JULY— SEPT. 1857.] The Study of Living Languages. 241 
tain. But liis gre.it business should of course be to converse as con- 
stantly as possible in order further to exercise his tongue and liis 
ear, and to add to liis stock of forms of expression. It is to be re- 
membered that, in using books, a principal exercise should be, 
reading aloud and having them read aloud to him by a Native. 
If his occupation will require formal writing or translating, of 
course he must exercise himself a good deal with books. It is 
well known that the most easy and certain way of acquiring a cor- 
rect and easy style in writing in any foreign language is to make 
or procure accurate translations of Native books, and then re-trans- 
late them, compun-ing such re-translation with the original and 
thoroughly considering the difference between them. This can be 
done with the greatest ease and economy of time when such a 
good fundamental knowledge has been acquired as is supposed to 
be obtained through the system now proposed. 
The next point to be considered is the mode of using these 
materials. 
The student begins with the English letters representing the 
sounds. The teacher sounds each letter and the student repeats 
it immediately after. This is done many times with those letters 
which represent sounds entirely strange to the learner. The most 
essential thing is to learn where to place the tongue in these last 
sounds, without doing which it is impossible he should utter them 
correctly ; and this must be most patiently and diligently practis- 
ed, because this new motion of the tongue must be acquired to 
the same degree of facility as he has in pronouncing the sounds 
of his own language. This cannot possibly be effected except by 
long continued use of the organs of speech. At first, each of 
these letters should be pronounced perhaps ten times over by the 
teacher, and repeated by the student instantly, the latter always 
observing carefully the difference between his own pronunciation 
and that of the teacher's, which immediately follows. ^ 
The grand means to attain to a correct pronunciation must 
always be thus for the learner to attempt it both immediately after, 
and immediately before, hearing it correctly pronounced by a Na- 
tive. Just as in learning to write it is not sufficient first to look 
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