164 Literary and Critical Proemium 



•upposiDg education to cease at school, or 

 at college, we look forward to the moment 

 ■when our pupils become their own masters, 

 as that in which the most important branch 

 commences. If they leave us with a dis- 

 criminating judgment, the power of doing 

 and forbearing whatever religion and rea- 

 son shall tell them ought to be done or 

 forborne, and such an extensive and fami- 

 liar acquaintance with elementary learning 

 as shall render the business of acquisition 

 pleasant, we consider our duty performed." 

 Another passage in this short preface is 

 equally entitled to notice and commenda- 

 tion. It refers to that frequent and almost 

 general want ot the habit of self-direction, 

 or practical obedience to the dictates of 

 our convictions, so lamentably conspicuous 

 in the conduct even of the well-informed 

 and reasoning portioji of mankind. 

 " Who reasons wisely, is"not therefore wise : 

 His art in reasoning, not \a acting, lies." 



*' We mainly attribute," says the author, 

 " this defect to the want of early practice 

 in the inestimable science of self-direction. 

 Where much coercion is employed with 

 young persons, they have no chance of ac - 

 quiring this art : so far are their minds from 

 governing their actions, that the former 

 are in a continual state of rebellion against 

 the motives which influence tlie latter. It 

 ought not, then, to be a subject of wonder, 

 that, when those extraneous motives 

 cease to operate, and the actions are left to 

 the control of a power which they have 

 never learnt tlie habit of obeying, anarchy 

 ■bould be the natural and inevitable conse- 

 quence." The chapter '• On the best 

 Method of acquiring Languages,'* is not a 

 whit less worthy of attention. In what is 

 said of the tediousuess and imperfection of 

 the common method we are disposed en- 

 tirely to accord ; the more so, as we are well 

 informed that the subject was regarded in 

 precisely the same point of view by 

 that universally celebrated philologist, the 

 late John Home Tooke, who had practi- 

 cally tried, and successfully demonstrated, 

 the cflicacy of a much shorter and more 

 rational system. Some living examples 

 might also be quoted, even from among 

 those who have ultimately distinguished 

 themselves highly at the universities, of the 

 splendid results of a process, not very un- 

 like that which here is recommended. 

 From the biography, also, of the illustrious 

 dead, the author might very much have 

 enlarged the number of instances he has 

 quoted. In the chapter vhich immedi- 

 ately follows, on the subject of " Elocu- 

 tion," there are also many judicious re- 

 marks ; particularly those, which have re- 

 ference to impediments of speech. The 

 author had already, in this detail of his 

 system of school regulations, (chap. 2.) 

 advanced it as his opinion, " that stammer- 

 ing results altogether from the habit of 

 speaking without an attention to time." 

 And it ii certainly no small commenda- 



[Marcb 1 



tion, that an essential part of the very me- 

 chanism, or regulations, of his whole sys- 

 tem, has an obvious tendency to the cor- 

 rection of this defect. In the following 

 passage he is still more explicit. " It has, 

 we think, been clearly proved by Mr. 

 Thelwall, that the disobedience of the 

 organs to the will of the speaker, (which is 

 the proximate cause of stammering,) pro- 

 ceeds from his neglect of the laws of 

 rhythmus; in other words, from his not 

 speaking with due attention to measure or 

 time. Be this, however, as it may, we 

 have found in practice, that cultivating 

 the ear, with regard to the perception of 

 time in speech, is an excellent means of 

 restoring to the pupil a due control over 

 his organs. But the mere perception of 

 time and rhythmus is not enough, because 

 the exercise of the faculty may be 

 thwarted; and it will be thwarted, by 

 every thing which disturbs the mind, and 

 irritates the temper of the pupil. Health, 

 employment, and order, will be therefore 

 found to be very important auxiliaries in 

 working the cure ; and here, we think, we 

 have some advantages.'' For this assump- 

 tion tliere is certainly some foundation ; 

 and there can be little doubt tliat the 

 System recommended in this very valuable 

 treatise must, at least, have the effect of 

 preventing impediment from originating or 

 diffusing itself in a seminary so regulated, 

 and even of correcting and removing it iu 

 the . less aggravated instances ; though, 

 where stammering or stuttering have be- 

 come seriously obstinate, by long confir- 

 mation and habit, something more may be 

 requisite than this author appears to be 

 aware of, or than can be consistent with 

 the necessary attentions and regulations of 

 any seminary in which the remedy of this 

 calamity is not avowedly made the primary 

 object of tuition. Against one insinuation, 

 or admission, however, of this author, we 

 should be disposed to enter our solemn 

 protest, — namely, that a sort of " sing- 

 song tone is almost inseparable, in its early 

 stages," from a plan of metrical instruction 

 for the remedy of impediment. The natu- 

 ral inflections should, certainly, in all cases 

 of elocutionary tuition, be attended to 

 from the first; for nothing can, in reality, 

 be more opposite, or more inconsistent, 

 than a sing-song tone, and a genuine 

 rhythmical delivery. In another observa- 

 tion, however, the author is perfectly well 

 founded. " Strange as it may appear, it is 

 frequently much more easy to induce the 

 capacity for speaking without stammering, 

 than the inclination. The reconciling 

 power of habit extends even to this ma- 

 lady ; and instances are by no means rare, 

 of persons, who, after becoming able to 

 speak fluently with very slight self-com- 

 mand, have slid again into their former 

 track, apparently from not feeUng the im- 

 portance of the acquisition which thej 



had 



