Dec. 29, 1882.] 



KNO\VLEDGE 



497 



fulcrum (the neck), and the pover (the muscles of the back 

 of the neck) is situated on the opposite side of the fulcrum 

 from the weight. Again, if we stand on tip-toe, we use a lever 

 of the second order. Here, the uri;/ht (i.e., the body or leg) is 

 situated between the/>o;'v'r(the calf-muscles) andthe/ulcrxm 

 (the toes). Or when we raise our hand to our mouth in 

 the act of eating, or of feeding ourselves, when the shoulder 

 is fixed, we use a lever of the third order. For in the 

 latter case, the vei.j/it (the hand and its contents) is placed 

 at one extremity, the fulcrum (the eVxjw) at the other, 

 whilst the power (the biceps muscle) acts between the 

 weight and the fulcrum. 



LEARMNG LAl^GUAGES. 



(^Continued from page 465.) 

 HAMILTON'S METHOD. 



WE have been asked by several correspondents to quote 

 what Sydney Smith has said on the Hamiltonian 

 method, before gi^Tng our own experience with it. His 

 essay (written fifty-six years ago) is too long to be given 

 in full ; but the following passages will meet our readers' 



" One of the first principles of Mr. Hamilton is to intro- 

 duce very strict literal, interlinear translations, as aids to 

 lexicons and dictionaries, and to make so much use of them 

 that the dictionary or lexicon will lie for a long time 

 little required. We will suppose the language to be the 

 Italian, and the book selected to be the Gospel of St. John. 

 Of this Gospel Mr. Hamilton has published a key, of which 

 the following is an extract : — 



, , Nel principio era il Yerbo, e il Verbo era 

 III the beginning was the Word, and the Word was 

 appresso Dio, e il Verbo era Dio. 

 near to God, and the Word was God. 



, .J Questo era nel principio appresso Dio. 

 This v:as in the beginning -near to God. 



, o Per mezzo di lui tutte le cose furon fatte : e 



■ By means of ]dm all the things were made: and 

 senza di lui nulla fu fatto di cio, che 6 stata 



vnthont of him nothing was made of that, of u:hich is been 



fatto. 



7)iade. 



, , In lui era la vita, e la vita era la luce degli 



■ In him was the life, and the life ivas the light of the 

 uomini : 



m^n : 



E la luce splende tra le tenebre, e le 

 And the light shines among the durhiess, and the 

 tenebre hanno non ammessa la. 

 darkne.ises have not admitted her. 



, g Yi fu un uomo mandate da Dio che nomava 



■ There was a num sent by God who did name 

 si Giovanni. 



himself John. 



, r. Questi venne qual tcstimonc, aflhi di rendcro 



'■ 2'his came like as witness, in order of to render 



testimonianza alia luce, onde per mezza di lui tutti 



testimony to the light, ivlience by meaii of him all 



credessero.' 



might believe.' 



5. 



" In this way Mr. Hamilton contends (and appears to us 

 to contend justly), that the language may be acquired with 

 much greater ease and despatch than by the ancient 

 method of beginning with grammar and proceeding with 

 the dictionary. We wiU presume at present, that the only 

 object is to read, not to write or speak Italian, and that 

 the pupil instructs himself from the Key without a master, 

 and is not taught in a class. We wish to compare the 

 plan of finding the English word ia such a literal transla- 

 tion, to that of finding it in dictionaries— and the method 

 of ending with grammar, or of taking the grammar at an 

 advanced period of knowledge in the language, rather 

 than at the beginning. Every one will admit, that 

 of all the disgusting labours of life, the labour of 

 lexicon and dictionary is the most intolerable. Nor 

 is there a greater object of compassion than a fine boy, 

 full of animal spirits, set down in a bright sunny day, with 

 a heap of unlcnown words before him to be turned into 

 English, before supper, by the help of a ponderous dic- 

 tionary alone. The object in looking into a dictionary can 

 only be to exchange an unknown sound for one that is 

 known. Now, it seems indisputable, that the sooner this 

 exchange is made the better. The greater the numljcr of 

 such exchanges which can be made in a given time, the 

 gi-eater is the progress, the more abundant the oo/xa 

 rerhorum obtained by the scholar. Would it not be of 

 advantage if the dictionary at once opened at the required 

 page, and if a self-moving index at once pointed to the 

 requisite word '': Is any advantage gained to the world by the 

 time employed first in finduig the letter P, and then in finding 

 the three guiding letters P R I ? This appears to us to be 

 pure loss of time, justifiable only if it be inevitable ; and even 

 after this is done, what an infinite multitude of difficulties 

 are heaped at once upon the wretched Vieginner ! Instead 

 of being reserved for his greater skill and maturity in the 

 language, he must employ himself in discovering in which 

 of many senses which his dictionary presents, the word is to 

 be used ; in considering the case of the substantive, and the 

 syntaxical arrangement in which it is to be placed, and the 

 relation it liears to other words. The loss of time in the 

 merely mechanical part of the old plan is immense. We 

 doubt very much if an average boy, between ten and four- 

 teen, will look out or find more than sixty words in an hour ; 

 we say nothing at present of the time employed in think- 

 ing of the meaning of each word when he has found it, 

 but of the mere naked discovery of the word in the lexicon 

 or dictionary. It must lie rembercd, we say an average 



boy not what Master Evans, the show boy, can do, nor 



what Master ISIacarthy, the boy who is whipt every day, 

 can do, but some boy "between Macarthy and Evans ; and 

 not what this medium boy can do, while his mastigophoi-ous 

 superior is frowning over him, but what he actually does, 

 when left in the midst of noisy boys, and with a recollec- 

 tion that, by sending to the neighbouring shop, ho can 

 obtain any quantity of unripe gooseberries upon credit 

 Now, if this statement V)e true, and if tliere are 10,000 words 

 in the Gospel of St John, here arc 160 hours employed in 

 the mere digital process of turning over leaves ! But, in much 

 less time than this, any boy of average quickness might 

 learn, by the Hamiltonian method, to construe the whole 

 four Gospels, with the greatest accuracy, and the most 

 scrupulous correctness. The interlinral translation of 

 course spares the trouble and time of this mechanical 

 labour. Immediately under tlie Italian word is placed the 

 English word. The unknown sound therefore is instanth/ 

 exchanged for one that is known. The labour here spared 

 is of the most irksome nature : and it is spared at a time 

 of life the most averse to such labour ; and so painful is 

 this labour to many boys, that it forms an insuperable 



