148 on teaching the Englifb language. May 30. 
Such in general are the outlines of this very natural and 
judicious mode of instructing youth i in the practice of the 
Englifh language*, which, if properly carried into effect, 
cannot fail to prove highly beneficial to the youth of this 
country’; and we sincerely wifi the ingenious author 
all the succefs that its superior merit claims, The plan 
meets with our warmest approbation, chiefly from this cir- 
cumstance, that the author seems to confine himself entire- 
ly to the efsentials of good composition, and'to disregard 
all those flimsy, affected, and meretricious ornaments of 
stile, which, under the name of elocution, and fine compo- 
sition, have so long turned the heads of our young men, 
those especially who were meant for the bar, and which 
has rendered them long the pests of society, and the deri- 
sion of men of sense. Our author seems well aware, that 
before an orator can speak with commanding power, his 
own ideas must be clear, and his understanding cultivated. 
Without these first and most efsential requisites, an at- 
tempt at energy is only bombast ; and fine composition 
only a bundle of disgusting affectation. 
_. We fhall beg leave to offer one hint tending to improve 
this plan, which, if we judge aright, will coincide very 
much with the author’s own ideas. Instead of desiring 
the pupils, in their exercises, to give from memory, as 
nearly as they can, the words of the author, we fhould 
think it better to require them to give the thoughts of the 
author as nearly as they could, but entirely in their 
own words. For this purpose let a pafsage of some 
book, to which they could not have accefs, be read 
* I with here to make a distinction between the mere teaching Englifh?” 
that is merely teaching children to-read Englith, and the instructing youth 
jn the practice of Englifh language. The writer of this efsay does not 
propose to teach the first; and these observations are by no means intend- 
ed to affect those who teach reading only; many ef them haye great mezit 
in that important and laborious employment, 
