on Self- education. 537 



them, and buy Lennie's Grammar and Key and Walker's 

 Pronouncing Dictionary, and give a part of your after-hours 

 to the studying of them ; say an hour at night, less or more, 

 according to circumstances ; and, if you have any taste or in- 

 clination to improve, they will be found much more beneficial, 

 and afford more real satisfaction, than any time-passing 

 amusement whatever. A grown-up person, not past the 

 meridian of life, of no great grasp of mind, with a common 

 share of common sense, and the Key for a teacher, may 

 attain a tolerable knowledge of the language in less time than 

 it takes to grow a pine-apple. However, he must not expect 

 to be able to communicate his ideas in such " laconic elo- 

 quence," and with so much perspicuity and freedom from 

 ambiguity, as those with A. M., &c., attached to their names, 

 who have, as it were, served a time to learning languages. 



But to return : you will begin at the beginning of the 

 Grajiwiar, and conunit to memory all the larger print ; read 

 the notes carefully, and when you are at a loss turn to the 

 respective place of the Key. You will find no difficulty until 

 you come to the verbs, which are the driest part of the con- 

 cern, and, like vulgar fractions, easily learned and soon for- 

 gotten : nevertheless, they ought to be learned and under- 

 stood, otherwise you will find them plaguy things when you 

 get to syntax, because they must agree with their neighbours, 

 &c. I think myself better at pruning, grafting, or measuring a 

 tree than at conjugating verbs, because I learned, or rather 

 began to learn, the former seven years before the latter. As 

 pronunciation is a part of grammar, it should be studied 

 along with it. Walker's ProJioimcing Dictionary, if not the 

 best, is one of the best ; and although its " principles " are 

 too long to be got by heart, they should be often perused, 

 the doing of which will enable you to remember some of the 

 shorter rules, as, " k is always silent in the same syllable 

 before w," &c. The key, or sounds of the vowels, which are 

 along the top of each page, should be committed to memory, 

 not forgetting to pay particular attention to the rules for 

 accentuation, and to those to be observed by the people who 

 take for their emblem the thistle, the shamrock, and even the 

 rose. 



Trifling as this subject may appear to some, the greatest 

 of men have learned it, and are guided by its rules ; and 

 without it we cannot distinguish good from bad phrases, nor 

 proper from improper pronunciation. Whatever we profess 

 to know, and however well bred we may wish to be, if we 

 cannot express ourselves in any better terms than an illiterate 

 labourer or stable-boy, we are liable to be misunderstood, 



