Foreign Literature and Science. 183^ 



rin was opened in the beginning of June. In the course 

 of the first week, four divisions, composed of seven or eight 

 boys, were successively formed and exercised upon the 

 new system. The first division, that is to say, the most 

 advanced pupils, had been engaged only six weeks, from 

 which must be deducted Sundays and holidays, which re- 

 duces the time to thirty-five days, during which they were 

 engaged in study. In this short space of time the pupils of 

 the first division, who before knew not a word of Latin, 

 had learned, 1st. the twenty-six tables of Latin declina- 

 tions, regular and irregular, so as to repeat, without the 

 least confusion, any of the cases, separately or collectively, 

 and in any order which might be pointed out. 2d. The 

 signification of a thousand Latin substantives, namely, all 

 those which are found in the text of Epitome historice sacra. 

 They give not only the French which agrees with these 

 words, but also the Latin when the French is named to 

 them, and likewise the proper inflections of three thousand 

 Latin radicals in either of the numbers named to them. 

 3d. These children knew in the same manner more than 

 200 Latin adjectives, to which they could give the substan- 

 tive termination and declension, when the adjective was 

 derived from a substantive, or the adverbial termination, 

 when they were susceptible of it. 



The pupils of the other divisions followed very closely 

 those of the one we have just spoken of. All replied with 

 facility to the questions put to them upon the radicals and 

 declensions, upon the formations of cases, genders and 

 numbers ; on the value of the Latin accent, the orthogra- 

 phy of the two languages, &c. 



We remarked also among these pupils that emulation and 

 satisfaction which the old method regards as, incompatible 

 with the study of the dead languages. The ardor of these 

 children is such, that they are obliged to moderate it, and 

 there is no question that after four months' fpplication they 

 will be able to explain the Epitome historice sacrce — a result 

 to which M. Ordinaire himself had allotted at least eight 

 months. 



There is no father of a family, no member of the univer- 

 sity, who attended these exercises, that did not unite his 

 thanks to those of the ^'' Society for Elementary Instruction,'''^ 

 at its last session, to the respectable Rector of Besangon. 



Rev. Ency. for July, 1821. 



