JULY — SEPT. 1857.] The Study of Liti7ig Languages, 239 
ideas, and what points are likely to be difficulties to them. If 
the first two sets of words had ten sentences in each, and the last 
thousand words four on each, the whole of the sentences, on, sup- 
pose, 2,000 words M-ould amount to about 10,000 which would 
be sufficient to make the student thoroughly at home in expressing 
himself freely on all co^imon subjects. Besides these general 
words and sentences, each student, according to his profession, 
ought to have a separate set of words and exjDressions belonging 
to his peculiar occupations, jvhether those of a Magistrate, a Mer- 
chant, a Missionary, an Engineer, &c. 
But it would l3e of no use his acquiring this information till he 
was in some good measure grounded in the more general use of the 
language, and therefore he should not perhaps take such a list of 
words in hand till he had gone through the first two thousand ge- 
neral words with their sentences. The professional sentences should 
contain, of course, only those words already learnt in addition to 
the technical words. With these sets of words and sentences there 
should be a short grammar, containing only the first rudiments, in 
the simplest possible form, so that it can be referred to without 
loss of time on any point. This however in fact should be made 
comparatively very little use of. Rules of grammar are not want- 
ed, a man in conversation cannot possibly stop to form the parti- 
ciple of a verb from the root, by considering the rules. If it does 
not come of itself into his mouth nothing can make amends for that 
defect. What is wanted is, such a knowledge of grammar as a 
child of four years old possesses ; that is, a knowledge which ena- 
bles him to speak coiTectly, intelligibly, and without hesitation, 
though he does not know a single rule for anything he says. His 
speaking must be independent of any rules, whether he has learnt 
any or not. Yet a short grammar, to be looked into occasionally, 
at first may be of some little assistance in acquiring the inflexions 
of the nouns and verbs, &c. But the grand means of tfcquiring a 
grammatical use of the language must be simply the repetition 
multiplied, of a good variety of correct forms of expression. 
Nothing can be more absurd than insisting upon knowing the 
rules of grammar before a student can be allowed to know a language. 
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