july — sept. 1857.] The Study of Living Languages. £31 



book at all. To the beginner such book words, as he cannot dis- 

 tinguish them from others, are nothing but a serious hindrance 

 to him. 



Bishop Heber remarks that to make himself intelligible to the 

 great mass of his hearers who were uneducated persons, he used 

 to find it advisable to confine himself as far as possible to words 

 of Saxon-derivation, that is, to words commonly used in conversa- 

 tion. If such a precaution were necessary in England, how much 

 more in semi-civilized countries. 



Can there be any question but that by a system of study based 

 upon these principles, by far the largest part of the time usually 

 spent upon acquiring a colloquial use of a foreign language may 

 be saved. Look at the progress a child makes in a really useful 

 knowledge of a language, whether his first, or one picked up after- 

 wards, from being associated with those who speak it, with such 

 extremely small powers of mind, without any effort, and without 

 any materials. Can it be supposed that an adult with such enor- 

 mous advantages, with properly prepared materials, and with dili- 

 gent study could not make much more rapid progress, if he pur- 

 sued a right system. 



The system that I would now propose, founded on these princi- 

 ples, is as follows : 



1st. The language is to be learnt through the medium of the 

 English character. 



The object of this is to get rid of any thing which is not abso- 

 lutely necessary to be learnt at first. 



It may be said that it takes a very little time to learn the Na- 

 tive character ; and so it does to learn it in a certain ivay, that is, 

 so that by fixing the thoughts upon a letter and taking a little 

 time for consideration, it may be recollected to represent a certain 

 sound, but it will be a long time before the character is so fami- 

 liar as not to occupy the attention most seriously, and that at the 

 time when there is the greatest demand upon it. But not only is 

 a known character preferable at first on this account, but it is also 

 superior as a medium to the Native character, as being less liable 

 to lead to mistakes. In an Indian language for instance, in which 



