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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VIII . No. 203 



cannot be learned in this way. The writer pre- 

 viously quoted makes it a point that those who 

 study grammar do nothing else. But surely no 

 one contends that one can converse in French by 

 knowing the rules for the use of, for instance, the 

 demonstrative pronouns. What one does main- 

 tain, however, is, that, knowing the rules of 

 grammar, one can converse correctly. You do 

 not find, again, in a grammar, however complete 

 it may be, the aesthetics of words ; neither, if you 

 are wise, do you seek for it there. The same 

 prominent advocate of the natural method exclaims 

 warmly, "I defy any teacher to make us realize 

 these shades, this use sodelicateof the subjunctive, 

 from the grammars : they know nothing of the 

 niceties of language." As if for a moment it were 

 a question of doubt ! To make grammar an end, 

 or, to put it differently, to make a language an 

 affair of rules and phrases, is an error, as every 

 teacher of even moderate intelligence will admit. 

 To use grammar in its proper way, as an aux- 

 iliary, as an aid to classify and formulate facts 

 necessary to be known, is an abbreviation of labor 

 that neither a teacher nor a learner can afford to 

 despise. By what has been said it is not meant 

 that a person shall go about with a grammar un- 

 der his arm to which he might refer, or that he 

 should always be ready with his rules by para- 

 graph and number. Grammar is thoroughly learned 

 only when it can be applied accurately and 

 with apparent intuitiveness in the course of con- 

 versation or of writing ; and when it can be thus 

 applied in the case of a modern language, that is 

 usually studied for itself rather than for the men- 

 tal discipline that its study involves, then its pur- 

 pose has clearly been fulfilled. It matters little 

 to one if, having acquired a thorough speaking 

 knowledge of German, he is unable to assign his 

 nouns to their proper classes of declension. In 

 reality, he no more consciously assigns them at 

 all. His knowledge of the inflectional processes 

 of the language has been thoroughly digested and 

 assimilated. The learner has, nevertheless, saved 

 time by the original categorization. As he has 

 had, in the process of learning, a well-known rule 

 of grammar at hand to authorize a form of ex- 

 pression, confidence, too, has been given him as 

 to the reality of his knowledge, instead of a feel- 

 ing of uncertainty as to whether he is right or 

 wrong ; and his knowledge is in every way bet- 

 ter founded and more lasting. There is still an- 

 other point to be noticed connected with this 

 knowledge, or want of knowledge, of grammar. 

 Two languages co-existing corrupt each other. 

 It is inevitable that when two languages are 

 spoken side by side, except perhaps in that facile 

 period of imitation in early childhood, one should 



influence the other. It depends upon circum- 

 stances which one is swayed the more, or, in- 

 deed, the process may be interactive. One has 

 only to look for an illustration of this to the de- 

 generacy of the German language as spoken by 

 many Germans in America. It will be found, 

 too, that those persons who are most influenced 

 in this way are those who are most deficient in a 

 knowledge of the constructive principles of their 

 own language. If a foreign language is not a 

 thing of constant daily habit, a learner will drift 

 into error from precisely similar causes. Here, 

 again, the rules of grammar, thoroughly learned, 

 afford the only safe anchorage ; and an early 

 knowledge of them will conserve both time and 

 labor. 



In regard to the disuse of the dictionary by the 

 advocates of the natural method, a word also 

 may be said. By constant iteration on the part 

 of the teacher, and endless repetition on the part 

 of the pupil, a foreign vocabulary may unques- 

 tionably be acquired, but the result is by no 

 means commensurate with the time or the enei'gy 

 expended. The only way to get a vocabulary is 

 to learn it, whether by a series of repeated im- 

 pressions extended over an indefinite time, or by 

 a decisive exercise of memory that once for all 

 grasps a classification. There is, it is to be will- 

 ingly conceded, nothing quite so stupid or dis- 

 couraging as to look out, at an early stage of the 

 study of a language, every other word of a pas- 

 sage, in the dictionary. This difficulty may be 

 obviated by furnishing a beginner's text with a 

 special vocabulary, which, however, should be 

 learned. It is an easy matter, as the study pro- 

 gresses, to select texts that shall only gradually in- 

 crease in difficulty, and so keep pace with a continu- 

 ally widening vocabulary. There is, nevertheless, a 

 distinct advantage to be gained from consulting 

 the dictionary. It is an error, even in the case of 

 a special idiom, to teach a word solely as the mem- 

 ber of a phrase, or a few phrases, and not as a 

 real entity that may be equally well used in other 

 places. The dictionary here furnishes the proper 

 corrective ; and, as I have elsewhere written, the 

 student will, by consulting it, "not merely exer- 

 cise his faculty of discrimination in selecting, 

 from among those nearly synonymous, the cor- 

 rect meaning demanded by the context, but he 

 will unconsciously, at the same time, widen his 

 vocabulary and his knowledge of the capabilities 

 of the language." 



As for the boasted advantage of the natural 

 method, that instead of the intellectual barrenness 

 produced by the use of grammar and dictionary it 

 awakens interest by an immediate exchange of 

 ideas, it is difficult to see what mental impetus 



