JULY — SEPT. 1857.] The Studtj of Limig Languages. 227 
a good opinion of himself that he attributes it entirely to the stu- 
pidity of the Native. In reality he has been giving the whole of 
his attention to matters that are of little or no use to him, while 
he has almost entirely neglected those that are essential. 
This brings us to the fifth principle, that the language must he 
learnt by the ear and not bt^ the eye. This is one of the great funda- 
mental mistakes made almost universally in studying living langua- 
ges : the student never for a moment studies without seeing the 
words, though he knovvs thal^his whole object is to recognize them 
by his ear, without any assistance from the eye. A man might just 
as well attempt ^ train himself for a walking journey by sitting 
down for a year an^ turning a winch with his arms, or try to 
strengthen his limbs by moving for 6 months on crutches. Every 
body knows the consequence of this system, but every body pursues 
it. From the first the ear must be the main medium of receiving 
instruction and though the eye may be used a little at first with 
some advantage just to help the memory, yet after a little time the 
ear should be employed alone in conversation. 
A man may consider he has laid a sound foundation when he 
has made the following acquisitions. 
1st. The perfectly accurate pronunciation and thoroughly fami- 
liar knowledge of a certain number of the most generally used 
words, however small, so that they are to him exactly as words of 
his own language, that is, that he has not to search about in his 
memory for them when he wants them, but that they will come of 
themselves, and these pronounced so that a Native cannot but re- 
cognize them. 
2nd. The power of putting these together in a good number 
of real bona fide Native expressions, however short, without any 
eff'ort, expressions which he can confidently use, because he knows 
they are real, as he actually learnt them from a Native, and not 
ones that he has invented and which consequently may 9y may not 
convey the meaning he intended or any meaning. One will often 
hear a Native who has learnt English at a school use a sentence 
which is unexceptionable as to grammar, &c., but which is objec- 
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