CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



the guide to the child, he should lead him on as if 

 on a voyage of discovery. Here the teacher must 

 hold firmly to the principle, always to pass from the 

 known to the unknown ; and the interest is excited 

 and increased by relating the remarkable incidents 

 in the history of the place, and tracing the char- 

 acter of the place, so far as it can be done, to its 

 physical features. 



When the pupil advances in his studies, he has 

 then to learn foreign languages. Various methods 

 have been proposed for facilitating the learning of 

 these languages. Some strongly approve of the 

 conversational method, the teacher using as much 

 as possible the foreign language, and expecting 

 the child to imitate. Some have advocated 

 interlinear translations which the pupil carefully 

 studies, forming by degrees a grammar of the 

 language for himself. Others have argued that, 

 as the sentence is the unity in language, the 

 pupil should always have a sentence before him, 

 and should not be asked to learn words by them- 

 selves, for these have not their full meaning except 

 when they are in sentences. There is a certain 

 amount of truth in all these proposals, and it is 

 also true that one method may be good for one 

 purpose, and another good for another. We must 

 ask ourselves for what purpose it is intended the 

 language should be learned. If the language is 

 to be spoken, then conversation is the method ; 

 if it is to be read, then books must be read. And 

 experience shews that people may be able to 

 speak well and yet not read a foreign language, 

 and vice versd. In the case of the ancient lan- 

 guages, the main object is to read the books written 

 in them, and to gain through the books the human 

 culture that they can supply. It is the words and 

 forms used in literature, and not the words and 

 forms of conversation, which are to be acquired. 

 The pupil must therefore know the grammar 

 well ; but while learning the grammar, he should 

 be reading short sentences. The sentence is the 

 only proper illustration of the rule, and, as far as 

 possible, the pupil should be made to discover the 

 rule from the examples. Comparative philology 

 is of great help in teaching the grammar, and in 

 imparting to it educative power. Thus the word 

 amabitur signifies 'he will be loved.' Such a 

 form is a pure mystery to a child, and leaves his 

 mind unexcited. But when the pupil learns that the 

 r means himself, that / means he, that bi implies 

 futurity, and that the stem ama means love, he 

 sees that the Latins thought differently from him- 

 self, that the word really means ' he will get him- 

 self loved,' and that amidst the difference there is 

 much that is in harmony with his own way of 

 thinking. In teaching any ancient language, the 

 instructor must keep continually before him the 

 main aim of his work, the culture of the mind. In 

 all cases where the notions of the ancients do not 

 coincide with the notions of the moderns, he will 

 take care to mark the difference. But it is when 

 the pupil has made some progress that the in- 

 structor's task demands special care. When he 

 reads an ancient writer with his pupil, he must 

 first observe whether the pupil thoroughly under- 

 stands the constructions of the passage, then 

 whether he has caught the thought of the ancient 

 writer, then whether he understands all the allu- 

 sions in it, and then whether he sees the drift of 

 the particular passage in connection with the 

 whole work. 



574 



To give firmness to the pupil's knowledge of 

 the language, translation from English into the 

 I ancient language is of great service. But it is not 

 | of use for any other purpose. It is absurd to 

 expect that any young person can write in any 

 ancient language with elegance and grace. Let 

 him do his best, and his mode of thought will still 

 be modern. The very greatest scholars have only 

 had moderate success in this accomplishment, and 

 the best of them threw aside the idea that they could 

 write as ancient Latin writers did, and in their use 

 of Latin modernised it, and adapted it boldly to 

 ideas unknown to the ancients. Still less is it to 

 be expected that young persons are to write Greek 

 and Latin verses like the ancients. Such exer- 

 cises are apt to deaden the sense of the difference 

 which exists between them and the ancient verses, 

 and they are an enormous waste of time. 



In our sketch of ideal education, we placed 

 Greek before Latin. This unquestionably is the 

 natural order. Some able scholars and educa- 

 tionists have urged that a change should be made 

 in our present system in this respect Their 

 arguments seem to us conclusive. But they go 

 on the supposition that the matter is always to 

 have greater prominence than the form. They 

 think that it is utterly unimportant for a pupil to 

 remember all the minutiae of a foreign language 

 so as to write it accurately, and that it is enough 

 if a pupil has such a knowledge of it that he 

 can grasp the meaning. 



At the time that the pupil is reading the books 

 in ancient languages, he should be gradually 

 forming an idea of the ancient life; he should 

 know well the history of the ancient people, and 

 he should study their institutions. And, as far as 

 possible, real objects of antiquity, photographs of 

 places, casts of bas-reliefs, and similar works of 

 art, should be used to help him to realise antiquity. 



During the whole period of instruction, express 

 provision should be made for the health of the 

 pupil. It would be out of place here to go into 

 the various systems of gymnastics that have been 

 proposed ; but some kind of definite exercise 

 should be prescribed. And wherever circum- 

 stances permit, the pupil should be induced to 

 take part in the ordinary games of boys, and to 

 learn to ride and swim. He should also be 

 taught music, vocal and instrumental. It is an 

 art that is healthful in itself, that refines the 

 mind, that fills up a disengaged hour, and that 

 gives pleasure to others. When taught scientifi- 

 cally, it has also considerable educative power, 

 calling into exercise much energy of soul 



Such is a general outline of what the education 

 of a child might be. But this education can rarely 

 be fully carried out. Very rarely is the effort 

 made to carry it out And difficulties present 

 themselves to the full realisation. These diffi- 

 culties we see when we deal with the organisation 

 requisite to carry out the instruction. 



The first difficulty is, that there are only 

 comparatively few children who are privileged to 

 receive a course of instruction extending from 

 their earliest years to the age of twenty-two or 

 twenty-three. With most, the period of instruc- 

 tion must cease about the thirteenth or fourteenth 

 year, and, unfortunately, very many do not devote 

 even so short a period as this. Those who receive 

 this limited instruction are also pressed by an 



