470 t)UK LANGUAGE AND THE NATIVE PL'IML. 



of action-lessons. The teacher put a block on the desk, sayi'ng, 

 " I put the block on the desk." She then commanded the 

 children to do the same. She asked what had been done. She 

 made the children correct each other's mistakes in action or 

 explanation. She corrected errors as soon as made. 



All excellent means which I have used successfully is an 

 adaptation of the great enemy word, " Verboten." When an 

 error in using a word or phrase became prevalent, we gave oral 

 and written lessons in which the use of the word or phrase in 

 question was totally or nearly totally prohibited. For example, 

 Standard V had oral composition about a locust, previously 

 studied in nature-study, with the aim of seeing who could use 

 the word " and " the fewest times. In a higher class we pro- 

 hibited the words " too "" and " by " entirely, in compositions, 

 for a whole quarter ; we allowed " and " only twice in a page. 

 There have been gratifying results from a similar prohibition 

 of the present participle in all its uses. 



This device is most excellent in securing ease and flexibility 

 of language. Its use makes the i)upils discover and practise 

 improved forms of expression. 



I pass now to a matter which may offend some persons. 

 I refer to the effect of the extensive use of the Bible in the 

 Sichools for natives. We have heard much of our Bible as a 

 " well of pure English undefiled."' But the plain fact is that 

 it is no such thing as far as natives are concerned. It is a well 

 of archaisms that are to-day errors. Let me be specific. In 

 Psalm 23 is the phrase, " Thou makest me to lie down in green 

 pastures." In contemporary usa^'e the word " to " after make 

 is erroneous. The subjunctive mood is used perhaps four times 

 as much in the Bible as in the best current writing. In the third 

 pers<in singular this creates permanent confusion : many natives 

 form an unbreakable habit of saying, " he have," " he sing." 

 etc.. on all occasions. In current usage the future tense is. 

 " I shall go. you will go. he will go, we shall go," etc. In the 

 Bible, " I will go " is regularly used for the simple future tense, 

 instead of for the expression of detertnination. The use of " thou 

 shall " and " he shall " in frequent commands in the Bible fur- 

 ther muddles matters. The results (^f this antique usage are 

 that hardly one native who finishes Standard VI can use the 

 correct modern forms for the future tense. The use of antique 

 phrases, such as " believe on," and obsolete past tenses such 

 as " bare," " drave," leads to further confusion. The unsyste- 

 matic punctuation of the Bible, the lack of c|UOtation marks, and 

 the overuse of the word " and " are further stumbling-blocks. 



This is not advocacy of the withdrawal of this book of 

 ethics from native schools. I do. however, ask for the use of 

 any one of the many good modern-speech versions. If the 

 Bible be worth using, let us use it in the most advantageous 

 'form. The alleged literary merits of the older versions do not 

 enter into this question. 



,.\ decided waste of time is found in the present forms of 



