on, the 

 mutual relations of words and phrases, in the classical and other 

 languages,! carried on by the teacher, tending to smooth, enliven, and 

 diversify the usual dreary sameness of the scholar's path, opening to 

 him many fresh-flowing springs of knowledge, enticing him to exercise 

 thought and research on his own behalf, and giving him an ever- 

 increasing insight into the construction of language in general. 



In the acquisition of French, for instance, when a boy once knows and 

 comprehends a few prevalent rules, such as the general omission of the 

 middle consonant in words formed from the Latin,^ the frequent change 

 of I into u, the omission of the s and substitution of an initial e, he has 

 at once a key to the meaning and formation of hundreds of words, which 

 no common vocabular}^ can give him ; and moreover, by this mode of 

 teaching, he insensibly keeps up his know^ledge of Latin, whUe learning 



• Compare "pa-p," "pa-sco," " pa -ms," "pa-bulum," Troifirfv, Traaaadai, WJanj-ma, 

 man-na, fia-l^a. 



"f An admirable example of the manuer in wliich philology may facilitate the process of 

 acquiring some of the most difficult parts of a language, may be found in the French 

 numerals, where the suffix ze, in the compound numbers, is but another form of the German 

 zehn and the Latin de-cem. 



on-jie.=zl-{-lO ; dou-ze=z2-\-l ; trei-re=drpi.zehii=:3-j-10 ; and so on. 



t By observing the rule of the omission of the middle consonant, a boy can at once obtain 

 pere from pa(t)er, reine from re(g)ina, maitre from ma(g)ister, mais from ma(g)i8, rire from 

 ri(d)ere, dire from di(c)ere, and hundreds of other words. By substituting u for / he gets 

 sanver from salvare, autre from alter, peau from pellis ; and also, by recollecting that the 

 Latin c is equivalent to the French ch, chaiul from calidus, and cliauve fr>»m calvus. Again, 

 by bearing in mind the interchange between o and ui, he can f nn nuit from nox, nuire 

 from no(c)ere, huit from octo, huile from oleum, and huitre from ostreum. By placing e in 

 the stead of an initial s, he has etude from studium, ecole from schola. epais from spissus; 

 by putting ch or g in the place of b, p, he has approcher from ad-propriare, roche from 

 rapes, rouge from ruber. 



