july — sept. 1857.] The Study of Living Languages. 251 



2nd. In the knowledge of the true value of a stock of words. 

 3rd. In that of a good amount of Grammar. 



4th. In that of a large stock of bona, fide Native expressions. 

 Is not this principle undeniable ? Does a drawing master tell 

 his pupil, Go and make rude and absurd drawings of a hand or 

 a foot, and then occupy yourself in unlearning the habit you have 

 been acquiring, or does he set before his pupil a true represen- 

 tative of a thing, and say, Imitate this, with the most earnest and 

 close attention and never make a line without referring to the 

 standard ? Which pupil would make the greatest progress and 

 which would be most likely to attain to perfection in his study, — 

 one who was always trying to make rude drawings of a foot out 

 of his own imagination and then laboring to correct them, or 

 one who did not attempt to invent at all, but kept exercising 

 himself in imitating a correct representation of a foot. 



6th " Be very careful in noting down differences in idiom 

 between your own language and Tamil. If you hear much Chris- 

 tian or Cutcherry Tamil, beware of thinking all you hear to be 

 really Tamil. Try to cultivate a Tamil ear, so as to detect an 

 unidiomatic expression as you would a false note in music. You 

 should understand all you hear ; you need not use any expression 

 that is not good Tamil." 



I would only ask how a student can possibly learn to distinguish 

 between true language and false, except by learning the true, and 

 taking care as far as possible not to come in contact with false 

 language, whether coming from himself or any body else, till he 

 has acquired a sound taste and judgment, by a confirmed know- 

 ledge of the true language. 



The simple rule is, Learn the true language, and then you will 

 not waste your time in acquiring and trying to unlearn a false one. 

 Sow clean wheat in your ground, and not wheat and weeds mixed 

 together, and then you will not require to employ all the season in 

 trying in vain to root out the weeds which you have yourself 

 sown. 



It is this sort of instructions, continually inserted in books of 

 instruction in languages, and which are directly opposed to well 



