844 PROCEEDINGS OP SECTION I. 



effectual way of learning to write reaj Latin prose than the 

 popular method of starting with what is by courtesy called 

 Latin prose at a time when the learner has read practically no 

 Latin at all. 



A similar method with some modifications may be applied 

 to private study, though undoubtedly a language is better 

 learned under a good teacher. Instead of wading through 

 a grammar book and exercises, the student should start, if 

 ])Ossil )le, with an edition of an easy author which contains a 

 word-for-word translation and every word fully parsed — e.g., 

 for Greek and Latin the Analytical Classical Seizes, for 

 Hebrew Bagsters Student's Manual, and for Sanskrit the 

 Nalopakhydnam (Clarendon Press), For languages where 

 there are no such series to be had, I would recommend the 

 student to start with the Gospels, which are jiublished in over 

 250 languages by the Bible Society, The process of 

 retranslation and learning by heart could still be pursued, and, 

 as time goes on, the whole of the grammar may be gradually 

 acquired pari passu with the reading. The progress made 

 under this method will be found to be far more rapid and 

 permanent, to say nothing of the process being infinitely more 

 interesting, than under the grammatical method. 



I must express my firm conviction that children taught 

 under the inductive system sketched above would acquire far 

 more real knoAvledge of a new language in two years than 

 ihey acquire in six years under the current grammatical 

 system. The process of learning is interesting and delightful 

 throughout ; it is the most natural method, since it is far 

 more in analogy with the process by which we acquire our 

 mother-tongue, and knowledge of the language precedes 

 analysis of the language ; moreover, it stimulates the thought 

 of the learner throughout far more than the grammatical 

 method. Lastly, this method would be especially valuable in 

 the case of the large class of boys and girls leaving school 

 about 16. Under judicious teaching they would at any rate 

 be able to carry Avith them as a permanent possession some 

 of the noblest and most beautiful passages in the language 

 they have been studying. 



Objections may, perhaps, be urged by those who have 

 had no practical experience of the inductive system — (1) It 

 may be urged that it requires better teachers than the 

 majority of those we have at present. I quite agree, and 

 consider this one of its main advantages. (2) It may be 

 said it requii'es to be tested by experience. The inductive 



