july — sept. 1857.] The Study of Living Languages. 221 



generally learnt by men at that age when they have most confi- 

 dence in their own powers and when they are consequently always 

 disposed to take the bull by the horns. With this feeling the stu- 

 dent generally rushes into the midst of his enemies headlong, at- 

 tempting to grapple at once with the character, the pronunciation, 

 the whole grammar, the whole vocabulary of 20,000, or, as in Ara- 

 bic, 200,000 words, the language of books and the language of 

 conversation, &c. No wonder that such a one finds himself con- 

 tinually discouraged, that many give up in despair, that all waste 

 an enormous amount of time and mental effort, and that scarcely 

 one in a hundred ever talks like a Native. Whatever a man's pow- 

 ers may be it is certainly sheer waste to set about matters in this 

 way, and he cannot possibly receive such clear impressions on his 

 mind as the same person would, if he concentrated his attention 

 upon one thing at a time. 



It may also be well here to advert to some peculiar difficulties 

 which we necessarily encounter in the circumstances in which Eu- 

 ropeans are ordinarily placed in semi-civilized countries, and espe- 

 cially in a country like India, in which caste prevails. If an Eng- 

 lishman wishes to learn French or German, he can go and live 

 with a Native family, or throw himself continually into the society 

 of Natives, in inns and places of public resort, where his ear wil 

 be exercised from morning to night in the true pronunciation and 

 the real ordinary expressions of the language, and where conse- 

 quently, without the least effort even, though indeed slowly, he 

 can hardly help acquiring a correct use of the language both as 

 respects pronunciation and expression. But there are few coun- 

 tries out of Europe where a European can thus freely associate 

 with the Natives, and in India he is effectually excluded from their 

 houses. Separate and special means must therefore be used, to 

 exercise the tongue and ear of the student, and to store his me- 

 mory with a stock of bona, fide expressions. 



Another difficulty is the great inferiority of Native Teachers com- 

 pared with European Masters. Indeed in a great proportion of 

 cases a man has to learn a language with the assistance of one 

 who is not a teacher at all by profession, and who therefore can- 



