The Art of Teaching and Studying Languages by Çağla Karat

THE A RT

TEA CHING A ND STUDYING LANGUAGES

E RA N O O I S P

R O F ESS E U R

’

A LLE M A N D

A L

’

G O U IN

ECO L E

R E U R E ARA GO

S U PE I

RI S

TRA N S L A TE D F RO M T H E F RE N C H

H O VV A R I

V I CTO R

SWV A N

ET I S

M E M B R E DE L E N S E I G N E M E N T P UBLI C E N F RA N CE ’

S E C O N D E D I TI O N

LO NDO N

G E O RG E P HI LI P

S O N , 3 2 F LE E T S TRE E T ; N E W Y O RK

C H A RLE S S C RI B N E R S S O N S , 7 4 3 ’

7 4 5 B RO A D W A Y

P RE F A C E

M A N KIND h as l ong passed from the stage in w h i ch speech is used for the mere e xpression of ph y sical facts and desires to that in which language is empl oyed as the h ighest tool within the gr asp to paint the pictures of poetic imagination and sway a worldwide audience to noble thoughts and deeds N ot only to satisfy the necessities of travellers in far countries has the study of language been ever desirable but to penetrate the spirit an d genius of Homer Virgil S hakespeare G oethe Hugo Dante it has become to the cultured of every country a necessity for the full gift of a l iberal education S ince language became literature the necessity for the m as tery over other tongues than his own has forced the attention of student and of professor to the problem of the study of languages an d the great intellectual value of a complete and l ogica l system for the mastery of ton gues if such could be found is so apparent that the greatest honour has al w ays been awarded to discoverers in this region which is still felt however to be to a large extent une xplored or at least unconquered The world has this year seen a magnificent celebration of the grand services to the cause of education rendered by C omeniu s In S pite of this we are s till far from havin g defin itely adopted in our school and college practice th e now acknowledged — C principles perceived by omenius that educatio n must b e organic and not mechanical that language teaching modern and classic should pr oceed by dealing with things and not with words an d grammatical abstractions an d tha t before al l else education should have direct be aring upon actual life The late M r W H Widgery M A h as a very pregnant sentence in almos t the first pa ragraph of his admirable booklet ,

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vi “The

on he says

Teaching of Languages in S chools

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D N utt where ( ) .

great modern reform e r s Rousseau P estalo zz i Froebel have been the sources of mighty inspirations ; they h ave pointed out in the rough the paths along which we m ust travel They failed in system We n ow ne ed rather some powerful organiser well trained i n philosophy in logic in psychology one who will do act ual school work for some years and then cle ar for us the jungle of educational literature organiser M r Wi d gery evidently looked for his languag eto come after many years and after weary labour This labour is happily as will be seen already i n gr eat part accomplished and the work organised and perhaps no sentence could be tter express w hat i t is that the work of M Fran cois G ouin here presente d attempts to perform “ This work might not inaptly be entitled Th e G ift of Lan guages and How to Acquire it being an In vestigation into Lingu istic P sychology It will be fou n d to appeal not only to the teacher and the specialist in pedagogic science but to the student and th e general reader for in its train i t draws inte resting and far — reaching developments It is primarily an investigation into the psychological laws underlying the universal act of learning the mothertongue by the little child an d springing therefrom the exposition of an artiﬁcial system of teachi n g foreign languages—a system which produces peculiarly successful results and en d ows the learner with the gift for languag es : and these resul t s ar e curiously easy of explanation being based on the laws of gradual development of the human mind itself It may be well to point out at once that the work of M G ouin is essentially a new departure it is based upon a close observation of nature —that of the little child at its games weaving its own individuality and learning its native tongue its mental operations are analysed with extreme care and d escribed with a clearness an d simplicity to which one is not always accustomed in subj ects so apparently abstruse as that o f psychology The system s e t forth is not a variation of the ordinary col O

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vii

lection of exercises That which is therein presented consists of the expression o f the real facts of life itself not accidental facts merely but those which every one has lived is now living— external and inte rnal phenomena deeply impri n te d upon the mental back ground of every human being And these facts are not seen at hazard they are grouped analys ed organised studied in the exact order of succession which is marked out by N ature These facts are lived over again as it were a second time by remembrance ; they are reco n stituted as a part of the individuality of the student who again learns to express them but this time in a foreign language O ur common li fe is once more begun at the mother s knee and lived through with the rapidity of thought and the conscious knowledge of self thus acquired is obtained as well as the mastery of a foreign lan gu age The act of speakin g and understa nding any sentence in one s native tongue may be thus briefly analysed We may “ take as example the phrase The shepherd dog collects the ” flock of sheep The speaker forms in his mind a picture n er ali sat i o n o f in this case of a pastoral subject being a e ( g ) “ many mental photo graph s ; the words that is the sounds e xpressing this picture he knows by long association He utters these sounds in the right order ; they strike again st the ear of the listener and the same association between the soun d and the menta l picture having to him also long become habi tual arises at once in the min d Of the listener There is here nothing in th e nature of translation but the act is on e There is noth i ng here o f pure intuition — seeing in the mind of printed signs : the signs or letters are but the phantom or symbol o f the sounds carefully an alysed ph onetically they also by long habit are associated both with the soun d s and with the mental picture but mental picture sound an d written sy mbol of the sound are all distinct elements of what collectively is termed Language and in learning the language the fi rst two are e vidently the most important It is in the recognition o f the vast part the imagination or to be more accurate the faculty of visuali sation —plays i n the learning of languages as i n all mental ope r ations that the .

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viii

originality and success of M G oui n s S eries system depends N ot only so but it opens up an almost unlimited field for the organisation and training of the faculty until now almost un heeded possibly the principal on e the mind exercises ( besides that of control of the muscles ) namely the recollection of — sense impressions those of sight sound taste smell and feeling —but especially the first two —memory of sights and sounds —which may be termed mental visual isation and mental vocalisation This power of visualisation in the mind actually denied to a portion of m ankind by some physiologists (amongst others G alton himself ) is probably the one great and simple faculty of the mind —that which m akes man more than the beasts of the field and gives him his mastery over Nature ; and the power o f converting one mental image into another and o f comparing two mental images will be found when analysed to be t hat which we term Reason S O that we might venture “ the statement that man is not a reasoning animal using “ the w ord as the name for some abstract and Reason “ abstruse mental operation but simply a mental picture ” makin g animal This theory has farreaching aspects D esirable as the di scovery of the rational e o f the gift of languages may be and certainly is —for language underlies the acquisition of all knowledge and the study of all arts and “ — sciences the investigation of this gift must be whether it be recognised o r not i n reality the investigation of the “ rationale of all gifts and all powers of the mind The “gift for languages ” once prov ed o be a method and not an t ot a bstruse faculty of the min d inherited or acquire d is there n an d pr i or?) reason that the gift for cal cul at i on for drawing for music may be methods ? What is it that constitutes talent “ and what genius itself ? And if we r eply The strength of the power of mental representation we are perhaps near to the answer The extremely impo r tant questions such an idea raises are hinted at in this work and the basis is laid for the i ni tiation of an intuitive method o f teaching The work of M G ouin has within it therefore the promise of awakening other d iscoveries O n e of these is hinted at on p 6 where the act of mental calculation so wonderfully ’

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“ emp l oyed by so called calculating prodigies i s suggested for investigation ; and again on p 2 9 2 where the gift for drawing is alluded to and the principles of its development are ske t ched out In the definite organisation of la n guage first into two great divisions of objective and subjective and then in t o the groups corresponding on the objective side to the varied occurrences in the external world and on the subjective side to the varied play o f the faculties —i n the organisation of th e totality of the expressions of any language into con centric groups vi z o f those expressions known by a child of seven those by a boy Of ten those by a youth of sixteen and those by a graduate of twenty-one —i n all this M G ouin gives a grouping eminently helpful not only to language teachers but also to philologists In the methods of teaching arran ged in accordance with the psychological law of the d evelopment of individuality in the child we have not only a possi bi l i t y of greater e fficiency and adaptability in the methods of teaching all subjects but in the abrogation of the wearisome correction of exercises and construing and in the presentation of a less abstract grammar we have a deliverance of both pupils and teachers from their weariest d rudgery The latter the exposition of a universal psychological con j ugation ( P ar t III G rammar ) calls for some more particular remark All grammars up to the present have been cast in the same mould without questioning if this were the only possible one or the best The form of the word or words and their endings is t h e material organised by them and not the tho ught which underlies these words and endings The d i ffi culty of accurately fixing the e x act thought subtleties under lying the tenseforms is almost absurd as the writer well knows compared with the simplicity of the result when once determined as embodied in a table such as the one given on p ages 2 3 1 and 2 3 8 —9 In suggestin g a new mould for the setting forth of grammatical forms in lieu of the time honoured divisions of P asse I n d é fi n i and so forth clearness of visualisa tion of the exact act expressed by the verb h as been the only guide and is also the main result aimed at ,

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the present methods we ar e all well aware that even after four or five years courses at ordinary schoolclasses pupils are certainly usual ly not able to understan d native or capable of speaking correctly and S peakers or lecturers idiomatically themselves until after some considerable period o f residence abroad Indeed it is no unusual occurrence t o find that students on the usual methods may have passed examination s wi t h s uccess and yet be utterly unable to sustain a simple conversation or even understand a native speaker The ordinary class method so well known by all of us is here allud ed to ; other teachers have partly advanced on the lines so thoroughly carried o ut by M G ouin To them all honour The reason o f the success of M G o ui n s system and the ill -success of the ord i nary class methods may be briefly summed up as follows The ordinary classical method sets the students ( 1 ) to read from a book what they do not yet know how to pronounce ; to connect the printed word in language with another 2 n o e ( ) printed word in another language ; ( 3 ) therefore to perceive the sense of the foreign language always through the inter mediary of their own language 72a by translation and not as a native by direct association ( 4 ) more Often than not the class exercises given are void of real sense or si gn i fi cat i on a set of more or less absur d illogical and untrue statements ( ) having no application whatever to the learner s own individu ality are used for exercise s introduced solely to employ the vocabulary and to illustrate t h e rules of grammar ; lastly the whole process throughout is abstract and arbitrary resting on no other foundatio n th an the fancy of the compiler To this process the system s et forth by M G ouin is opposed in almost every particular ( I ) The learner has for exercises s entences which bear a distinct and sensible meaning and are true in substance and in fact ; these are linked together i n logical sequence of the d evelopment of their action forming separate and simple d r a m atic scenes of primitive life giving rise naturally to good literary expres sions ; the learner has the significance of the word or phrase always given to By

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him or called up in his mind bef or e he is introduced to the foreign word or phrase which e xpress it th e associatio n of the foreign word or phrase is thu s not with an E n glish word but with the actual fac t or mental conception which the E nglish word only stands for and expresses ; h e is given the pronunciation orally ﬁrst and bef or e he sees the printed form and this several times successively and methodically until it is engraven on his memory ; only after he thoroughly knows the meaning and pronunciation is h e allowed to see the written or printed word and lastly no rule no word n o is given in an abstract condition but always as e xpression depending on some concrete fact previously known and directly applying to the student s own individuality — In this way t h e foreign language becomes in reality a language to th e lear ner not a slow translation or a set of printed signs ; it is associated with actual facts an d expresses his ideas and mental conceptions in th e foreign langu age “ — itself i n other words the student thinks in the foreign l anguage All that is developed in this work is e v idently in strict accordance with the principles which have guided th e work of P estalo z zi and of Froebel as o f Herbert S pencer The S eries S ystem indicates indeed a direction i n which the lo n g acknowledged principles of the Kindergarten system can be carried on into m ore advanced work —lan guages modern and classical science and technical education ; an d i n this it may serve a doubly us eful purpose for it may give into the hands of teachers the method so long desired o f enabling the training of the mind to go hand in hand with the teaching of u seful knowledge while it may also reduce the time necessary for elem entary instru ction by furn i shing more efﬁcient means and so leave more time for higher and technical education To many minds the chapters on the teaching of classical lan guages will d oubtless have most interest especially at a juncture when the compulsory teaching of G reek at the Univer sities is hotly challenged as against the spirit o f the age The system of teaching the classics here proposed wil l unfailingly call forth m any and very varied opinions The author s id eas ,

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P RE FA C E

upon these poi n ts are very fully set forth in the chapters on G reek and Latin ( P art V p 3 6 2 et seq ) '

The original work was written in G eneva and it is interest ing to learn was set up and composed in type by the author himself and pri n ted at his own expense It was published in 1 8 8 0 in P aris by G F i sch b ach er 3 3 Rue de S eine and has therefore been before the educational world for the last twelve ye ar s It i s now out of print C uriously enough for such an original and daring work it has remained entirely unknown to the B ritish public so far as the present writer can find until his introduction of it to those interested in educational lite rature At the time of the great P aris E xposition of 1 8 8 9 being interested in language teaching he had a copy of the “ work put into his hands by a friend with the remark I do not know whether the system has been carried into practice but the book is an attempt to reconstruct the child s mental life and ” — is almost as interesting as a novel as indeed he found it M eetin g by a happy coincidence M Victor B etis the ardent d isciple of M G ouin who came to E ngland on purpose to introduce the system t h e writer has given the time since t o preparing a faithful and careful translation of the book which embodies th e lifework of one who may perhaps d eserv e to be enrolled amongst the reorganisers of P edagogy This t r an sl a tion undertaken w ith the cl ose collaboration thro ughout of M Victor B etis pres ents a few modifications in one or two particulars to adapt it to E nglish requirements These modificatio n s consist Solely in the omission of two o r three paragraphs having more direct reference to French schools ; the rather important modification of the chapter on grammar ( pp 2 3 6 due to an extended comparison of the E nglish and Fr ench forms of the verbs leading to a somewhat deeper analysis of the author s investigations into the psycho logical diff erences underly ing t h e tense form s of the conj uga “ tion the addition by the author of a scen e from Romeo and ” J uliet illustrative of E nglish literature in the form proposed and th e publication in the Appendix of the certificate from M L ock r oy the French M inister of P ublic I n struction ,

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following facts with reference to the author M Fran cois G ouin it may be desirable h ere to mention Bor n in 1 8 3 1 a native of N ormandy he was educated at the C ol lege of S eez Advised by the professors of the C ollege of C aen to complete h is philosophical studies i n th e G erman univer sities —as he relate s i n the book—h e made a dismal failure in his attempt to learn the G erman l anguage by following out in its s i mplicity the ordinary or classical method of learning a language which no one probably has ever before carried to its extreme limits S tudying on his return a child his little nephew of three years old who had meanwhile learnt to talk its native tong ue he made the dis covery which is the keystone “ The O f the book and therefrom worked out his system of M G ouin returned A r t of Teaching and S tudyin g Languages to G ermany and l ived for many years in B erlin eventually holding the positio npractically equivalent to that of P rofessor of French to the B erlin C our t and enj oying the personal friendship of Alexander von Humboldt In 1 8 6 0 he made a brief stay in E ngland ; and shortly after was nominated by one of the M inisters of Ro um ania t o organise the syste m o f public instruction in that country B ut the continual change of M inistry and ﬁn ally the fall of P rince C ouza forced him to leave the country and he eventually settled in G eneva where h e established a school and during this period his book ” “L A r t d was written E n s ei gn er et d E t ud i e r les Lang ues and published Later ( 1 8 8 0 ) he became D irector of the E cole S up é rieure of E l boeuf but left much to the regret of the i n habitants who looked to his syste m to endow the rising genera tion with the knowledge of languages and thus to f urnish them wi t h the means of becoming t h e most successful of com m e r ci al correspo ndents M G ouin was then ( 1 8 8 3 ) appointed P rofessor of G erman at the E cole S up é rieure Arago P aris which position he now occu pies Here he taught G erman and in his private time Lati n “ and G reek upon his S eries S y stem and published further works dealing with the practical part of the method His book falling into the hands of a certain French gentleman of wealth M Tempi e he was accorded ( 1 8 8 5 ) the means to carry on exper i Th e

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mental classes for the teaching of G erman in the E cole Normale d I n st i t ut e urs O f P aris t h e result of which as gi ven in the certiﬁcate which is found in the Appendix ( p was t o demonstrate that a thoroug h knowledge of the ord i nary S po ke n and written language ability to understand a native speaker or lec t urer with command of the grammar ( and also some knowledge of the literature of the country ) with ability to give l essons in the language was obtained by students i n less th an one year s course O n e word should be said i n reference to the present meth od s so heavily attacked in this volume M ethods not men alone are critici sed There is no possibility of any personal feelin g having been imported for the orig i nal work was directed a gainst French methods M any there are who will welcome this volume as a deliverance from purgatory —those who feel the insufﬁciency of present methods as well as those who are already arrayed against the classical process of abstract teach ing by grammar and vocabulary Y et nevertheless it would al m ost have been well to have had a head -line to every p age in the words of the author s preface ’

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MET H O D S

A ND

NO T

M E N A RE

R I TI C I S E D

From the interest already shown by many persons of i n ﬂ uence to whom the work has been mentioned it is certain that a large measure of appreciation will be accorded in many d i r e c tions i n E ngland to the lifelong task of M G ouin an d if it is felt that in any w ay a better study of the beauties of ou r own or of foreign or classical literature or the possibility of a more useful and inspiriting education can be given by its means then the small amount of work done in presenting the book in i t s E nglish dress wo uld have more than ample repay ment ,

H O W A RD S WA N

RI CH M O N D , S U RR E Y, Ju l y

1 89 2.

C O N TE N T S

P R E FA C E

P A R T F I RS T

HI S TO RY A N D CO NCEPTI O N or THE S YS TEM I

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xvii i

V II

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xi x

S U BJ E C TI VE L A N G U A G E

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cess

Th e

—F

’

r ee st

th e

y st e m w i t h t h e m at er nal pr o

of ar t

ed i

—C

or r ect i on o f e xer ci se s

d oub l ed

r o w e p

—T h

M i ni st er

E d ucat i on

I TS O of

th is

st u d

R G A NI S A TI O N

— y Tw

O r i gi n

I ts d e 2.

k ey

—

t h e m et aph or I ts

ﬁ n i t i on

O r di n ary sym b ol i sm

—C

on st r

pr obl em s t o b e

M et aph ori cal t h em es I

—Th

ﬁ ce

F IG U RA TI VE LA N G U A G E

O bj ect

u e s t i on q

u d en t s

A d e cl ar at i on by s t on e o i

th e

t r i um ph

t e ach er

a ccen t

s ol

con st i t

ved

uen t

e l em en t s

uct i on of t h e m et aph ori cal

t h em es

TH E A RT Tw o k i n d s I

T E A C H IN G

pr oce sses

I n t r i n si c r an k

th e

or d i n ar y

l at ed i n

M ET A P H O R S

ﬁ gu at i ve l anguage—H ow assi m i l i f e— Th a r r t e m ai n i n p g t o be r

d on e b y A r t 2

S ear ch for t h em e

a con n ect i n l i n g

an d

C r ossi ng l an guages

XV I

S t il l

an ot h e r

t h at an d

u es t i o n q

k b et w een

t h e S er i e s

h ar m on i ous

—I d

t h e m et aph or i cal

ea o f

progr ess

D om i nan t s of

th e

t wo

CO N TE N TS

P A RT TH I RD

G RA M MA R

T wo

opi ni on s

D eﬁ n i t i on

upon t h e pr act i cal val ue of gram m ar d i vi si on

an d

VE RB

S T U D Y O F TH E

E X ERC I S E S

act s

F i rst

S econd

Th i r d

3 IV

C ri t i cal 1

e xerci s e

e xer mse

m at i cal

S um m ary be

S i x t i m es

—A

—M

N at ur al

—Th

or d in ary

( S EC O N D W EE K )

past , pres ent ,

pe ri o d s

—D

and

eﬁ n i t e

f ut ur e

t i m es

and

i nd e

ﬁ ni t

pr e ci si on

as soci at i on of

t h e t h i r d pe rso n

an d

u si on—G ram mat i cal t each i ng m ust

o m en t s o f

—Th

Th e

ct s

or s i x

m or r o w, & c

C O N J U G A TI O N

t i m es .

t i m es 2

—Th

u r e— A wak en i ng o f t h e i n d i cat i ve m ood t h e for m

n at

V er b

the

an d con cl

I n d i cat ive m ood .

ve r b s

r e or m e d , n ot ab ol i sh e d

E X ERCI S E S 1

t h e presen t t en se,

S er i e s 4

t h at

sense

con ugat i o n

th e

an d

process

ram

t h e pro cess

of our e xer ci se

un i t y

U po n t h e

)

exam i n at i on o f

exer ci se

P r oper t i e s O

W E E K)

C O N J U G A TI O N S ( F IR S T

I N TH E

I I I I n d i cat i ve (pr esen t

th e

form s of t h e verb s

w it h t h e

t e n s e i n t ui t i on r i od e p

— ) Th f e

t im e

al s e

(

y est er d ay ,

per i o d

t im e

t od ay , t o

t h e gr a m

m ars ( t h e pas t , t h e pr esen t , t h e f ut ur e) E rr on eous n ot i ons o f t h e t en ses i n t h e gr am m ars

Var i ous

caus e s o f

t h e se

er ror s :

t i on , t rad i t i o nal l ogom ach y , an d

th e

act ,

vai n

r mm e t y y

c on

d i s d ai n

fusion

o f o b se r va

t h e t en s e

CO N TE N TS

xxi

F i rst

S econ d

Th i rd

form s o f t h e

in th e

r act i ce

e xe r ci se

—Si m pl

pe r i o d

—Tw

ant eri or, and

E X E RCI S E S VI I

F i r st

S econ d

an d

S i m ul t an eous

—Th

wi t h i n t h e

act s

e xer ci se

t h e S ub unct i

an d

—Th

Var i ou s pupi l

Th e

ves

S ubj unct i ve s

T H EIR

F U N CTI O N S

t h e S e n t en ce

funct i on s

ﬂ

t h e t er m s

se nt en ce

—T h

i n i t i at i o n i nt o t h i s k n o wl e d ge

s t ar t i n

g poi n t

—C

co m pl e m e n t s

an d a

as e s o r

Th e

art of

d e cl i n i ng

Th e

ar t o f

d e cl i ni n g at

P r act i ce

P ar al l el

of of

d i rect i on in

e ct i on s

—D ecl ensi on s

out o f s ch o o l

4 .

’

act s

C ond i t i on al

S ENTENCE,

O F TH E

S pok en A n al y si s

sam e

I m perfe ct ,

pl upe rfe ct

S TU D Y O F T H E S E N TE N C E

VI I I

act s

e xer ci se

E L EMENT S

a ct s

h ab i t ual

act s occ r r i ng

s r i r o o t e act s p

—T h

m om e n t ary

C O N JU G A TI O N ( TH IR D W EE K )

Th e C ond i t i on al

time

I n d i cat i ve

Con t inuous

exer ci s e

e xer ci se

e an d

AG E

sch o ol

t h e d e cl e n si o n s i n

o ur sy s t e m

t h e t w o pr ocesses

Th e P r eposi t i on

ﬁ

Th e P r e x

C O N S TRUCTI O N

uct i on —N at ural

X II

T wo

X III

P r act i cal

s or t s of con st r

forei gn I

ud y of t h e const r uct i on

or d er an d

an a n c i en t or

l an guage

C on st ruct i on by t h e

or d i n ary

C on st ruct i on b y

m et h o d

our

l ogi cal

pr o ce ss

o r d er

m od e r n

2 76

CO N TE N TS

x xii

TH E M O DA L P H RA S E S X IV

C l ass i ﬁ cat i on 1

D eﬁ n i t i on m en t s

an d

t h e m od al ph r ase

—Th

e i r r el at i ons

E s t abl i sh m ent

C l assi cal

pract i ce

—O

s ch ool

O r d i n ary pr act i ce

O ur

t h e m oo d s

—I t

—Vi

s co n st i t uent

ci o

th e

process

t h e m o d al ph r ases

ci rcl e

el e

an d

t h e m oo d s

r s e oc s p

A N N E X E S A N D C O RO LL A RI E S O F T H E S Y S TE M T h e O r t h ogr aph y

—S p l l i ng e

Read ing

D rawi ng — I t s r el at i on Th e t i m e

— L i gui a

—Th

i l l ust r at e d S e r i es

l an guage

l anguages b ro ugh t w i t h i n t h e

st i c apt i t ud e s of

C an

t o l an guage

t o l ear n

n eces sary

Th e t each i ng

F 0 U RTH

L ITER A R Y S ERIE S pr ocess

f or t r an sl at i ng,

the

P ut t i n g I

P r i n ci pl e

an d

S pe ci m en s

Di e

E l ab or at i on .

n e of

A page

ass i m i l at i n g

d epart ur e w or k i n t o l i t er at ur e l essons

t r an scr i pt i on s

d t h e G nat

”

L upus S pi n n er i nn en

an d

of a

J ul i

L i t er ary S er i es—O ur m et h od

L a F on t ai ne of

o f a cl assi cal

on an

D rei

Rom eo

r ead i n g, an

cl assi cal aut h ors

poi n t

Tr an scr i pt i on

C an i s et

l i t er ar y wor k i n t o S e ri e s

Th e

of al

t e ach er ?

S TU DY O F THE CLA S S I C S

ut l i ne of a n e w

r each

w om en

l an guage b e l e ar nt w i t h out

P A RT

Vi rgi l

’

F ab l es

t e ach i ng

3 25 3 25 3 33

CO N TE N TS

x xi ii

T H E L A N G U A G E S B Y T H E S C I E N CE S A N D T H E S C I E N CE S

B Y TH E L A N G U A G E S Th e

th e

sol i d ar i t y o f

N e cessi t y f or

h i s t or y by t h e l an guages r efor m i n t h e t e ach i n g of h i st or y

3 4

an d

H i s t ory put i nt o S e r i es Th e b at t l e

t h e l anguages

s ci en ces an d

T h e l anguages by h i st ory I

Rossbach

T h e t eachi n g of t h e h i st ory l esson s

G eogr aph i cal S er i es

T h e l anguages by t h e T h e l anguages

an d

nat ural s ci en ces an d vi ce ver sa

th e

e xact s ci en ces

RT F I F T H

G RE E K A N D L A T I N I

Th e

val ue of

G r e ek

an d

L at i n

T h e i nt er est

the

Th e i n t eres t

t h e i nd i vi d ual

Con d em n at i on anci ent

Th e

r ace

t h e pr ocesses

appl i ed

i m pr ovem ent

s ch ool s an d

t h ei r

A l ast

S ol ut i on

—S

ver si on

III IV

th e

I N DE X

th e

us Ci rcl e t h e offi ci al

vi ci o of

r e or m

confl i ct

—A

n ar k o f s a et y

Th r ee F rench S eri es l esson s

C oor d i n at ed

“L e

st ud y

c on t e s t

A PP E NDI X

d i sd ai n

cept i cal

s ec et a

Th e d y ing d i al ect s

to th e

l anguages

Te n y ear s an d t en m ast er s Th e d i ct i on ary , or t h e d i s ci pl i n e

fear

—A ut h

act s

’

or s

t ext

Li on et l e M ouch eron Certi ﬁ cat e of t h e F r ench M i ni st er

P ubl i c I nst ruct i on

H I S TO RY AN D .

C O N CE P TI O N O F THE

SY S TE M

’

is op pose d vvh i é h unti l now has been almost insurmountabl e namely the diff erence o f language To what , t hen should fall the task of throwing down or at l east o f levelling up thi s obstacle of N ature ? E vidently to science to teaching to the school ‘

’

‘

Alongside the material r ailway needed to enable our bodies to communicate it is absolutely necessary to construct a mental rai l way for the intercourse of minds This ment al railway must take the form o f a linguistic method that shall enable a pe r So n by mean s of the language to enter into an d assimilate the intelligence and the spi ri t of a foreign nation n o t as now in a period of ten or of twenty years an d in so d oing to expe n d the third p art of a lifetime but in the S pace between two equinoxes or for those of trained will in the s pace o f a single s eason O n the d ay when t his n e w species o f locomotive is d eﬁnitely organi sed and put at the service of m en of thought and will the brotherhood of nations will cease — n to be a vai and e m pty word a word which G overnments laug h to scorn and peace as wel l as liberty will perh aps have found their most solid foundation ,

”

N ations wo uld never strive to out each other s throats i f t hey understood each other thoroughly an d if a healthy an d moral hospitality drew them together However great t h e perverse ambition of those who excite th e races t o make w ar u pon each other their efforts must inevitably fall to the ground if opposed to a universal league w aging a continual crusade in the cause of the most sacred interests of humanity “ N othing therefore could be better than this mental rai l way to prepare and hasten the d evel opment of that Areo pagus which sooner or l ater—vowed inwardly by al l m en of heart —will e ff ectually close the temple of war by curtailing and disarming for ever the sang uinary fury of political From this poin t of vie w a good linguistic method a mbition i s not merely a scientiﬁc an d a literary work but a h umani tarian and a moral one As such it is worthy of the greatest e ff or t s of the profession of teaching and perh aps takes the lead of all other scholastic undertakings ’

, .

”

“But

”

the world is old say the n umerous friends of routine — those who have l ived i n it those who live for it and those the world is old and that which the m a ster w h o live by i t m inds wh o ha v e preceded us must have sought and could not ,

M E NTA L RA IL W A Y

THE

disco v er—the solution o f this grand problem — can we ﬂatter ” ourselves that we can discover ? If the world is old to day it was already old six ty years ago and if si xty years ago every o n e had t ak en t his reason so dear to al l quietists to comfort t hemselves in idleness we should never have had to this very hour the kn owledge of either steam or electricity or the thous and other forces which science and industry have already be gun to subd ue or to trans form as into new organs of our race "

N ations do not grow ol d they change and in so do ing they remai n etern ally young I f the men of the last centu r y were to awake to — day , they woul d have some di ffi culty in recognising the present generation as their children They would at first e ascal him rhaps believe in the accession o f a n ew race P p self at t h e sight of natural forces so m agnificently co n quered so cunningly adapted t o the needs of modern life might we l l feel inclined to take us for m agicians W ould he not be wonderstruck at the marvels executed by engineering an d Would he r ecognise i n our t h e omnipotence o f calculation ? sciences in o ur industries in our arts the corollaries of his Before th e o wn discoveries and his o w n profound intuitions ? marvels of chemistry even Lavoisier the father of this science might well stand speechless ” N il m o r t al i bus ar d uum est ! This statement which in the ode of Horace sounds like a hype rbole has be come a living reality Lightning itself and all t h e indomitable ener gies which the gi ants sons of the e arth dre w from t h e contact with mother earth are now practically at th e beck and call of man S ub d i t i on e hominis ,

’

”

In sp i te of this o r rather beca use o f this the ea r th is still young extremely young for the po w er of mankind is above all a growth It is as yet hardly at the beginning His success h as it is true given to m an a consciousne s s of his po wer ; this is much n o doubt but it is a commencement and not an end C onside r ed from the moral point of View ca n it be said that the world has attained to years of discretion Which of us is in possession of th e true knowled ge of good and evil ? Loo k around towards the four points of the compass and say whether the nations most resemble men actually and incontestably free o r children under tutelage N o the world is not old an d t h e ,

H I S TO RY AND CO N CE P TI O N

O F THE

SYS TE M

era of d iscovery so far f r om being closed h as but j ust opened G reat i nventions are the daughters of N ecessity and whe n N ecessity has S poken man seeks and al ways ﬁnds ,

the advent of t h e rail w ay it may be said that nations lived so far apart that the need of S peaking to and of under standing each other did not re ally exist It made itself felt slightly at the frontiers and for this N ature herself has pro 1 vi d e d B ut to day thanks to the locomotive nations are n ext door to each other N ecessity wills that the y shall be able to talk together with intimacy that they shall have n o more s ecrets one fro m the other that they shall not betray on e another that at last the y shall kno w and understand one another mutually and to the utmost depths of their natures The material railway has long been built and it calls i n evi t ably for the mental railway of which we have spoken In reality this if we but k new it is the end of w hich the other is simply the means E ach cause must have its e ff ec t and tends thereto until this has been realised In the historica l ” “ d evelopment of the human race that which was an end “ d uring one generation becomes a means to the next that ” “ which to day seems to us an e ff ect to morrow wil l be a “cause ” an d will ha v e the virtues of a cause together with its character B efore

M aterial railway , mental rail way '

have we here a vai n antithesis ? Can the latter b e constructed and will it ever be constructed ? Why not we may ask if for it there is as we h ave seen a historical necessity —a necessity of civilisation ? W h y n ot if N ature possess es already the marvellous m ach i i nery which in the chil d weaves i n so short a time the wondrous fa br i c of the human individuality out of the raw material of language ? Why not if the method sought for is worki n g every day under our very eyes if the child practises it con t i n ual l y with so much succes s as to assimilate the idiom of his n ative soil ; and if al l that i S n e e d f ul to transform it deﬁn itely to submit the mater ; i nto a general instrum en t of the mind is nal process to the work o f e x egesis commanded by t h e pr o found saying O f Bacon I n t e r pr et an d a est na tura O ur individual e ff oI t s to conquer the language of the Coun “ tries which surro und us the love of children the constant an d assiduous sea r ch for the laws which must preside over t h ,

’

‘

“

F r o n t i er

k ing b ot h

r aces spe a

l anguage s ( Tr an s

)

N A TURE

’

S S O LU TI O N

P RO B L E M

O F T HE

urious an d rapid develop me nt of l an gii age i n ear l y years t h e l ong philological studies these have perhaps enabled us t o discover some O f the principles of this me t hod which when perfected bot h by time and by practice might well be called “ by the name o f the N A T U R A L M ET H O D '

‘

“Your

To those who at p r i on tell us syste m wh atever it may be and however ingenious it may be can only represent a C himerical idea or else it i s simply a trick and a delu sion you are seeking to square the circle — to those we answer as did the G reek sage to th e sophist who denied that — movement e xisted the philosopher simply walked We o n our part point to the child —the little child who knows h o w to speak a language at three years of age who has learnt i t whi l st play ing round his mot h er who speaks it in a way i n which most of us would be proud of being able to speak the language of any o f o ur neighbours Yes Nature has a lready solved the problem that we are investigating and s h e holds a pe rmanent school f o r early infancy in which we can if we wish at any time take part and where w e may be able t o study her never failing processes ,

’

ﬂ ,

“

U nhappily the child has remained up to t h e present a hackneyed riddle which we have never taken s u i ci en t troubl e to decipher or even to e xamine In th e feverish and change f ul rush of its l i fe we have not kept sight of the regular and mat hematical development which has been e ff ected I n its mind by ( or through ) language In the turmoil of its acts sens a tions and feelings s o diverse and multifold we have hitherto be en able to perceive only a pure game o f chance We have never been able to conceive that possibly there might be or t hat we might find in this something resembling a method ; that we might find somewhat of order that is t o say a “principle of order Yet the little child which at the age of two years utters nothi ng but meaningless e x cl am ations at the a e of three finds i t s el f I n possession of a complete language g How does it accomplish this ? Does this miracle admi t o t explanation or not ? I s it a problem of which there i s a possi bil i t y of finding the unknown quantity ? .

z n

It is instinct says on e It is a gift of N ature rep l y others V ery convenient answers no doubt having the remarkable property of equally well sol ving all question s o f an intellectual and moral nature .

H I S TO RY AND CO N CE P TI O N

O F TH E

SYS TE M

When Henri M on d eux i n his appearances before t h e colleges and even before the Ac adémie des S cien ces at P ari s stood up on the platform and wi t hout pens or paper s olved intuitively and i n a few seconds problems which it had taken Arago eight days to calculate the professors wagged their “ heads and they also said It is a gift 1 And thanks to this super b word thanks to this impious disdain the university has left buried w ith Henri M o n d eUx a method of calculation which applied to steam to electricity to modern industry 2 might to d ay have increased tenfold the power of mankind 1

‘

the marvellous aptitude of chil dren for assimilating a “ l anguage is n ot a gift ; it is the result Of a process ad m i r ably carried out resting upon principles as yet i mperfectly a pprehended and Often in entire contr adiction to those which the usual systems n ow proclaim G iven a child of four or ﬁve years with a G reek o r a C h inese nurse : is it true or is it n ot true that this child will speak G reek or will speak Chinese at the end of six months I n a manner that will confo und the greatest philologists in the world ? An d i s i t t r ue on the other hand that if this same child had as master s t hese sa m e philologists at the en d o f si x mon t hs it would know pract ically nothing of either of these languages ? There fore the child by th e side of his nurse would have a gift or faculty w h ich it would lose by the side of the savants G ift and instinct —these are two words two sayings void of sense to which m an still turns to ex cuse his idleness or conceal his ignorance NO ,

To conclude our preamble : the child learns in six months in a year at the outside to t alk and also to think The youth o r the adult having to do but a portion of this work since he already knows h o w to think should therefore be able without trouble to learn in six months or in a year at the outside to speak any given lan guage be it Chinese J apanese And he ce rtainly can S an S C I i t G erman E nglish or F rench do this on condition that he follo w th e special process know n ,

l at i n g b oy ( T r an s A fam ous F r en ch cal cu 2 I t m ay n ot b e un i n t er e st i n g t o st a t e h e r e t h at on e o f t h e d i sci pl es o f t h e aut h o r h as w o rk e d out t h e t h eo r y an d t h e m e t h o d o f t h i s w on d er f ul m e nt al st i n g c al cul at i on , a s t h e r es ul t o f t h e h i n t gi ven ab o ve , w i t h e xt r e m e l y i nt e r e and s ucce s sful r es ul t s, wh i ch w il l b e e m b od ie d i n a work on i n t ui t i ve ca l cul a t i o n ( Tr ans 1

M E A N S O F D E M O N S T RA TI O N

o well

pplied by our o wn mothers N a ture has set h erself the problem in equations : i t is for us to clea r the fractions and determine the unknown an d

EM O N S TRA TIN G A TRUT H AN D O F S ETT IN G F O RT H A SYS TE M—A N A L Y S I S A N D S YNT H E S I S

M E A NS O F D

When a t eacher puts a question be fore the little public o f his class we may suppose that he knows the solution of i t I n the same way when a writer upon pedagogy or the science of teaching undert akes to bring forward a new method to the larger p ub l ic he should be or believe himself to be in posses sion of a certain number of practical truths until that tim e more or less unknown It is not therefore a discovery so much as a demonstration which h e proposes to make N ow there are as is well known two means of demonstrati n g a S cientiﬁc theorem or i n fact a thesis of an y kind whatsoever \V e may either combine or turn about the data i n order to d iscover the necessary constant relation s which these facts h ear one towards the other ; o r else knowing these relation s beforehand we may bring them about or estab l ish them i n the ﬁrst place an d then by a s eries of l ogic al d e d uct i o n s arrive a t the particular truth which resul ts from these relations .

In reality these two processes are two portion s of the sa m e ” “ whole The ﬁrst usually termed analysis is the rational part of the d emonstration since it establishes the necessary “ relations o f things The second usually t ermed synthesis is the prac t ical part since it d evelops and brings to light t h e truths which lie in the germ within these relations We m ay add that the one is the necessary complement of the o t her \V i t h ou t the ﬁrst the second leaves something arbitrary and O n the o t her hand without synthesis an d une x plained deduction an alysis remains but a barren e ff ort l ike a word h alf articula t ed or a circle abruptly and awkwardly broke n thro ugh ,

Therefore to explain our prese n t method as clearly as possible that is to demonstrate the practical truths embodied i n the syste m we must have recourse t o th e double -process of anal ysis and synthesis B ut in what can t h e anal y sis consist '

“

A ND

H I S TO RY

O F TH E S Y S TE

C O NC E P T I O N

in a case such as this ? It: should be the same for example as t h e e x planation of the proces s which has given us porcelain or the web from the J acqu ar d loom which would be an a ccount o f the successive experi ments by which the two inventors have attained the realisation of their conception It is therefore by the history of wh at we may term our discovery that w e are i n vited by logic to begin the explanation of the system The reader is asked to pardon t h e i nt r usi on of the author s personality i n a work of this kind ; but for an author the i nterest of the idea and h i s succe s s take precedence over every other consideration and i n t h e name of logic and for the sak e of clearness of exposition we may perhaps be permitted to begi n the treatise by an account of the author s person al exper i ences ,

”

’

‘

’

We should like to point out before commencing that this linguistic me t hod i s so far as we know t h e ﬁrst yet brought forward which begins by the advancement of a theory ; it is indeed the ﬁrst which even admits of a th eory or w h i ch i t has been possible to form into a distinct system Jacot ot Robertson O llendorf & c have in reality nothing to do with theory ; their works as we shall show do not rest upon any real principle of psychology ; they ei t her consid er themselves superior to all principles or more pro bably t h e possibility o f a theory neve r occurred t o the m ,

‘

TH E

T H O R A TTEM PT S TO L E A R N TH E G ERM AN L AN G U A G E C LA SS ICA L A N TECE D ENT S —T H E C O MMENCEM ENT —H A M B U R G U NI V ER S ITY AU

“solid

leaving what are termed by our mast ers studies I embraced both by taste an d by vocation the ca reer of teach ing I was at first in charge o f a fifth ( lower middle ) class and in th e i ntervals of the lessons I h ad to prepare students 1 for the B accalaureat Besides this I followed a ssiduously the Academy co urses in literature and science most of these bein g give n at hours whe n I was at liberty This first stage an d these university studies in o ur lovely tow n o f C aen were ,

Th e F r ench m at r icul at i on ,

con s i d er ed eq ual

d egr e e ( T r an s

)

Io and

H I STO RY

CO N CE P TI O N

AN D

O F THE S YS TE

to the language of G erman scien ce I promised myself t o p r oﬁt well by such a good opportunity and to make consider able use of this pleasure ‘

‘

The earn er pl geon be fore taki ng its flight mount s straight upwards into the air and seeking its w ay measures the space i t has to traverse To estimate approximatel y and to fi x in m y own mind the distance between the point of d eparture and the point of arrival I resolved to listen at the very first at l east once to each of th e profess o rs and see how much of his thought I should be able to grasp by the attentive observat io n of his gesture and a ccent Alas ! I can only state my absolute incapability of penetrating a solitary one of the ideas so eagerly and so r el i gi ousl y gathered up by a crowd of students whose happiness I envied I was therefore compelled t o set to wo rk ” “ commenci n g at the v ery beginning ,

TIIE FIR S T EFF O RT —T H E G R A MM A R A N D IRRE G U L A R UN S UCCE SS FU L RE S U L T ~

ER B S

For the study of languages I knew b ut one process — a pro c e ss without any particular name —the classica l proce s s My faith in the grammar the dictionary the tran sl ation from an d i nto the foreig n language was entire and a bove suspicion To b “ my mind t h e value and t h e efficacy of this universal pr o c e ss were indisputabl e Was it not the final outcome of the experience and t h e science of mankind ? To learn first word s then the rules for grouping these word s and of these to mak e u p sen t ences this seemed to me to include the whole art the whole secret the who l e philosophy of t h e teaching of lan guages \Vas it not thus that I had learnt Latin myself and had after ward s taught it to others W a s i t not to this process that I owed what knowledge I possessed of G reek ? .

”

thought about it seriously my knowledge of G reek appeared to me it is true insufﬁcient for a living language and the thought of the length of time I had devoted t o their study would sometimes come to trouble the serenity of my co n ﬁdence and to disq uiet t h e hope that I had of m aster ing G erman in a few weeks but a word a s ayi n g an inward IV h en I and Lati n

ﬂ

G RAM MAR

AND I RRE G U L A R V E RBS

voice had the virtue o f chasing away all these t roublesome “ Those are dead languages I said to myself t houghts “and G erman is a spoken language And this simple anti thesis su Eiced to put to ﬂight every obj ection , every impor t anate suggestion ,

”

I had armed myself after l eaving Havre with a grammar and a d i ct i on ai y I applied myself resolutely to the study of the gramm ar I divided it i n to seven or eight portions and I d evoured it I assimilated it in a week D eclensions stro ng weak and mixed con j ugat i on s re gul ar and irregular adverbs , preﬁx es and propo s itions syntax and method al l passed under my eye upon my tongue and into my me m ory This a l l with the exception of the table of irre ular verbs g was divided into two parts an d imposed as a task for th e two following days I n my previous studies I had given more than a year to learn the Latin grammar ; in ten days I had mastered the grammar of the G erman lang uage This victory swelled my courage and I hasten ed fo rthwith to t h e Aca demy in order t o measure the extent of this ﬁrst step and to realise the power acquired .

alas ! in vain did I strain my ears ; 1n vai n my ey e strove to interpret th e slightest movements of the lips of th e professor ; m vain I passed from the first class room to a second ; not a word not a single word would pene t rate to my under standing N ay more than this I did not even distinguish a single one of the gr ammatical fo rms so newly studied ; I d id n ot recognise even a single one of the irregular verbs j ust freshly learnt tho ugh they m ust certainly have fallen in crowd s from the lips of the speaker For a moment I was prostrated Then musing over the extent of my first e ffort I consoled myself for this deception o r for this failu re by reflecting that I had familiarised myself as yet with rules and terminat ions only and that with respec t to th e foundation of the language itself I knew only its 2 4 8 i r regular verbs All that was ne edful again to give me courage w as the explanation or reason of my failure ; and I thought I had found it in nothing more serious than the foregoing consideration I V h at n ow had to be done therefore was to attack the foundation s of the G erman la nguage But where w as I t o find these foundations and h ow detach them fro m th ei r ' S urroundings l B ut

II I S TO

AND CO N CE P TI O N

T H E S TU D Y

SY S TE M

O F THE

T H E R O O T S —S EC O N D

D ECE PTI O N

When in my school days I had been learning G reek I had studied Lancelot s book of roots Full of faith in the pro mise of the professors who without being certain of it them selves yet assured us that it su fficed to thorough ly know the t w o thousand root words to kno w G reek thoro u ghly I h ad perhaps ten t i mes learnt ten times forgotten and ten times ” more reconquered the G arden of G reek Roots which finally became for me a kind of breviary which I repeated over every m or n 1n g The promise of my masters it is true was not fulfilled an d although I w as perhaps a better Hellenist than any other of my codisciples at the university I could n o t altogether deceive m y self I was very far fro m being able to read and enjoy Thucydides and P lato as I could read and enjoy the authors ” “ of my native land But G reek was a dead lang uage and no doubt there was for a knowledge of dead languages a point w hich one could never expect to p ass This reflection tran i l li u d me by deludi n g me as t the real value o f my classical s e o q knowledge ,

’

“G arden

that if by the of G reek Roots I had not alto gether arrived at the promised land I did not feel that I h a d the right to draw from this an argument against the e fﬁcacy of the G erman roots G erman being a living language the pro cess which was defective for G reek might yet be e xcellent for A remedy G erman O n e should be careful not to prej u d ge which might be i mpotent upon a dead body may very easily produce an e ff ect upon a livin g being Far from conﬁrming this obj ection reason reminded m e that there should be and in fact there w as for each language a foundatio n a substance as for every other thing ; and tha t this foundation this substance is nothing el s e than the col l ec tion of the roots namely that part that unalterable element of the l anguage which suppor ts and no urishes the varied and variable assembl age of cases and of conj ugations as a plant suppor t s and maintains the phenomena of e f o r escen ce So

ﬂ .

I ma de up my mind th erefore to treat G erman e xactly by t h e same process as G reek and I visited all the boo ks e l lers o f ,

O F TH E RO O TS

S TUD Y

Hamburg to procure a book of this descrip t ion which vas t ly N evertheless t o my astonishment was not to be found G erman w as I reflected a lang uage constructed after the m anner of G reek O ught not the study of the roots to be made the subject of the first lesson of al l the courses i n philology ? C ould it be possible for this science to have an y other poi n t of departure ? I de emed it impossible that a collection o f G erman root s shoul d not e xist ; and in S pite of the denials of the book sellers I set mysel f to W 01 k to find this book and to look through all their shops (they spoke French ) and I ended a t l ast by discovering i n the corner of a shelf the treasure I sought ,

It was quite a s m all book bearing the name of a J esuit father a very complete collection and with the roots arranged If my memory serves me this booklet i n alphabetical order contained eight or ni n e hundred roots The smallness of this numbe r I must confess somewhat disenchanted me ; it dis concerted and almost discoura ged m e I f indeed w ith t h e two thousand G reek roots I had arrived at n o very practical result how could I hope to achieve anything practic al by a study which only required half so great an effort ? A thousand roots I said t o mysel f at last after having counted and recounted the columns of the book it is at an y rate so much gained Let us be gin afterwards we will see i f anything more complete can be discovered ,

Four days afterwards the Jesuit father s work had passe d into my memory I gave myself four d ays more to look through and digest my g r ammar my 2 4 8 irregular verbs and my 8 0 0 roots This time I thought I really possessed the foundation of the language as well as the laws and the secre t o f its forms regular and irregular — h d If t e method was goo and how could I d oubt i t —w as i t not the grammatical and classical method ? If the masters of my al ma m ater were not deceived — and how should they be themselves the representativ es and the ministers of the wisdo m of the university ? If i n a word I had not completely m is taken the reality of my e ffort s and the amoun t of work aecom i l h d s e I ought now to possess the er m an language doubt G p less not i n al l the amplitude of its riches but su fﬁ cientl y at any rate to listen to read to penetrate whatever was within the reach of a person of ordinary intelligence ’

H I S TO RY AND CO N CE P TI O N

SYS TE M

O F TH E

I h aste ned t o the academy content within m yself and filled with confidence t asting in advance the double pleas ure f o f hea ri ng science through a foreign dialect an d of feeling my small pe rsonality suddenly increased by half in ma st ering the speech of a vast country Imagine then if it be possible the astonishment at first then the stupefaction then the degradation by which I was overtaken after the first quarter of an hour at the lecture I attended whe n I h ad to submit to the evidence and to confess to m y self that I was so far as regards the spoken language exactly in the same state as upon the first day ; that I did not understand a word n ot a syllable and that all my effor t s had been made in pure waste or at least had prod uced no A appreciable result { This was no longer a mere deception —i t was a failure ; nay more than this it was a defeat M m o ur p mp r e a y 0 ? was deeply touched my courage and the confidence I felt i n a my energy were greatly diminished thereby I sorrowfully dered back to my lo d gings seeking the causes of m y c apability an d unfortunat ely this t ime unable to g1 ve m y s elf any explanation ,

‘

T EM PT A T C O N V ER SA TI O N—D I SG U S T A N D F A TI G UE —RE A D IN G A ND TR A N S LA TI O N T H EIR W O RT H L E SS NE SS D EM O N S TR A TE D

AN A T

I now attempted to converse with my hosts Up to this time I had neglected or rather disdained this means as being too slow too uncertain too casual too troublesome especially f o r those to whom I spoke However I had taken rooms at a hai r dresser s ; I could hardly have been i n a better school S o I drew myself together for another e ffort and each d ay foun d me established for long h ours in the hairdresser s saloon where I attempted to follow the conversation hazard ing from time to time a sentence carefully prepared befo r e hand awkwardly constructed with the aid of my roots and grammar and apparently always possessing the property o f a stonishin g and hugely amusing the customers .

’

M eanwhile the days passe d and the weeks also , and truly

I could n o t see what I h ad gain ed from one morning to th e I consid ered that the sundry conventional phrases I o ther .

TRA N S L A TI O N

CO NV E RS A TI O N AND

uld now exchange with the frequenters of the house were really not worth the pains I had gi v en either t o gather or to retain them I felt besides that to converse w ith me was m ute a n undertaking hardly le s s painful than with a deaf M oreover I had an intense des i re an ardent thirst for order and logic to which the scraps of ordinary conversatio n m om or less vapid and continually interrupte d correspon ded but i ll Th i s want of order enervated and fatigued m e beyon d m easure S tudied l n this m anner a la n gu age appeared to m e un d er the guise of where the work of the M M destro yed that co

S eeing

no limit to a work thus carried o n at haphazard I suddenly broke o ff w ith a process that could lead me to n othing and I returned to reading —trans l ation by the ai d The prodigal son who had one moment o f the diction ary wandered from t h e straight path entered once m ore upon classic ways The depth of the ideas translated would prove no obstacle nay rather for a student of philosophy should possess so I went direct to G oethe an d S chiller a n attraction If I had bee n able to doubt f or one instant the wisdom an d “ E t si m en s non l aeva t h e infallibility of the university ” f ui sse t I should have been able — i n deed I o ught to have been forced from t h is moment to appreciate at i t s true value the study of roots and the vocabulary in general that exercis e so much extolled by all scholastic bodies ,

in spite of t h e perfect knowledge I believed I had acquired of the roots of t h e G erman language although I was able to repeat them by heart from o n e en d to the other and although I had saturated m yself with them every morni n g before breakfast, yet when I opened the first page o f m y author I found I could recognise h ardly any of the word s I had acquired thou gh the page must have contained many of them If perchance one of the m seemed t o me t o be a little better know n or less stra n ge t h an the others its inner se n se always escaped me ; this I could never find and above all could never y fix It w as exactly as one recalls having seen a person somewhere wi t hout being able to call to mind eithe r his name or w h at he was P ractically ,

‘

Wh en my gl ance fell upo n a word of my n ative tongue t h e idea rep resented by this word shone or sparkled forth so to ,

H I S TO RY AND CO N CE P TI O N

O F TH E

SYS TE M

speak under my eyes The wo r d became t r an s ﬁ gur e d with a certai n mysterious element of l ife I beheld n o longer mere letters I s aw t h e idea itself S trange that this phenomenon would not occur for the G erman word eve n when I had been able to determin e its meaning by the aid of the dictionary The word was always as a dead bod y stretched upon the paper Its mean ing shon e not forth u nder my gaze ; I could draw forth neither the idea nor t h e life Tragen for instance was for me but an arbitrary assem blage of si x letters perfectly incapable of revealing to me the eff ort or the special movement it had the mission to represent The hour was yet far distant when I should ask myself t h e reason o f this di ff erence or should seek the expl anation of this curious phenomenon O ther trials w ere needed to ope n m y eyes ,

‘

my work on the roots and the irregular verbs s eemed to have been made in v ain N evertheless I cou l d not bring “ myself to believe this seriously The fire smoulders under “ the ashes I assured myself and will brighten up little by little We must read , read read d ay in and day out trans late translat e continually hunt hunt a hundred times afte r the same word in the dictionary ; catch it a hun d red times a hu ndred times release it we shall finish by taming it The fi r st d ay I had much diffi culty i n deciphering even one and I was not sure I had not made a dozen blun d ers i n The second page seemed to be equally difficult with the For a week I worried and tossed about my d ictionary is week I had hardly interpreted the meaning of eight pages and the ninth did not promise to be less obscure or le s s l aborious than the preceding .

‘

”

I felt I was not advancing that I should never by t his means arrive at the knowle d ge of the language 1n its totality that the words di d not grave th emselves upon my m emory and that my work th i s t i me was indeed a P enelope s w e b Transl ation might be a useful and necessary exerc i se for t h e s tudy of G r e ek and Latin ; it appear e d to me to be far less fruitful for living languages I dared to ,

’

H I S TO RY AND CO N CE P TI O N

O LL EN D O R

’

Tn E

TE N

M ET H OD —ENC H

DA YS j

— A

SAD

DO U B T

S TER —D E L U S I O N

SYS TE M

O F T HE

TMENT —T H IRT Y L E SS O N S A C KN OW L E D G MENT o r TH E N

I paid another visit to the booksellers of Hamburg and telling them of my unfortunate experiences I begged the m to l e t me into the secret of the persons who learn G erman or r ather o f those who had really arrived at learning it They immediatel y o ff ered me O l l en d o r f s book and bade me “ pay especial attention to these words ﬁ ft yfourth editi on The whole world then studied this book ! There was no d oubt of it it was cer t ainly here th at all the foreigners who s poke G erman had learnt that language I bo ught the cele b r at e d method ; I read the preface attentively then I medi “ t at ed and I pondered for some time over this promise G erman ” in ninety lessons ,

’

”

‘

Three months added to the lo n g weeks sacrificed to my unfruitful trial s represented a period which e x ceeded con si d er ab l y the time I had j udged nece ssary for a first initiation into the ordinary language and from this would result an annoying delay which would derange all m y plan s for stu d y at the Berlin University I therefore put the question to myself if I could not by stubborn e ff orts accomplish i n si x weeks the work which an ordinary student would achieve i n three months ? It was a thing that might be tri ed I divided m y d ay into three parts and in each I placed a lesson of O llendorf It is unnecessary to s ay more than that success r ecom en se d my zeal and each day saw me at the end of my triple p tas k I should like to retrace here for the benefit both of teachers and of students the impressions which I felt in p ass ing abruptly from the classic met hods to these n e w methods ” extra scholastic w hich might be aptly termed ,

Inste ad of isolated words as abstract as logari t hms such as the roots and irregular verbs connected together by th e purely fortuitous circumstance of the simi larity of their initial letters O llendorf produced words ready set i n their phrases the meani n g of which was conse q uently deﬁnitely ﬁxed and w hich h ad for connectio n, if not logical relationship , at an y 1

TH E r ate those of u s age

th e

O LL E N D O RF

S Y S TE M

d ay im mediate wants of life and of e v ery -

Have you a knife ? Have you any shoes

Yes I have a knife Yes I ha v e some shoes ,

The gra m m ar instead of being presented as an un d i gested mass of abstractions of theories more or less obscure of rules and exceptions regulating d pr i me, and fro m the heights of a special book matters unknown to the pupil was hidden beneath the kindly form of counsel given as th e n ecessity for it arose passing immediately into practice embodying itself in actual facts and in habitual locutions to which one had recourse a hundred times a day 2

r ative literary language o f It was no longer by the ﬁgu 3 classical authors that the pupil was forced to begin It w as t h e expression of the life of every day the expression o f the most ordinary phenomena that O llendorf presen t ed to us or pretended to present to us and this i n d oses having t h e appearance of being regulated according to the measure of a partial e ff ort of the mind This linguist gave the actual obj ective wo 1 ld for t h e foundation of his ediﬁce ; the world of facts not of pure idealities and abs t raction s With him we commenced n o longer at the topmost summit as we had done at college when l e arning G reek and Latin where metaphorical language was t h e kind almost exclusively cultivated and w as in reality th e only l angu age held in honour .

Th e same word reappeare d indeﬁnitely sprung upon one abr uptly incoherently ap rop os of nothing and su bdui n g by its very frequency both the eve and the ear This wan t of order this desultoriness appeared to me t o conform perfectly with the ordinary method of li fe O l l e n d o r f s m ethod was decidedly based upon N ature : it was certainly a natural method As such it cou l d not fail to lead to th e point at which the child whose infallible method O llendorf seemed to have copied so quickly and easily arrives 4

’

These n um e 1 ous advantages amply accounted to me fo1 t h e favour which the new method enj oyed and the vogue whic h had raised it to twenty edition s a year After the arid pro ce ed i n s of the classical m ethods and the intellectual fatigu e g w hich results from these , O l l en d or f s book S pread before thos e ,

’

H I S T O RY AN D CO N CE P TI O N

SYS TE M

O F TH E

who still had the courage to st udy lan gua ges like a deliciou s oasis where real and livi n g beings were once more encountered instead of the sempiterna l and od iously abstract phantas ms of t h e classical solitudes I found one thing only to object to in the book and this was its smallness M y repeated checks had rendered me distrustfu l Its weight seemed to me at first glance too light to equal that of a complete idiomatic system its volume a ppeared to me too re stricted to contain the whole m ateria l of a human language But the promise of the author was formal and formally inscribed i n the preface to the reader f This promise had been repeated republished fi t y four times in fi f t y four editions Had I the right to doubt a statemen t whose truthfulnes s no one until that time had publicly con tested ,

I boldly entered my new ski ff m aking regularly my three knots a day After an unin t errupted e ff ort a struggle with out quarter for a whole fortnight I had conquered and com conquered the half of the book thoroughly learning l et e l p y off each exercise repeating it copying it out taking each l esso n as a subject elaborating it treati n g it in all imaginable way s D uring this time I severely denied myself al l attempts at conversation with the family at whose house I was staying To be able to construct as well as to understand a sentence I considered it was necessary first to be in possession of all its elements A single unk now n t erm su fficed t o render it either impossible or incomprehensible I did not desire to expose myself to a failure which might a ff ect or diminish my courage I did not feel myself yet sufficiently assured to d are to chal l enge t h e doubt After the fo r tyfi ft h lesson I was seized with a great t em pt a tion to attend on e of the Academ y classes B ut th e fear of a fresh defeat which might paralyse a l l my forces restrained me “When I have finished ” I said to myself I w ill no longer d en y myself this pleasure Yet another week, and then another ” P atience till then and courage So

The third week passed and the fourth I had mastered the whole of O llendorf D id I kno w G erman ? P erhaps — but indeed I was hardly sure of it From the third week doubt s had begun to assail me which .

THE

O L L E N D O RF SYS TE M

I repulsed as suggestions of the E vil O n e The nearer I approached to the end of the book th e faster they arose numerous importunate pointing out thousands of forms thou sands of words forgotten o r wilful ly omitted by the author They became truly t errible when at the foot of one of the last pages I came upo n a note whe r e the master taking eac h of his di sciples as it were to one side acknowledged in conﬁdence that the work was but roughed out and invited h i m t o invent and construct by hi m self similar exercises to those given assuring him that he would shortly be able to compose them U p to this point I had implicitly believed in the words of the master To believe in him any further was clearly i m possible I candidly avowed myself incompetent for what he termed the completion of the undertaking which was i n reality Without t hat of teaching myself a language I did not know going to the Acad emy for the proof or the d em o n st r at i on o f the fact I understood that I had been once more deceived .

Talking w as as a matter of fact equally di fﬁ cult or perhaps I should say equally impossible as a month ago and the co n ver sat i on s i n the hairdresser s shop did not seem to be less impenetrable than at the date of my arri val I was at a loss especially at every point fo r the verbs and these the most common and essential Having represented throughout t h e book nothing but written words having never in reality translated any of the perceptions or conceptions proper to myself —when I wished to express these al l the words learn t by heart im m ediately took ﬂight and I found myself exactly i n the condition of Tantalus and this with out being able t o discover t h e sins that were costing me this chastisement ,

’

That which had led as tray my inexperience in the O llendorf method was above all its contrast with the classical met h o d and the deserved criticism it indirectly administered I was n ot to disco v er till much later the rodi ious r r rs of the eda o ic art that had resided over this miserable comp i l a g p p g t 1on o f word For the present all my wrath was poured upon the book seller who had praised and sold me the drug At ﬁrst h e “ entrenched himself behind the time honoured formula Well ” anyhow that s the book every one buys ; then changing h i s tune he drew forth from his shelves two other books and cast them toward s me —Robertson and Jacot o t I piousl y carried away these t wo fresh masters .

’

H I S T O RY A N D

CO NCE P TI O N V II I

or THE S Y S TE M

R O B ERT S O N —D IS O R D E R A ND A R B ITRA RINE S S E S TA B L I S II E D A S P RINCI P L E S — D I S C O NNECTE D S TE P S —T H E S Y S T E M A TIC V O C A B U L A R Y B Y I LCE T Z

JA C O T O T A N D

’

”

All is in all said J acot ot This time instead of yieldi ng myself bli n dly to the good fait h of my guide I determined to examine t o scrutinise attentively his ways and means to j udge beforehand if pos sible the point of arrival by the p oint of departure to read the last lesson of the b ook by the l ight of the ﬁrst .

llendorf proceeded by irreg ular bounds by leaps an d somersaults His principle was disorder — intentional and s y stematic d i s01 d er Hi s logic consisted l n mocking at logic In this he thought himself i n accord with Nature I had thought so too in the ﬁrst ins t ance as others besi d es myself had thought for the book was i n its ﬁ ft y fourth edition J acot ot on the other hand played as his imagination led him with the diverse sources of the associ ation of ideas , linked word to word perception to perception thought to thought sentence to sentence ev erything to everything From the acorn he went to the oak from t h e oak to the carpenter s axe to the ship from the ship to the sea from the s e a to the clou d s ; from the clouds he descended again upon the plain to go to the tillers of the soil to the harvests to the All was in all and all roads led o ur m i l l s to the rivers & c to Rome He laid the plan of the teaching which was to return to us later fr o m G ermany u n der the name of obj ect ” les sons ,

ﬂ

’

N othing t hen seemed more contradictory than these two systems ‘ V h i ch was the better ? for the choice had to be After meditating long ove r them I thought I per m ade ce i ve d that the t wo systems apparently so opposed touched at a point and that this point was a vice and a fundamental v ice which took from both the right to arrogate the name of a “ B oth rested upon the arbitra r y and a frightful M ethod arbitrary it was If indeed O llendorf could not state exac t ly knife he j umped to the E nglishman s or w h y from the bread the S paniard s jackbo ot rather than to the back of an elephan t ” “ to danc e o r the planet S aturn ; why he admitted the verb .

”

’

JA C O TO T A N D RO BE RT S O N

s o on his side and re fused access to the v erb abstain — J acot o t would have been greatly embarrassed to explain why i n s t e ad o f going from the acorn to the ship he did not go to the roof of the Louvre or the belfry of N otre Dame

“to

‘

Although this latter system seemed to me to be certainly superior to the former still I fe l t that to yield myself to Jacot ot was to embark in a vesse l unprovi d ed with compass or r ud d ei It was a thousand chances to one that I shoul d ever touch port but rather should d rift about continu ally on a limitless ocean only to hear i n the end the new pilot cry “ out to me as the other had d one N o w try and find yo ur way by yourself The perception o f this first vice enabled me to espy a crowd of others I felt the weight of the book also and I found it quite as light as that of O llendorf I turned over its 1 2 0 or 1 6 0 lessons and I came to the conclusion that the frame w as decidedly much too smal l to contain the human language whose imposing m ass and i n fi n i t ud e of detail I was now begin n i n g to realise I closed the book and I o pened Robertson ,

”

“G i l

I found him occupied in dissecting I think a page of B las pirouetting about i n a hundred di fferent w ays o n each word t urning and twisting each sentence about endlessly putting q uest i on s an d giving answers often more than ext r ava gant then ﬁnally inviting the reader to set himself to work i n the same w a y and create from his own inner conscious ness and f ro m the same material a chapter as long as that of the t eacher A single paragraph of G i l B las thus ended by developing into a large v olume “ all w as in all E vidently for Robertson as for Jacot ot Their proceedings di ff ered but in this that Jaco t ot applied himself more particularly to make substantive spring fro m substantive intentionally neglecting the verb as too rebellious for his purpose Robertson on the other hand e xerted himself to make sen t en ce spring from senten ce and consequently verb fro m verb This he did by proceeding by questions and “ answers by having re course t o what he termed the S ocratic ” m ethod ,

”

I put to Robertson these two questions “ 1 H ow many pages of G i l B las approximately would be r equire d developed l n this manner for one to be sure of having gathered and assorted the whole of the forms, the whole of t h e .

H I S TO RY A N D CO N CE P TI O N

O F TH E S Y S T E M

terms of the G e rman lang uage meaning of cou rs e the language O f ordinary li fe ? 2 The collection having been made how much time should I require to read it over and repeat it i n order to fully assimi late the contents by whic h I mean to be m a condition that given an idea not of Lesage or F en elon of Addison or S wif t but of my own in which I should be able instantaneousl y and intuitively to ﬁnd the exact and adequate expression for i t ? I turned the leaves over and over and backwards and for these questions I on the same indict up or t i n g my j udgment on the same p ’

A certain book was at this epoch greatly i n vogue at the — G erman schools a book specially prepared for the study O f “ French This was the S ystematic V ocabulary by P l oet z; The two lan guages ran side by side in this book If it was good for the one it should be equally good for the other P l oetz at this time was teaching French with great success “ at B erlin I know not how it G ymnase Fran cais i n the was that it occurred to none of the booksellers to Offer m e this book It was not until much later when I n o longer had any need for it that it fell under my notice I afterward s became acquainted with P l oetz himself and often discussed with h i m the m erits and defects of his book ,

”

ﬂ

“S ystematic

In my j udgment the Vocabulary lacked in o rder t o be a real method merely that which was lacking to P ygmalion s statue to make it G alatea namely life Quite s u i ci en t one m ay say It is nevertheless true that P l o tz was upon the right track If he had allowed himself to study the littl e ch ild and the n t o recast his book upon the model o f the as yet unpublished proceedings of Nature instead of leaving it in the state of dry and abstract category of i n complete nomenclature always m Or e or less arbitrary then the ﬁ ve N A T U RA L M E TH O D would have been con str ucted twenty years sooner He d id not try t h is ; one can only suppose tha t the idea did not occur to him ”

’

The book made the fortune o f its author without producing th e results sought for by him The best criticis m upon t his ﬁrst book is the later work of P l oet z hi m self The V ocab u being al ways found incapable of giv ing the student the l ary .

II I S T O RY

d ecrease

AND CO N CE P TI O N

O F TH E S Y S T E M

I already knew how apt my were to produce this e ff ect .

G erman

conversations

I needed something to take the place of the ch at t i n gs a n d socialities of the students which moreover appeared to me not particul arly proﬁtable S O I resolved for a next trial to attend the uni versity courses and to do t his perseveringly from morning unt i l night I wished to see whether my car would not i n time be come accustomed to the sounds O f the G erman words and the acc ent of the phrases and whether l i ke the child by sheer force of bending the attention and sens e of hearing to them I could not become able intuitively to pene trate the meaning of the expressions used by the profess or I persevered thus for a who l e week listening without under standing a w ord to discourses which seemed to me to form one continuous sound and which , if they had been written down w ould have formed a single word on a single line threequarters o f an hour long In other words on the last day of the week as on the ﬁr st I could disti n guish neither the words nor the sentences nor the periods of the professor I had sat an d watched for seve n or eight hours a day v arious mouths alter h ately Opening a n d shutting and this was all S uch an ent i rely negative result demo nstrated to me that the new means w as no means at all an d that I might attend the G erman university for a thousand years under these con d it i o n s without learning G erman ,

What was I to do ne xt ? Had I not tried every thi ng ? \Vas a Frenchman really a being incapable of learning an y o t her language than his o wn ? N o for I had seen some simple workmen who had come from France some time after m ysel f wh o apparently could understand everything and talk about everything with the ﬁ r st comer What was it that held i n such utter incapability a young professor gifted with a strong memory and a will perhaps e v en stronger still ? ,

H E RO I C A ND

—STU DY V ICT O R Y—T H IR D

RE SO L V E

D I C TI O N A RY FUTI L E D E C E PT I O N ﬂ-

O F

TH E

— S RU G G T

TO I L

I E .

There still remained on e last meth od but one so strange so e xtraordinary so unusual —I might say so heroic —that I hard ly dared propose it to myself This s upreme means was ,

S TU D Y O F THE D I C TI O N A RY

nothing else than to learn o ff the whol e dictionary My “ I told myself is not su fﬁciently fa m iliarised ﬁrs t car with the terminations then with the body of the words that part from which the idea ought to shine and spring forth i n stantaneously “N ow a resolute and persevering study of the dictio n ary would evidently produce this double resul t In fact the same terminatio n as well as the same rootword striking thousands an d thousands of times upon the eye the ear and the mind the inner sense of this termination and this root the idea hidden in these two elements of the language—would end by shining forth with the sound itself and by being substituted so t o speak for it .

”

‘

Therefore if I could assimilate the whole dictionary w ith the words it contains there was every evidence that every ter m being no longer a sound but an i d ea I should be able to follow and understand every conversation read every book and by reason of this double exercise arri ve i n a very ” uently myself short space of time at being able to speak ﬂ O “B ut to learn o ff the d i ct i on ar added my thoughts , y what an e xtravagance ! Was ever such an idea entertained before ? It was absurd on the face of it and quite unrealisable There m ust be some other means of arriving at the same result The child learns no dictionaries by heart ; and even supposing s uch a desperate means should enable m e to succeed it was certainly not a method I could recommend t o any one else If none other existed n o one wou l d of a surety ever undertake to learn G erman S uch were the reﬂections and obj ections by which I myself combated this strange idea ,

”

After a time the human mind becomes familiarised with Situations and resolutions which at first appeared impossible and utterly repugnant S eeking a fresh way and findi n g no n e I fell back naturally on my dictionary an d returned in S pite of myself to my latest notion ” “ It is quite true I reflected that the child learns to spe ak without Opening the dictionary ; but it is also true that i t finds itself in conditions far other tha n those in which I am placed —condition s ext remely favourable in which I cannot hope again to place myself and which I am powerless arti Besides the child has before i t an fi ci al l y to re est ablish .

H I S TO RY AND CO N CE P TI O N

O F TH E S Y S T E M

indeﬁnite time s uch as I have not now at my disposal Th e hours glide away slowly for the child but for me day devours day month courses after month C ost what it may I mus t go forward I am forced to turn like Alexan d er to any remedy however violent only let the e ff ect be prompt ‘

M y will began to waver

Fro m day to day the thought o f the dictionary gained grou n d M y reason even al lowed itself to be subdued and gradually passed over to the enemy The finis h ing stroke was give n by a sudden consideration and an “ argument which seemed to me final I thought I S not learning the dicti onary in reality the work which is imposed when we study the classical tongues ? Would it not be simply carrying out at a stroke by a co n tinued —a Herculean —e ff ort what we are supposed to accomplish at college li ttle by little in the S pace of n i ne years that is to say by n ine times 3 6 0 partial eff orts ? Is not the pupil obliged to cull the words of a language on e by one during nine or ten years from the dictionary ? If he has been made to see k d iligently for them i nstead o f having them o ff ered directly to him s o that he could serve himself wi t h the m from hand to hand this is apparently because the research itself is held to be advantageous and pro Indeed thus to hold an expression in his fi t abl e for h i m memory during the time required by its research its deter mination its organisation and its application to a given thought is not all this t o submi t it to a kind of incubation thoroughly suitable for the purpose of opening o ut and fixing t his expression in the mind .

I took agai n the path toward the classical teaching an d after having made the amend e h onor a bl e I entered aga m 1nto grace I exalted I gloriﬁed its principles and its fundamental process Despair had brought about between routine and my min d a full and co m plete reconcili ation and without aski n g myself the question w hether the nine times 3 6 0 e ff orts we r e always crowned with success I exc l aimed “There is but one wisdom in the world that i n which I have been brought u p the wisdom of the university ! I wil l study the dictionary as they do at co l lege as the university requires B ut I will study it with a vigour which will cer f ai n ly gain me the plaudits of the masters who have sung me The frequency of repeti t ion, t h e praises o f the G reek roots ,

S TU D Y

O F T HE D I C TI O N A RY

repetition occas io n ed by daily needs will supp l y and more ‘ than supply the incubation occasioned by the const ant use of the v ocabulary a

Thereupon I took up my dictionary I weighed it agai n and again in my hands I counted its pages and the number of words in a page then I did a sum i n multiplication Three an d hundred pages I sai d to myself thirty thousand words If this can be learn t o ff if the t ask be feasible it must be accomplished within a month For no one need ﬂatter him s elf that he could retain for very long without practice a mass like this le arnt under these conditions The n e w matter wil l soon have covered up and oblit erated what had gone before Thirty days of S uper B esides there is the question of fatigue humanwork is a task which a man of my age and constitution can undertake at a pinch but there is no use in abusing one s strength for nothing and an e ff ort such as this could not be indeﬁnitely prolonged S O three hundred pages in thirty days t his is ten pages a day Can I do it ? And if I manage i t to -day could I do it to morrow and th e next d ay ten days followin g twenty days following ? Let us try .

”

’

The ne xt day at s ix O clock in the morning I opened my dictionary and at noon I had accomplished my first task It was a good augury b ut I did not yet dare to judge of the final result To prevent every cause of discouragement to avoid every annoying interruption fro m without I thought it prudent to resort to measures under whos e protection I had been able to study fi rst my roots and then the lessons of O llendorf I put myself and declare d myself in q uarantine and prohibited every walk and every dialogue which was not an absolute n ecessity I placed my recompense at the end of the month , the most lovely of all recompenses a lesson in philosophy at last understood at the uni versity ’

The second d ay a fresh ﬁght and at noon victory ! And i n the afternoon I had time to look over yesterday s ﬁeld of battle The eighth day I achieved my eighth triumph Three more such eff orts and the G erman language will be tamed The second week s struggle placed the second quarter of th e dictionary in my po wer Fif teen thousan d words were i n m y memory To turn back was impossibl e M y courage was ,

’

”

’

“

H I S TO RY AN D CO N CE P TI O N

O F THE S Y S T E M

exalted my conﬁd ence in th e comi n g success was absolute ; my happines s was co m plete ,

my quarantine and go to the university ? I brav ely resisted the te m ptation and persevered in my ﬁrst resolve , d esiring absolutely to keep whole and entire the surprise which w as to come at the end of the month The third week gave me the third quarter of the dict i o n a ry m ore t h e thirtieth day I turned page 3 1 4 the last ; a nd “ tri umphant than C aesar I excla imed That same V i ei t evening I went to seek my crown at the university—a crown surely wel l merited S hould I for a mo m ent bre ak hear a l esson , just one lesson at ,

”

“

comprehend what n ow h appened to m e it is necessary to have studied profoundly as I have S ince been able to do th e uestion of language to have determined accurately the con q d i t i on s in which mankind infant or adult must be placed that they may be able to learn any language n o matter which I understood not a word —not a single word ,

I sh all be refused credence by him wh o keeping his fait h 1 11 the classical m eth ods has studied only G reek a n d Latin ( I will not say learnt ) an d in whom faith in the dictionary is a nchored by a practice of ten twenty or thirty years He will never believe th at knowing thoroughly the el emen t s of a languag e from th e ﬁrst to the last I should not know t horoughly the language itself at any rate su ffi cientl y to under He will rather prefer to d e n y s tand it spoken or written t hat I was really in possession of the grammar and the voc a ,

b ul ar y

He also will not less refuse m e belief who having studi ed a living lan guage did not t hro ugh force of circumstances or by his own determ ination co n ﬁne himself excl us i vel y t o the clas sical pro cess and who making n ought O f the inﬂexible logic which caused m e to pu sh t h e precepts of the college to t heir la st extremities had the goo d sense to yield himself idly to t h e free and easy course of things and learnt like the little chi l d ” “ learns laughing and pl aying He w ill not believe that a book written expressly to be an aid to the study O f lan guages might prove an obstacle to the study of these lan guages I cert ainly would not h ave believed it myself if I had not g one t hrough t h e whole experience ,

, .

D O U BL E

FAI L U RE

“I

And never theles s I repeat did not understand a word not a single word And I p ermit no one to doubt the “ si ncerity of this statement N ot a word —not on e single ” word ,

”

Feeling u n ab l e to bring my mind to acknowledge such a result as this I return ed th e next d ay the day after that every day to listen to the professors whom I j udged to be the most cl ear an d interesting those who seemed to be most popular with the scholars But their lectures rem ained for me j ust as impenetrable as strange as they had been when ﬁrst I had listened at Hamburg If I could not hear perh aps at least I could read I look ed but the trial was n ot v ery up my G oethe and S chiller again m uch more successful than it had been at Hambu rg after the study of the roots It took me h alf a d ay to decipher two or three pages an d then I was not absol utely sure of hav i ng found the real meaning of all the sentences ,

one need be surprised at this double failure I shall ' demonstrate further on that it i s exactly what should have happened and I hope to lay bare the true causes of this obstinate incapability I m ay be allowed t o say at once how ever that this incapability was d ue not to any native or national incapacity of th e writer but solely to the process which was applied by h i m and which he n ow intends t o arraign NO

S ince

that time I have sometimes been reproached with ” having what is termed the gift for lan guages If I had it ” not then perh aps I hav e ac q uired it S i x months after this struggl e the outlines of which with its ﬁrst wanderings I have attempted to sketch I required no m ore than four months to learn any lan guage ; and I actually did l earn several one after t h e other of those I tho ught would be most useful to me ; but by followi n g out an entirely di fferent pro “ cess and as one m ay well im agine without learning o ff any more d ictionaries by heart .

”

O ne

of my university professors wrote one day this judg ment on t h e margin of a dissertation which I had submitted “ t o h im : Faculty of following long and far the same idea The preceding history pr oves that this faculty—which exclude s more or less a certain mobility of mind sometimes ex tremely .

‘

H I S T O R Y A N D C O N CE PTIO N or THE S Y S T E M

ecessary —is not always a good q uality above al l a practical quality What came next goes to demonstrate that I was still the same in the year in which I undertook to learn G erm an The process I followed was defective The proof o f t hi s w as v i sible and palpable A n y other perso n than m y sel f w o ul d h ave been convinced of h i s error a n d uttering m al ed i c tions upon his dictionary would have ﬂung it away tog ether But I was too obstinate with the roots of the Reverend Father to believe that I was not on the right path or that there coul d be another shorter and better Hence the next reason ing and the next resolution was this n

learnt the dictionary but I d o not know it thoroughly I have bee n able to know it t horoughly for a time and partially ten pages by ten pages but not in any co n stant manner in its entirety This alone e xplains m y failure and indicates at the same time the means to remed y the matter ‘ I must go th r ough m y dictionary again and in such a way that what i s learnt yesterday and to day will be repeated to morrow and so on until the thirtieth d ay s task which carry me through the whole vocab ulary In this manne r the vocabulary will become a part of my self and this tim e I shall be able to afii r m un h es i t at i n gly that I really do know ” the G erman language S o I recom me nced m y work upon this pl an an d I indeed perceived that I had forgotten much This discovery al mos t gave me pleasure ; it confirmed my judgment and j ustifi e d m y latest measures I h ave

’

‘

will spare the reader my further struggles I wi l l say simply that my w ill triumphed over all obstacles and that at the end of a fortnight I had again traversed the greater part of the dictionary I knew it so thoroughly tha t I could go through the whole of it in two hours and so saturate myself with it every morning Almost at a glance I could take i n the eighty words o f a column translati n g them mentally as rapidly as the eye could see them I should add that I went every day to pass seve 1 al hours at the u niversity but that my hope of arriv i ng at a comprehension of the word s of the pro f ossors was deceived always deceived deceived t o the very end I

Al as e r ror .

! I can I had

say it now it all depended upon a v ery smal l simpl y mist aken the organ The or gan of .

HI S T O RY AND

O F T HE S Y S T E M

N CE PTI O N

weather and the summer sun o nce more cal l ed up pictures of the c ountry within me I resolved to go back to my native soil and I departed with the ﬁx ed intention of returning to B erlin and of again j oining the classes , t o pursue the work I had commenced '

O L D—D E V E L O PM E NT O F L A N G UA G E I N NA TU RE S S C H OO L —N E W P O I N T O F D E PA R T U R E — O B S E R V A TI O N O F TH E C H I LD —A AT TH E C L U E —L OO K I N G — I M LL TH E I NTE LL E CT UA L D I G E S TI O N—S A Y I N G A ND D O I N G TH E G A M E —A L I G H T I N T H E D A R KN E S S

H ILD

RE E

Y E A RS

’

In taking leave of home ten months before I h ad kissed good bye to one of my little nephews a child of two and a half w h o was beginning to r un about but could not yet talk ears y When I entered the house on my return he began chatting with m e about all sort of things quite like a littl e man Although I had but j ust returned to France the question of lan guage as one can well im agine was my constant pre occupatio n and would remain so until I had triumphed over this obst acle To this po int every thing I saw everything I heard , n o w had reference ,

This la n guage so living and so thoroughly real w ithin th e po w e r of such a tiny mortal handled wit h so much ease applied to every thi n g with so much surety so much precision so much relevancy—this phenomenon could not but strike It was impossible not to make a comparison at m e forcibly once between the child and m yself h i s process and m y own “ What ! I tho ught this child and I have been working for the same time e ach at a langu age He playing round his mother running after ﬂowers butter i es and birds w ithout w eariness without apparent e ff o rt without even being con t scious of his work is able to say all he thinks express all h e sees understand all he hears and when he began his work his intelligence was yet a futurity a glimmer a hope And I versed in the sciences versed in literature versed in philo sophy armed with a powerful will gifted w ith a trained m emory guided by an enlightened reason furnished besides w i t h books and al l the ai d s o f science, ha v e arrived at nothin g , o r at practically nothi ng I ,

ﬂ

”

’

IN NATU RE S

T HE CHI L D

’

S CHO O L

How happy should I be i f I could talk G erman as this l i t tle child can talk French ; if I could express in G erman the simple facts which come to his tongue so instantaneousl y and so spontaneously and this without seeking ei t her word s or rules to construct his sentences ,

”

A doubt accompanied with a heavy anger rose in my m in d “ “The linguistic science of the college I e x claime d , has deceived m e has misguided me has led me completely astray The classic al method with its grammar its dictionary and its translations is a delusion —n o t hing but a delusion N ature knows and applies another method Her method is infallible ; this is an undeniable indisputable fact And with this m ethod all chil d ren are equally apt in learning languages D o they not all lear n their mother tongue an d Was Jacot o t re ally so t his within a time sensibly the same I wrong when he proclaimed the equality of intellects ? For languages at least his -assertion had a foundation In the school of N ature this equality was real enou gh W here is t h e child born under norma l co n ditions of whom N ature d espairs whom she declares incapable of learn ing its m other — tongue and of speaking it at the latest at four years of age I .

”

But to criticise is al ways easier than to do I now k n ew my process to be essentially defective But how ? In what 1 I had j udged t h e tree by its fruit only not as yet from its — inn er nature from itse lf To perceive anything we must ﬁrst have ligh t upon it Falsehood cannot be well distinguished but in the light of To j u d ge the value of my previo us process as o n e t ruth m ight say with a full knowle d ge of th e bri ef some deﬁnite poin t of support was necessary ; in other words I required a term of comparison This term of comparison w as a better — method i n the present case the method of Nature Le aving the classic system therefore entirely o n one side “ I said to myself To surprise N ature s secret I must watch ) this child ‘

’

”

To tell the truth I had been deceived so many times during the last year and the work of N ature seemed to me so con f used so complex so tangled so disordered so desultory and so arbitrary that I desp aired of d i s cover i n g anyt h i ng at all IV as there really anything t o discover ? W h y had it not been discovered already 1 ,

Hl S TO RY

CO N C E PTI O N O F THE S Y S T E M

AND

I did not therefore delude m yself N everthel ess I held in m y hand at any rate a slight clue and however frail loose lightly attached and insecure it might be yet I took the utmost pains never to release my hold of it This was the gui di ng thread which was to lead me through this dark labyrinth of ends and mea ns of causes and e ffects that I had entered wi t h such temerity and ﬁnally was to aid me in emerging therefrom w ith honour after having found and slain the monster ,

This guidi n g clue was the following simple reflection The child has not yet seen ever yt h i n g h as not yet perceived everything I should like to sur pr i Sé h i m in the presence o f some phenome n on entirely fresh to him and see w hat he would do —o u the on e hand -to express this phenomenon to himself in the aggregate and i n all its details an d t h en to assimilate the e x pressions gath ered at tempte d or in v ented by him o n t h e occasion of this ph enomenon “ Would you like to O n e day the mother said to the child come along with me ? I am going to the mill ; you have never I was present I heard the seen a mill 3 it wil l amuse you “ proposition ; and t h e words you have never seen a mill recalled m y watchword to me ,_

’

”

The little lad went along with his m other He went over the mill from top to bottom He wanted to see everythi n g to hear the name of everything to understan d about every thing E veryth ing had to be explained to him He went u p everywhere went into every corner stopped before the ti ck tack listening lon g in mute astonishment He curiously examined the bolters the millstones the hoppers He made the men open t h e fl ourstore he pulled back the curtain of the bran room admired the turning of the pans and belts gazed w ith a sort of dread at the rotation of the shafting and the gearing of the cog the action of the levers t h e pulleys the cranes lifting through space the sacks stu ffed / full of wheat All the time h i s e yes eagerl y followed t h e millers whitened with ﬂ our moving about here and there loading an d unloading sacks emptying some ﬁlling others stopping the motion of the wheels silencing one clattering wheel and then starti n g another .

Finally t h e child was l ed to th e great water wheels outside He lingered long in ecstasy b efore these indefat igable workers splashing column of water, which , an d before the mighty .

THE

DI SCO V E RY

NATU RE S

M E TH O D

’

issuing from the mill pond already full t o overﬂowing r ushed 1 ace fell i n roaring torrents white w i t h foam along the mill i n to the ﬂoats of the waterwheel setting and keeping i n motion with thunderous roar the giant wheels with all this immense and marvellous mechanism turning at full speed beneath their impul sion driving devouring the work wi t h a bewildering rapidi t y ,

H e came away deafened , stunned , astounded , and went

back home ab sor b e d i n thought He pondere d continually o ver what he had seen striving to digest this vast and pro longed perception I kept my eyes upon him wondering what could be passing wi t hin him what use he was going t o make of this newly acquired knowle d ge and above all h ow he was going to express it ‘

‘

In the child the intellectual digestion like t h e physical digestion operates rapidly This is doubtless owing to the fact that it never overloads its im agination any more than its digestive organs At the end of an l 1o ur h e had shaken o ff h i s burden He manifested an immense desire to recount S peech returned to every body what he had seen S o he told his story an d told it again and again ten times over always with variants forgetting some of the details returning on his track to repai r his forgetful ness ; and p a ssing from fact to fact from ph rase to phrase by the same familiar transition an d then and then He was still digesting but now it was on his own acco unt I mean he di d not stay to think any further over his perception he was conceiving it putting it in order moulding it into a conception of his own ,

‘

ﬂ

Afte r the discourse came the action after S aying cam e Doing He tormented his mother till she had made him half a dozen little sacks ; he tormented his uncle till he had built him a mill He led the way to a tiny streamlet of water ne ar by an d here whether I would or no I had to dig a millrace make a waterfall drive in two supports smooth t w o at pieces of wood ﬁ n d a branch of willow out two clefts i n i t stick the two pallets in these clefts ; in S hort manufacture a s imulacrum of a large wheel and the n lastly place this wheel beneath the waterfall and arrange it so that i t would turn and the mil l would work Th e uncle lent himself with great willingness to all these .

“

I I I S TO

RY AND CO N C E PTI O N O F T HE S YS T E M

fantasies an d acq uitted himself in the enterprise as w ell as he could D uring all t his time I watched each movement of the importunate little fello w attentively I noted each of his words each of his reﬂections striving to read the interior thought through the work or the external pre— occupation ,

When the mill was definitely m ounted and set age i n g the little miller filled his sacks with sand loaded them on his shoulder with a simulated effort accompanied with a grimace then bent and grunting beneath the w eight carried his grain to the mill shot it o ut and ground it so reproducing the scene not as h e had seen it but as he had after o f the real mill — ” wards conceived it to himself as he had generalised it Whilst doing all this he expressed all his acts aloud dwell ing most particul arly upon one word—and this word was the “ verb always the verb The other terms came and tumbled about as they m ight Ten times th e same sack was emptied refilled carried to the mill and its contents ground i n i m a ,

”

ﬂ

i n at i o n g

It was during the course of this operation carried out again ” “ repeated aloud that a a s h of a n d again w ithout ceasing light suddenly shot across my mind and I exclaimed softly to I have found it 1 N ow I understand I An d follow m yself i n g wi t h a fre sh interest this precious o pe ration by means of which I had caught a glimpse of the secret so long sought after I caught sight of a fresh art that o f learning a lan guage Testing at leisure the truth o f m y ﬁrst intuition and ﬁnding it conform more and more to the reality I wandered about repeating to myself the words of the poet J e vois j en t en d s I see I hear I know ! e sais j What had I seen i n this shor t and fugitive instant ? \V h at was it that had been mad e clear to me ? This I will now a t tempt to explain ,

’

”

The foregoing recital w ill serve as preface or introduction to the general system I am wishing to set forth i t will serve as a beaconlight to the reader w h o h as decided to follo w me across the labyrinth of theses and of facts of pri n ciples and o f consequences of precepts and criticisms contained in this For what had appeared to me in this short moment t reat i se — — for me ever memorable was a whole system a system o f time ’

TH E M IND O F TH E CHI L D

Nature weaving and building up the individuality of man It was the syste m of which in this u pon and by language book I propose t o re t race the principal lines and the general c onstruction of

NS I G H T — TRA NS F OR M A TI O N O F A P E R C E PT I O N I NT O A P RO CE S S C O MPA R E D WI TH S C H O LA S T I C C O N C E PT I O N — T H E C H I LD —S E C R E T L O G I C A ND M A RV E LL O U S O F TH E TH A T ORD E R O F N A T U R E

FI R ST

’

\V h il e before the mill , the child s mind had an d entirely receptive attitud e ; but after the

taken a passive “ hour of intel ” lectual digestion he had changed the part he played and reacting upon the impressions thus received and experienced he had worked upon them as upon r a w material and had transformed them into realities or if the term be preferre d “ into subj ective images that is to say into ideas To this phas e —the passive attitude of perception — had succeeded the active phase —the reactionary attitude first of the reflection then of the conception In other terms he no longer saw i n reality he saw in the m ind s eye ; he represented — see in the mind s eye let us not forget this fact this To psychological moment It is the point of departure of N ature s m ethod ; it will be the first basis of our linguistic method We sh all not commence either by declining or conj ugati n g verbs nor by the recita t ion of abstract rules nor by mumbli n g over scores of roots or colum ns of a vocabulary We shall com mence by represent ing to ourselves seeing in the mind s eye —real and tangible facts —facts already perceived by us a n d already transformed by the reflec t ion and conception into constituent parts of our own in dividuality ,

”

“

’

It was because I had represented to myself nothing but ” abstract words and not real facts grafted in reality up on my individuality so becoming an integral part o f my being that I had foundered so often in my laborious voyage across the grammar the roots the lessons of O llendorf and the d ictionary This was the ﬁrst truth or ﬁrst principle 1 now caugh t S ight of one which thoroughly e x plained to me the incapability t h e sterility the utter uselessness of all my previ ous e ff orts W as ,

HI S T O RY AND

C O N CE PTI O N O F TH E S Y S TE M

this the whole of what I saw ? N o indeed I n this humble scene of the mill reproduced or rather acted be fore me I had read and heard many other tr uths many other principles many other lessons ,

The child had represented to himself the complex pheno menon of the mill ; but under what form had he represented this phenomenon ? IV h at form had he given to the original perception ? Had the double work of reflection and conception altered m odi fi e d in an y way t h e i m m ed i at e perception ? Was this representation at fi r st ordered or d isordered ? Was it a picture a confused incoherent mass of facts and ideas a chance throwing together of remembrances recalling one of O l l en d or f s lessons arranged in a similar way and j ustify ing the point of “ departure and the intentionally illogical process gloried i n a n d brought into fashion by t his linguist ? N o no most certainly no I t is not disorder which presides over the secret and curio us work of reflection and conception It is a principle or rather it is a need diametrically Opposed to this ; it is that indeed hich m akes th e mind what it is To reflect to conceive is — set i n order to set the details of a perception 1n or der to ,

’

”

ﬂ ,

The lin guistic work of a child does not take place by chance d ay by day th e sport of the eet i n g impressions of the moment as the gr eater number of linguists procla i m and as I myself had at one time imagined The child follows on the contrary a marvellously straight line —ah order a logic absolutely i rre r o ach ab l e which we will presently reveal ; o n e which is the p secret o f this prodigious memory that allows a little child of four years old to assimilate i n a year the several thousand terms of the lang uage of ordinary li fe with all the phrases and turn s of expression derived therefrom w ithout includin g the forms termed grammatical ,

, ,

' .

Thus the child had reﬂected had conceive d had cas t in the ” “ mould of a certain concept the comple x perception of t h e phenomena o f the m ill C onsequently he must have set his “ — perception i n order I repeat set i n order — this perception being the sum total of the phenomena perceived by h i m in the presence of the mill Was i t upon t h is plan that I had myself worked when I had forced my eye never my inner sense to course at ful l the thirty thou sand s peed o v er the thirty thousand terms ,

”

HIS T O RY AND

CO N CE PTI O

O F TH E S Y S T E M

to perception progresses and develops the illimitable fabric of a human individuality which fabric constitutes the psych o logical or mental ground work of the individual himself ,

X SE C

III

NS I G HT—P R I N C I P L E S O F C LAS S I F I CA TI O N E M PL O YE D B Y T H E C H I L D —OR D E R O F S U C C E S S I O N I N T I M E —R E LA T I O N I N C U BA TI O N —S E C R E T O F E ND r o M E A N S —TH E TH E OF C H I L D S M E M OR Y— E X P L A NA TI O N O F M Y FA I L U R E S

O ND

’

The child conceives that is sets each o f its perceptio n s in order Who can dispute this ? But to set in order is to classify ; and to classify a rule a constant principle of classi ﬁ cat i on is necessary Without this order becomes d i sorder Therefore a further question is presented What is the rule followed by a child when it organises and mentally sets one of its complex perceptions in order ,

acknowledges si x or seven v arious relationships by which the mind of man associates ideas one with another “ Among these relationships is that of succession or contiguity in time I t was this that the child Observed by me had adopted He classed in his imagination all the facts relative to the mill according t o their order in succession o f time attaining by this means the most profound the most logical O f al l relationships —w e may say the sole scientiﬁc o n e of t h e seven that of cause and e ff ect P sychology

”

First of all he filled his little sacks with grain the n —h e hoisted them on his shoulder then —h e c arried them to the mill then—h e emptied the conte nts before t h e m i l l then —h e gave th em to be ground in an imaginary mill m the water ran out of the ill po n d , n wh i l e then —i t flowed along the mill race then —fell upon the wheel then —this wheel turned round then—the mill worked then —the mill ground the corn , then —the flour was sifted t hen —the flour was put into the sacks & c & c ,

T H E O RD E R O F S U C CE S S I O N

TI M E

The child represente d and repeated al ways in the sam e order the totali t y of th e facts which constituted his genera l perception of the mill ; an d when he recounted what h e had seen he joined as we have said all the sentences together ” “ invariably by the conj unction and then ,

The order O f succession in time was not however the only rel ationship which presid ed over his conception and regulated it To work as he worked to group the facts as he grouped them the child m ust evidently have grasped the second rela ” “ means to an end t i on sh i p that of To grind the corn was the ﬁnal or supreme ai m and this a i m or end was attained by the diverse means we have j ust 1 enu m erated which formed the materi al of the child s game The ﬁrst relationship that of succession in time serves to aggregate the various elements of the conception The second that of means to an end binds them together enframes them gives them that unity w ithout which there is an d can be no conception ,

’

”

P erception

of the relation of succession in time perception o f the relation of m eans to an end these are the instruments of logic with w hich N ature has provided childhood these are the loom and shuttle which elaborate the mar v ellous web of lan guage and by it the individuality of each on e of us To this primitive the repetition of t h satiable player until the moment when to distract him from the previous one of the prodigious memory of the child which without having learned by heart either grammar or authors or roots or v ocabulary but after having played some sixty games similar to that of the mill ﬁnds itself shortly in possession of its mothertongue Let us keep well before us these three articles of the natural method —r el at i on sh i of succession in time means en and the 1 n cubat i on t us carefully on on e side ; they s h ou l d form also the basis of our artiﬁcial system ,

h ad

therefore at last disco v ered the logic of Nature the ,

T h i s d e si r e f o r t h e per cept i o n o f t h e r e l at i o n s h i p o f m e an s t o an e n d i s s o un i ve r sal , t h at a ch il d s r st q ue s t i on w h e n pl ace d i n f r on t O f an “ ? ? e b o j ct i s al wa s, h a i f W o t s h a t r h a t o e s i t o T W d t d y ( ran s ) ’

ﬁ

HIS T O RY

A N D CO

N CE PTI O N

O F TH E S YS TE M

logic of the little child What a light it threw upon all my learned proceedings ! C omparing f r o m this n ewpoint O f vie w my own work with that of the child I could explain more and more t o myself b o t h t h e t ri um ph s of the ignorant baby and the defeats of the pr Ofessor The child had proceeded from one complex perception to another complex perception and I from one abstract word to another abstract word from one abstract phrase to another abstract ph rase Th e ch i l d had transformed its perceptions into conceptions and I had travestied the living word in characters purely typographic The chi ld had submitted each of his conceptions to the innate logic of the mind ; and I although I had studied the roots the grammar the dictionary —although I had learnt the lesso n s of O llendorf and of Robertson —I had begu n to work at hazard t o learn everything in the greatest disorder possible , Unde r the pretext of better exercising myself and o f hardening my memory The child sets its conceptions i n order in its mind and I disposed the letters of words in m y ey e I had therefore taken ex actly the opposite course to that o f Nature I had worked on a system exactly contrary to Nature s ; and thus I had arrived at a point which N ature never approaches .

”

’

X IV TH I

N S I G H T—TH E C H I L D A SS I M I LA TE S TH E M O TH E R TO N G U E A N D N O T W OR D B Y W OR D —RE S E NTE N C E B Y S E NTE N C E V E LA TI O N O F TH E H I G H VA L U E O F TH E V E R B—TH E T R U E P I V OT O F TH E NA T U RA L S Y S TE M

‘

M y intui t ion could not res t s imply here

I could not but remark that the child i n going from one fact to another fact but fro one proceeded not from one W W m sentence t o anot er sen ence Th i s was a revelation o f t h e highest importance which condemned the ancient system togeth er wit h the course o f d eclensions and dictionary and opened out to pedagogic science a new path wi t h a n e w hori zon I n the schoo l of N ature the child does not spell ; nev e r .

I M PO RTAN C E d oes i t

O F TH E

V E RB

spell isolated words It knows understands enounces E ach isolated word is a n n o t hing but complete sentences abstraction ; the child does not comprehend abstractions It is by sy n t h esi S t h at the human mind commences its growth The fac ul ty of analysis is the f r uit of age of experience of reflection The child s first word even if monosyllabic is n ot a simple word but a phrase a complete sente n ce : the enunciatio n imperfect but formed from a j udgment fully complete The child of three conquers assimilates the mothertongue not word by word but phrase by phrase sentence by sentence \V e will also put on one side this precious article of th e nat ural system with it to endow , later on our artificial system ,

’

Finally t h e child going from act to act articulated eith er aloud or softly to himself the expression of this a ct and this expression was necessarily the verb This was the l ast revela tion ( or the las t but one) and perhaps the most important How shall I trace what this revelation was to m e ? The verb ! Why it was the soul of th e sentence The verb w as the foundation upon which the child little by little built up his sentence The verb was the germ from which piece by piece sprang and blossomed forth the sentence itself The verb ! Why when we have this element of the sentence we have al l ; when this is lacking we have nothing The verb This the n was the link by which the child attached sentence to sentence perception to perceptio n co n ception to conception ,

I n the classic al process as in the methods of O llendorf and workers it was t h e substantive that played the principal h i s co part a n d in the p rocess of N at ure it was the verb ” The verb 1 The method which rested upon the s u bstantive in reality rest ed U pon space which contained the substances N ow space having n either height nor dept h beginning nor end the method which took it for a basis was condemned to be and to remain eternally illogical arbitrary disordered When is it in reality that you name the sky ? W hen and in relation to what do you name the earth ? When this knife ? When the ﬂoor ? A n d in the name of what principle by what association of ideas do you pass from one to the other : from the spoon to the horse from the ﬁ sh to the spoke of a w heel The arbitrary and nothi n g but the arbi t rary will govern your system ,

HI S T O RY AND

C O N CE PTI O N O F TH E S Y S T E M

Have you a hat N 0 but I am eating a beet root writes or might write O llendorf C onsidered by itself and divorced from time space is the region of chaos and disorder Therefore every method based u pon the substantive cannot represent and does not represent in reality anything but a vai n j ugglery “Have you a hat Yes I have a hat Have you a broom ? Y es , I have a broom ,

The verb ! The method which is based upon the verb is based in reality u pon time The G erman term Z ed wor t w time word is a hole chapter of psychology In time and ( ) by time everything is i n order because everything in it is successive every thing springs from somethin g else Th e method which rests upon the verb is therefore based upon a principle of order We I V e will take up this theme again in another place w ill establish when the proper moment arrives the immense value of the verb an d assign to it the part and place belonging to it in a linguist ic method which desires to rival the method of Nature For the moment it su fﬁ ces to say that the ver b a ppeared to us as the pivot or a x is of the linguistic method practised by N ature This sole insight contained in germ a w hole revelation i n the art o f teaching languages ”

“

T HE

L A N G UA G E — LA W O F I TS F OR M A TI O N — W H A T I S T H E R E C E PT I V E OR G A N O F L A N G U A G E —I N CO M PRE H E NS I RL E E R ROR O F TH E C O LL E G E WE B

N ature

and the child had now both in great part given u p their secrets there remained only to draw the conclusion “ A h uno Th e conclusion was as instantaneous as v ision omnia from one I learnt all id i c r a m d e Whence had the child drawn the t erms which he had us ed to e x press such a comple x scene as that of the mill ? As s ur e d l y it was not fro m a d ictionary nor from a grammar n or from any book whatever for he did not know how to read He Obtained them from his mother or fro m the person s who had ans wered his questions at the ti m e of his v isit to the mill .

”

TH E W E B O F

LAN G UAG E

”

Amo n g these expressions some were special and there fore new to him These he had gathered immediately d irectly upon the fact itself together with the perception The others —and these formed the greater numb er were the term s already acquired by him having s erved to translate his anterior perceptions ,

, .

w ith

had 5

u i st i c g

new locutions had been a game which had given him a very similar pleasure to that of t r ying on a n ew j acket an d in fact the new perception of the mill with its expression “ constituted for his mind a veritable n e w adornment ,

the one hand this alli ance this forced mixture of the old with the new ; on the other hand this grafting of the n e w upon the old enabled me to catch sight for the ﬁrst time in its true light of the web of language I saw that t o e x press each new perception it was necessary so t o speak to employ th e whole of the v ocabulary already acquired Here t h e ” “ formula of Jacot ot All is in all found a j ust application Language appeared to me under the form of an emb where the same thread ran from en d t o en d al w ay s identical in itself yet n evertheless creati n g constantly vary ing designs by combining with its neighbours I d rew from this fact hitherto unobserved or neglected t h e important prac t ical consequences which are contained wi thin it an d I formulated at last for myself the law w hich presi d es ov er the formation of a language This I sh all attempt to formulate anew and more explicitly with regard to the constructio n of the system Over which this same law must equally preside On

‘

Which now , w as the receptive organ of lan guage ? I n ” the scene O f the mill certain specia l locutions had arisen I V aS it to the sight or to the touch or rather to th e hearing that they had been conﬁded ? Happily for him the child not yet knowing either how to read or to write it was his ear th at had received and transmitted them to his inner sense The process of N ature was therefore ag ai n in utter contra diction to that of the school At school languages are t aught by books consequently it is the eye and not the ear whi ch is req uired t o transmi t the locutions to the mind At schoo l ,

HI S TO RY AND

N C E PTI O N

O F THE S Y S TE M

th e

eye is the receptive organ of language It was thus to my eye that I had given my roots and m y vocabulary This is w h y t h e spoken words would never enter my understanding And which w as r i gh t —the S chool or N ature ? .

‘

’

To ask the question is to answer it ; and a little child h ad give n m e the answer The eye is made to perceive colours and forms ; the ear is made to perceive s oun d s a n d words How is it that philology has never seen an d prescribed this How is it that linguists have never applied this ? How is it t hat they have hitherto obstinatel y conﬁded t o the ey e a part which appertains only to the ear ? .

XV I F

OR M A TI O N O F TH E I ND I V I DUA L I TY B Y LA N G U A G E —P R E C I S E D E FI N I TI O N O F TH E W OR K TO B E A CC O MP L I S H E D F O R TH E A C Q U I S I TI O N O F TH E B AS I S O F A N Y G I VE N LA N G U A G E —T H E I D E A O F S E R I E S —A G E N E RA L I S A TI O N —TH E M Y S T I C L A DD E R O F H UM A N I ND I V I DU A L I TY .

I had now in my hands all the elements and all t h e pr m C I pl es but I had not yet the system itself W hat was o f a system A simple generalisation and this generalisation w as n eeded ? made at on ce I said “The same process w hich the child had used to express an d translate his percept ion and then hi s conception of the mi l l m ust have already been employed by him to express for instance all that he knew O f the mower an d of haymaking all that he knew of the reaper an d of the harvest — all that he knew of the woodcutter the weaver the blacksmith —al l that he knew of the dog the sheep the horse the cow—all — hat he knew of the b i rds all that he knew of the insect t — that he knew of the plant all th at he kne w of the power l l a and the play of the elements —all that he knew of man himself from the baby i n the cradle to the ol d man tottering to the grave .

It was at this moment that I began to perceive in its vast extent and also in its marvell o us genesis that whic h is called ” “ individuality and for the ﬁrst time I unders tood what an ” “ i s meant by the words to learn a langu age ,

HI S T O RY AND

C O N CE PTI O N O F T H E S YS T E M

the cause In th e history of a single tree I shall have t h e h istory of all trees and in the expression of the developmen t of a single plant I shall have the expression of the develop ment of al l plants I shall have nothing more to ask of the d ictionary than certain substantives the names o f certain species In this way I shall have translated an important chapter of m y individu ality and this w hile thinking imme d i at el y and directly i n G erman or

every end is e x pressed by a v erb and every means is equally expressed by a verb N ow , to write the h istory of a plant is to determine an d then to express on the one h an d the diverse ends which N ature seems to propose in view of the d evelopment of this plant o n the other the means by which sh e realises each of these ends The whole of this work m ust therefore be carried out upon and by the verb and not by means of th e substantives which will never be able t o yield me anything but the names o f the pa rts of the tree B ut

“M oreover

each verb e x pressing an en d a means or a state of bei n g will it not forcibly drag along with it as subject o r co m plement the name of the organ in which occurs t h e action translated by the verb ? “Whilst conquering the verbs therefore I shall obtai n as w ell all the substantives and other t er m s specially appertain ‘ ing to vegetable life E nds and means two facts or rather two ideas I had already caught sight of i n the child s work ‘ aroun d his m ill expressing a series o f S eries of verbs means w as not this the litany which the ch ild ce aselessl y recite d when h e loaded unloa d e d an d carried his corn to the mill ? ,

’

The The The The Th e The The The The The The These

acorn sprouts oak plant t akes root shoo t sprouts o ut of the earth sap u ses sapling throws out leaves stalk buds stalk blossoms ﬂower blooms fruit forms fruit ripens frui t falls & c & c

some of

th e

general aims of

N ature

They

w ill

TH E M YS TI C

L ADD E R

‘

the d ivisions of the chapter entitled The P lant The total o f the means by which each of these ends is realised wil l form the subject matter of each division I shall thus have a series of themes corresponding t o a series of ends or a ims I The S eries of the P lant s hall call the whole of this chapter f orm

’

“

”

Here again is a farmyard I Contin ued to myself and here is a h en This bird h as before itself the whole day long a series of ends which it realises one af ter the other by a series If I fol low this fowl attentively from the momen t o f means i t aw ak e s t i ll the evening w hen it goes back to roost if I ex press i n G erman all these ends and al l these means I shall have translated a n e w chapte r of m y individuality a chapter which will be the e x pression not only of th e existence of this bird but o f all its species ; not only so but of every kind of bird I shall ﬁnd arising fro m this material as fro m that of the oak a series of themes corresponding to the series of ends ‘ and I should call o r I might call this n ew ch apter The S eries of t h e Fowl or the Bird ,

’

S eries

For some time now I had had th e thing The n ame was still missing which was needed definitely to fix my conception This n ame I had n ow found or rather “captured an d a fin al e ff ort was t o con secrate it as one t o be definitely adopte d “ I had calculated that the huma n individuality -m y own at all events —could be written in fifty “ chapters I soon substituted for this e xpression that of fifty .

s e rI es

”

I had sketched out rapidly the series of a growing plant and the series of a living being M y conception could there Tor e be applied to the whole of N ature I act ual l so a lied it and in the light of this idea I ﬁ r s t per cei ved t h e law of t h e progressive work which had presided over the development of my own personality Then leaving myself I sought to reali s e the de velopment by language of every thinking and speaking being Then arose before my eyes that which might be called ” the mystic ladder of the hum a n individuality a ladder whose innume rable steps stretched from earth to heaven M arvellin g inwardly I sketched out its form From it r e s ul t ed the system I s hall n ow atte m pt to construct .

(

HI S T O RY AND

—W

CO N CE PTI O N O F THE S Y S T E M

X V II

UA G E S I N O N E LA N G UA G E —O BJE C TI V E LA N G UA G E A ND S U B J E CTI VE LA N G UA G E —T H E R E LA TI V E P H RA S E —F I G U RA TI V E L A N G U A G E —I NT U I TI O N O F TH E S Y S TE M I N I TS T O TA L I T Y

OUR

S I G HT

But had I really yet seen everything ? Was t h e wh ol e language really comprised within the fifty or sixty chapters however large they might be that I had now enumerated to myself ? It was as the ocean in the great waters of the earth B ut in the ocean there are two oceans an ocean of water and an oce an of living beings The first contains nourishes , main t ai ns the second yet without being identical with it In a lan g uage were there n ot also two languages on e language for external facts and another language for internal facts ? A n d what connection was there between the two ? I V as not that which I had already perceived merely the first o f these ? W here then was the second ? Without doubt it should be found in the first as the e ff ect is found in the cause But the e ff ect nev er is the cause What was n eces sary therefore was to separate these two languages in order to consider and study them apart and so to learn to know them better at first by themselves and afterwards i n their reciprocal play upon each other ,

In the spoken scene of the mill I had as a matter of fact parallel and profoundly essentially n oticed two la n guages d iff erent which like two currents spread out and developed themselves side by side without ever being confo unded together At every moment the child interposed in his story or his “ action expression s or reflections such as the follow ing : That s — — — a r right then there you that s it that s fine w e l n al o — —I should like to —I think that I think I d better —I m going to try to & c 85 0 These locutions appeared to me to have nothing absolutely n othing in com m on with those that translated the facts rela tive to th e mill : filling a sack - carryin g a sack emptying a — — ck grinding the corn the water falling from the mill race sa — the wheel turnin g—the mill going & c & c I saw here two categories two species o f expression which it was i m pos Fro m the differences of s ible t o resol v e o n e into th e other ,

’

‘

’

—

O BJ E CTIV E A N D S U BJ E C TIVE

LAN G UAG E

consequence I naturall y concluded di ff erence of principle Fro m the e ff ect I ascended to the cause and I d iscovered a second source of language i n the depths and in the secret energies O f the huma n mind itself .

M an

“does

I said to myself not merely perceive the phenomena of the external world He j udges them he appr e ciates them that is he reacts upon them B y the contact with exterior facts the mind is awakened an d the struggle is begun The mind is a force gifted with di verse faculties each of which ope rates i n i t s own way It enj oys this and is pained by that ; it approves this and blames that ; it wishes for this a n d repels that ; it believes this and doubts that and so forth These movements these internal facts are as capable of receiving names as are the external facts Hence a new lan guage that whi ch translates the facts and activities of the soul These facts and activities are so varied their slight d i ff erences are so ﬁne so deli cate and moreover so numerous that this ” second lan guage might well be as rich as the ﬁrst We shal l see h ereafter how well founded was this suspicio n when the attempt is made to arrange the categories o f the innumerable abstract forms of any given lan gu age ,

As before I had the idea together with the thing but as yet I had n o name with which to ﬁ x it The language which translated the comple x play of the faculties of the soul never having bee n separated o r distinguished fro m the other by “ any philologist w as a language as yet nameless I n orde r better t o understand these myself I gave them distinct names That which translated the facts of the external world I termed objective language That which translat ed the facts and ope “ rations of the soul I termed subj ective language Thus ,

”

The wheel turns Th e mill goes The grindstones crush the wheat belong to the objective l anguage ,

’

That s right It is true I t is false I wish to Y O Il thin k that form part of the subj ecti v e language ,

HI S T O RY AND

C O N CE PTI O N O F THE S Y S T E M

S ubjective ,

however was a generic designation I r e “ quired and I sought a speciﬁc designation I soon per ce i ved that a subj ective locution only expressed a fraction of a tho ught was only the part of a whole It resembled the form a bstracted or separated from its basis —O f a line abstracted fro m the surface of the surf ace abstracted from th e solid That s right He wishes to B ut what is right ? \V h at is it that he wishes t o do ? E very s ubj ective locution was applied to was connected with an Obj ective fact, and had some relation to this fact I “ thought therefore to deﬁne it by terming it Relative And since then however imperfect this denomin a P hrase tio n m ay be n o other has presented itself to me which has s eemed to be more appropriate to the idea ,

”

’

”

C ontemplating

from the heights of their resources this Objective language and this subj ective language I saw how in N ature , they perpetually crossed each other h o w th e y ran concurrentl y to for m the m arvellous warp and woof of w hich I have so often spoken A double problem now remained to be solved an arduous problem withal : ﬁrst to systematise t h e subjective language to gather and classi fy it in such a way that it might be easily assimilated then to ﬁnd the secret of attaching the e xercise of it to that of the obj ective language o r of the S eries properly so called In N at ure th e two lan gu ages progressed side by side d eveloping the m selves harmo n iously one gearing or working into the other N o s oon er does a fact of the external world present itself than immediately the mind takes possession of A linguistic system out according to the i t and j udges it pattern of Nature must be required to reproduce this beauti ful harmony What had to be done therefore was to invent some connection some gearing at least equally practical with that of N ature ,

A more and more profound stu d y o f the relative phrase j oined to an inspiration as happy as it was unexpecte d s uddenly revealed to me the secret sought af t er I will not dwell here upon this important discovery : it should form the l subj ect of a special chapter I will conﬁne m se f to saying y 4 that Art triumphed over N ature by permitting the young learner as well as the adult t o learn I n a few months that pa rt ,

T HE

FI G U RATIVE

LAN G UA GE

of the subjective language which the child assimilate s but im pe rfectly in the space of a year .

The child observed by me had not arrived at the age when abstract ideas are produced or sought to be e m bodied in sym But the subj ective language b ol i c language and metaphor was already in his mouth ; and this language which rested upon abstraction led me forcibly an d by foresight to study It was not di ffi cult t h e problem of the figurative language for me to establish the true relationship between this third langu age and the former two and to postulate that the fi gur a tive language was grafted upon the objective langu age and implied the previous development of this I again as k the re ader s per m I S S I O n to leave t h e study of this question to an ulterior chapter in which d eveloping at leisure m y insight I shall attempt to organise the figurative language itsel f and to harmonise it with the two others i n imitation of Nature and if possible better than Nature .

’

I h ad start ed from the system of the Objective lan guage I had return ed thereto by way of the symbolical language The voyage round the lin guistic world w as achieved the circle was perfect ; the vision seemed complete O n e thing remained t o be done and this imposed itself upon me wit h the authori t y of a duty —to prolong indeﬁnitely this intuition and ﬁnally to convert it into reality t hat is to say into a well thought o ut system .

If sometimes and for certain minds I ha v e been obscure or a pocalyptic in th e setting forth of this linguistic revelation ; if above all I have not been complete I beg the reader to have patience The sam e facts the same principles the same problems will be t aken up again discussed separately one after the other sounded at leisure an d I hope the whole brought into the full light o f day ,

HI S T O RY AND

CO N CE PTI O N O F THE S YS T E M

V III

R E T U R N TO B E R L I N —TH E TE ST—A P H I L O S O PH I CA L B O U T A T — I E T S I UN V R Y TH E TR I U M PH —E X C U S E TO TH E R E A D E R

TH E

“

The best constructed mechanism requires to be tested at least once In the same way the most ingenious and the most logical of systems requires to be put to the trial must be seen at least on ce at work I started again for Berlin for it had been su fficiently demon s t r at e d to me that it was by the living voice th at a language was transmitted and never by books or by solitary studies A little child more clever i n this than all the doctors of the university had proved to me that the veritable receptive organ of language was the ear and not the eye The fifty series which translated or expressed the sum to t al of my indi — — i a l i t the whole book of my existence these I must live d u V y over again in G erman must conceive over again i n G erman and for this I m ust first hear them I n G erman This time it was the ear that should as in N ature play the principal part .

I boarded and lodged with an excelle n t family of S axon origin and at my particular request the children were give n over to my charge Their greatest desire had always bee n to learn French ; there was therefore an exchan ge of services between us We established ourselves around a t able and we began the study of the series such as I had conceived after the episode of the mill This is not the place to recount h o w I directed the lessons o r rather the conversations and how in the manner of S ocrates and of the little child itself I mana ged to draw out from m y l l the G erman expressions l ittle i n terlocutors successively a corresponding to the details of my French series This h e “ longs to a future chapter ( P ractice of the M ethod or the Art of I have only to declare that t h e grammar the roots the dictionary together with O llendorf and Robert son were piti lessly banished from our table ,

From the second day I felt I was on the right road N ot on l y was the work deliciously easy—easy in fact as a game but that w hich we assimilated in an hour was prodigious and once entered by way o f the ear it was imprinted upon the .

HIS T O RY AND

C O N CE PTI O N O F THE S YS T E M

a really great service It has cured me of or preserved m e f r om al l fear of dictionaries Henceforth I could read or s tudy a dictionary be it as thic k as that of Littr é as I could any other book Were it not for this beneﬁt I should hardly have dared to undertake a task of which I shall speak here after which constitutes an essential part o f my system ,

Reader, my story has been long, possibly wearisome

I pray you excuse it This hour of struggle ﬁe r ce as it may have been counts amongst the most delightful of my life It is for this I love to return to it it is for th is I love to re count i t as the veteran does the battles in which he has fought ; and when I begin I know not whe n to ﬁnish .

“ Th e A rt

o ch i ng an d S tud y i ng La n Th i s i n tr od ucti on to T e a f ” a es o o h s P ari s u h e w t c l r e i r n a t t h e P a l c t e u b a e s e t a e c t u e a g f g f g j E xh i bi ti on i n O ctober 1 8 7 8, un d er th e ausp i ces of th e Congres L i bre de l E nsei gnement ‘

THE BO O

X IX E

P I L O G UE

NATU RE

P RO L O G U E

A ND

In this first part analysis has bodied forth the general features of the linguistic syste m of N ature G athering together with care the d e fi nitions the axioms the principles developed by this analysis and combining them as logically as possible we will endeavour to re construct syn thetically this same system and by simpl ifying it to raise it t o the dignity of an art The synthesis being the analysis reverse d many repetitions will be inevitable— indeed in dispensable We tru st the reader i n V iew of the importance of this Object will not find them t oo tedious .

B efore

co m mencing let us put a question to ourselves which without doubt every reader will ask of us W e have j ust spelt out the first page of a hitherto unpubli shed book o f N ature When we S hall have finished it shall we have r e vealed the whole child ? Shall we have revealed the whole art of Nature herself ? S hall we have penetrated all her secrets ? W ill she have hi dden from our eyes none of her a rt i fi ces ? To this we must reply in the words of P ascal ” We shall never kn ow the whole of anythin g N evertheless the book will have been o pened and if we know not how to read all therein others after us will be more fortunate an d th e practical sc i ence of language will be at last constituted like all other sciences upon the immediate observation of N ature th e only true rational basis of h uman knowled ge an d the only fruitful on e ,

C O N S T RU CTI O N

AND APPLI CATI O N

P A RT S E

CO N D

O F S YS T E M

CO N S TRU CTI O N A N D A P PLI CA TI O N O F '

S Y S TE M

D I V I SI O N TH E

TH E

THE

U B JE CT—OR D E R

O LL O W E D

method properly s o c alled will divide itself essentially and naturally into three chapters corresponding to the three constituent parts of the whole human language It should treat of th e objective language of the subjective language and of the fig urative lan guage Let us repeat the defini t ions already given The objective l anguage is the expression of the phenomena perceived by us in the exterior world The subjective lan guage is the e xpression of the play of the faculties of the soul The figurative language is the e xpression o f the purely ideal that is of the abstract idea by means of symbols borrowed fro m the exterior world ,

Where shall we begin ? Where shall we ﬁnish ? The obj ect ive language is the occasion of the subj ective language It pre cedes i t as the cause precedes the e ff ect as action precedes reacti on It I s moreover the subs t ratum upon which it rests W ithout the external phenomena the exerc i se of a mental faculty has n o reason for existence Lastly it i s by the Obj ective language that the child begins The child seems even for some considerable time to know and exercise this lan guage to the exclusion of the t wo others The ﬁgurative language its elf rests upon the obj ective lan guage which feeds it and furnishes it with I mages Further abstraction being a product of the play of the intellectual faculties the language which translates this abstractio n .

O RG ANI S ATI O

N IN

S E RI E S

presupposes the awakening of these faculties Therefo r e the subjecti ve language takes its birth before the fig urative langua ge and consequently m ust al w ays precede it Both Nature an d reason S how us clearly the order to follo w I V e shall commence by the obj ective language we sh al l co n t i n ue by the subjective language and we shall finish by the fi gurative language These chapters admit in their turn and require a s ub d ivis ion : firstly the theoretical organisation of each of these langu ages ; secon d ly the practical art of t eachin g them .

The species w hich enter into each of these gr eat divisions form the material of the series Thus the E lements give th e S eries of the River the S eries of the S ea the S eries of t h e S torm the S eries o f the S un & c & c It is a treatise on cosmography and o f ele m entary natural scie n ce The plant gives the S eries of the Vine the S eries o f t h e .

O BJ E C T I VE

ﬂ

LAN G UAG E

A pple Tree ,

the S eries of the C orn that of the G rasses that of the Walnut & c See It is a t reatise on botan y and agriculture The insect gives the S eries of the Bee of the Ant of th e Butter y of the S pider of the Beetle & c It is a vas t chapter of natural history The bird gives the numerous set of S eries of the Domestic Fow ls t h e S inging Birds the B irds of P rey & c 85 0 Another l arge chap t er of natural histo ry The quadruped gives the S eries of the Domestic Animals the S eries of the Rodents the S eries ( sheep cow horse of the C arnivora & c A f u1 ther and vast chapter of natu r a l history M an give s for S eries — the C hild the S tudent th e Young M an M ature A ge the Trades the Arts & c & c ,

O N STR U CTI O N O F TH E S E R I E S— O U TL I N E O F TH E G E NE R A L P RO C E SS TO BE F O LL O W E D I N OR G A N I S I N G TH E M .

A S eries follows the bei n g it is dealing with ﬁrst in t h e life of one day then i n its life d uring the four seasons of the year It thus embraces the totality of its existence a n d consequently reproduces the totality of th e terms which t h e l an gu age posse sses for the expression O f all that we k no w about this bei n g ” “ en d proposed by th e b eing in question forms t h e E ach ” “ motive the title of one theme and t h e successive mean s by which the being at t ains this end form the material or t h e development of the them e S uppose we have to construct the S eries of the B i rd The followi n g are some of the en d s w hich will be proposed by this being and to which it will t end A coupl e will pa 1 r The pair will make a nest The hen bird will l ay The hen bird will sit The young will be hatched The father an d mother w ill feed them The nestlings will grow will b e ﬂedg ed The brood w ill leave the nest ,

“

”

C O N S T RU C TI O N O F THE S E RI E S

This is a Seq uence or s eries of ends but this is o f themes or elaborated descriptions ,

a series

n ot

What is it that has t o be done to d r aw from this series We must consider, and say series of themes ? I

3 4

How the birds pair How they build their nest H O W and under what conditions the eggs are laid How the i n cubation takes place How the hatching is accomplished How and with what the father an d mother feed th e brood H o w the nestlings quit th e nest H o w the little birds learn to ﬂy & c , .

5 6

7 8

’

and the numerous accidents which arise from the bird s relation with the elements and with the other species of animals which make war upon it or U pon w hich it makes war itsel f ,

Here is a second example S uppose we have to construct “ the S eries of any S pecies of P lant Determine ﬁrst of al l the series of ends that the plant itself or that N ature seems t o desire The seed is planted in the ground I 2 The seed s prouts The plant takes root 3 Th e plant grows The stalk develops 5 6 The pl ant puts forth leaves The plant buds 7 . 8 The plant blossoms The ﬂ ower is fertilised The fruit hardens I I The fruit increas es in si z e The fruit ripens 12 I 3 The seed fal ls an d propagates the plant & c , .

”

‘

an d

the numerous diverse facts which arise from the relation of t h e plant either with the ele m ents or with animated be ings Develop ea ch of these ends and you will obtain as many themes M ore than this each of these ends w ill be in itsel f a mine of secondary ends ; each species of plant will give you a sm all treati se ful l of interest in which one by o n e al l t h e .

‘

O BJ E CTIV E

6 21

LAN G UAG E

problems of botanical science will be thoroughly t ra versed This is what I term a S eries

I will cite a third example I s to be constructed This a i ms .

S uppose t h e S eries

of the Bee series of facts or general

is t h e

ﬂ ﬂ

First the swarm builds the honey combs then —the wo r kers provide a store of wa x then—th ey gather the honey from t h e owe i s then —they store this honey then —they defend their treasure against enemies w h o w ish to steal it then —the queen bee takes her marriage - i gh t — then the queen breeds — then the workers wall up the royal cells then—the eggs are hatched then —the grubs change form then —the n ur ses t ak e care of the new born then —a new swarm is formed — then the n e w queens ﬁght the O l d queen then — t h e hive swarms then—the exiled swarm ﬂies O to establish a new colony & c 85 0 ,

“

ﬂ ,

Add to this the various possible accidents (inclement weather enemies disease ) both for the life of one day and for the various seasons and y o u will have a monograph of the insect as interesting as any romance and from which if required the material for a cou ple of hundred chapters or more might be drawn Develop properly each o f these chapters and you will obtain a series of themes wherei n can be placed practically the whole of the terms that the language possesses to express all that we know about the insec t world in general ,

The S eri es o f the Ant may follo w that of the Bee It will m ive many valuable terms whose eanings it is difﬁcult to g ﬁx both for architecture and for the art of warfare ; for the both warrior and architect Any other an t i s by nature insect observ ed by Reaumur and described in his immortal memoirs would furnish material for still other series equally interesting wit h the foregoing and not less rich in terms of all kinds .

O BJ E C TIV E

LAN G UAG E

the his tory of any single q uad 1 upe d —of the q uad 1 uped hich presents the most varied exis t ence or whic h i s best k nown to us —tha t 1s develop its S e 1 i es ( of the sheep horse or co w fo r: example ) and you wil l find therei n all the terms the language possesses for the genus uadruped as a q wh ole Write or d evelop t h e S eries of a single bird —the one best known to you ( that of the hen for example) and yo u will have all that p art of the lang uage which expresses the whol e “ o f the general phenomena S pecial to the genus bird The single S eries of the bee will give that part of t h e “ lan guage appertaining to the phenomena of the insect i n general “ The wheat or any other plant chosen w ill give the whole o f the terms appertaining to the phenomena of vegetation i n general & c From whence it results t hat to know an y l anguage i t suffices to know thoroughly fifteen or twenty general series subdivided as we have previously set forth in fifty or sixty 1 special series The rem ainder would be no m ore than exercises d i n 1 ead i n and scientific treatises n which will be reproduce i g w ith the infinite variety of N ature facts analogous to these and ex pressed in the same general terms \V 1 ite

”

‘

When I state that a S eries will give all the term s th e langu age possesses for any similar order of facts I should e xplain further These terms are not substantives or iso lated Word s as the reader might imagine if I were not t o ” apprise h i m o f it This method knows sentences only It is therefore and with good reason the enemy of t h e vocabulary It is not the substantives n am 1n g 1n any or de r whats oe ver all t h e parts of the insect all the al l the parts of the tree parts o f the bird all the parts of the quadruped which con s t i t ut e this metho d but the expression of ph enomena and t h e detail of the existence o f each ki nd of being It is not th e cold and hackneyed en umerat ion of the constituent parts of this bein g that our method proposes it is ra t her t h e r epr e s en t a t i o n of t h e life itself i n its movement an d in its nat ural ,

F o r i n s t an ce , t h e S er i es o f t h e B r e ad w o ul d b e a G e n e r al S er i e s , o f w h i ch t h o s e o f t h e P l o ugh m an , t h e Reaper , t h e M i l l e r , t h e B a e r , & c E ach s epar at e scen e i n an y o f t h ese wi l l £ 0 1 111 a w o ul d b e S pe ci al S e r i e s or e xe r c i se ( T r an s ) t h em e 1

UT L IN E

T IIE M E THO D

I t is not the name of t h e organs as pires to give but it is the pl ay o f these or gans ﬁ rst reveals in order to expre ss d evelopment

w hich

it w hich it

In a word in the classical process and i n the pretended m ethods of Robertson O llendorf Ja co t o t and others it is the substantive wittingly or unwittingly t hat plays t h e principal part In ours it is the verb that play s the principal part ; t h e verb — w e have alr eady s aid it, and cannot repeat it too often —the verb soul of the sentence ; the verb that which transl ates the movement and the action a n d which manifests t h e life ; the verb principal organism of speech the living centre around w hich in the phrase gravi t ate all th e nouns whether sub j ect or complement w ith all their train of prepo s i This sole d i e r en ce we think opens an t ions and adj ectives abyss between the ordinary processes and our metho d ,

ﬂ

B e fore

we proceed to draw t h e n umerous t heore t ic al a n d practical consequences w hich unfold themsel ves from the sub s t i t ut i o n of the verb for th e substantive as the ﬁrst principle of la n gu age let u s say or rather repeat that our method is a method solely by this adoption of th e verb as base I n “ B ut from the reality he w h o says M ethod says O rder substantive we can n either pass logically to the ver b nor t o the ad j ective nor to the adverb nor to the s entence ; much less still from one sentence to another sentence From the verb on the other han d we go strai ght t o the substantive and adj ective whic h are called up around it as we hav e j ust s aid either as subj ect o r as complement And from on e ve r b that is from one action we pass quite n atu r ally to another V erb —that is to ano t her action — consequ ent upon or complementary to the ﬁrst A linguistic system therefore which takes the verb as base is founded upon a principle of ord er. Thi s syste m consequently may become a ” M ethod in the true sense of the word ,

”

O N STR U CTI O N

O NE

TH E

OF A

S E RI E S

W e have j ust seen w hat i t is t hat constitutes a linguistic serie s con s id er ed in its general d e v elopme nt and its principal ,

O BJ E CTIV E

d ivisions

LAN G UAG E

rema i ns to explai n how a simple element 1 a simple ex ercise any particular theme of a given series i s elaborated For this purpose we will choose one of the serie s which translat es that which we term the common life that is “ the ordinary everyday life of mankind say the S eries of t h e Fire And in this series we will take an exe r cise or them e c apable of giving rise to the enunciation of the greater part o f our principles —that for example which has as its t itle “The M aid Chops a Log of Wood .

n ow

”

— d woo , t his

To chop a log of is t h e end W hat are the m eans employed ? To chop wood we requi r e a hatchet Therefore ﬁrst of all she goes to seek this hat ch e t ; then w hat does she do ? she takes a log of wood then what does she do she goes up to the chopping block then what does she do she kneels down near this block then w hat does she do — she places t h e wood on the block then what does she do — she r aises the hatchet ; then what does she do —sh e brings down the hatchet —the hatchet cleaves the air ; what follows ? — the n w hat happens ? the hatchet strikes the wood then what happens ? the bla d e buries itself in the w ood — and then ? the blade cleaves the wood and then the two pieces fal l to the ground and then the woman picks up the two pieces and then ? she chops the m ag ai n and again t o t h e si z e d esired she st ands up again —sh e carries the hatchet back to its pl ace .

The end 1s attained the theme is complete

The

e xer c1se

is therefore ﬁni shed

Before exam 1n 1ng the contents of this exercise and taking stock of the process which creates it let us transcribe it unde r the form which experience has deﬁnitely shown us to be the most practical ,

ﬁnit

T h e w or d e xer ci s e i s us ed h e re, an d t h rough out t h e b ook , i n a d e se n se, as a l es so n w h i ch i n cl ud e s a cer t am p0 1 t i o n o f t h e l an ua e, g g n o t a m er el f i u l ess on o f w ord s or t en se s ( Tr an s l i v e t g y 1

a nd

C O N STRU C TI O N or A N E X E RCI S E

Th e m ai d

ch ops a

l og

wood

The maid goes and seeks her hatchet the maid takes a log of wood the maid draws near t o the chopping -block the maid kneels down near this block the maid places the log of wood upright upon this block ,

s ek s

t ak es d r aw s n e ar k n eel s d o w n pl aces

The maid raises her hatchet t h e maid brings do w n her hatchet the hatchet cleaves the air the blade strikes the wood the blade buries itself in the woo d the blade cleaves the wood the two pieces fall to the ground ,

, ,

The m aid picks up these pieces pi ck s up t h e m aid chops them again and again to the ch o ps agai n size desired the m aid st ands up again st an d s up the maid carries back the hatchet t o its c arri e s back place ,

M aid

housewife cook servant domestic gir l woman ( person hewer of wood she & c ) C hopping block ( block log billet articl e thing obj ect it ,

right place proper place spot corner post posi ( tion location Blade (edge cutting edge sharp edge keen e d ge iron steel metal it & c ) Hatchet (ax e wood -a x e chopper choppingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; knife cleaver cutter bill billhook instrument tool edge tool i m pl e m ent it, this that & c )

P lace

O BJ E C TIV E

L AN G UAG E

\V e

h ave man y times met wi t h persons who after having h eard a single exercise such as the above set forth have n o t only understood our method in its general idea but who have instantaneously grasped the whole mechanism of it almost to the point of themselves being able to develop the system there from out of hand as clearly and directly as we should h ave been able to d o it ourselves Amongst others of those linguists who have a name we may be permitte d to m ention M E i ch h o ﬁ who at the end of a class inspection at the C ollege of C aen co n jured us so to speak to complete a method which could and m ust according to his opinion render the grande s t service to the teaching of l anguages ,

’

This faci l i ty of comprehen sion results from the fact th at — each exercise contains the whole method is the method i n m iniature And it was by an intuition of the same nature relative to th e linguistic de v elopment provoked b y th e spec tacle of a mill and observed upon a very young child that we ourselves d iscovered or believe w e have discovered the true process of N ature i n the formation of l anguage and that in one and the same glance we gained bo t h an insight into the details and a survey of the whole ge n e r al development of the present sys t em hV e may now proceed to con sider the reflection s called up both by the basis and by the form of the preceding theme .

C HA

RA C TE R

P RO P E R TI E S O F TH E N E W M E TH O D

A ND

EXE

RCI S E S O N

TH E

L ogi cal

coh esi on and or i gi n al arr angement o

th e

s entences

t h e exer ci ses

In the table of the exercise given we see first of all the enunciation o f a general action —that of chopping wood — then the development of this actio n in and by a species of definition It is therefore a general act defined by a series of particul ar a cts C onsidered from another poin t of view that of logic this exercise presents 1 A general end unique and simple—to chop wood 2 A group a series of means conducive to this end ,

P RO PE RTI E S O F TH E E X E RCI S E

“logical

The relation of end to means is therefore the con ” which binds together the title of this exercise with n ection its d evelopment B ut the diverse pieces that serve for this d evelopment are they a l so bound together amongst themselves and upon what relationship is their as sociation founded .

The logic which in our method links sentence to sentence is n o t the more or less artifi ci al and more or less arbitrary logic of the printed book in general i t is that wh ich m ay be called “the logic of nature a logic accessible or rather familiar to everybody —one which the little child understands and practises equally with the man of geni u s The relationship of succession in ti m e—this is t h e natural c em e n t w h i ch in our exercises unites phrase to phrase and sentence to sentence This relationship let it be borne i n m ind constitutes in itself alone t h e elementary lo gic of the human mind It is by i t that thought begins The m ind perceives i t while perceiving movement and it is by it that we are led to the perception of more profound relationships those of cause to e ffect of principle to consequence of end to means A simple a very simple e x pression presides over and su fﬁ ces ” “ for t h e genesis of our themes ; the words and then Thi s is an expression or a relationship understood all the world over it is an expression o r relationship preeminently that o f the child w hen it attempts to tel l others its little tales “and then ,

”

Hence the peculiar form under which our exercises are pre sented to the listener ; hence the disposition of our phrases E ach h as its own l ine each occupies a u pon the paper itself special line In this manner t h e book itself aids us in dis t i n gu i sh i n g i n analysing the thoughts brings out the unity of the sentences isolates them i n order better to manifes t them inst ead of holding them co n founded together as do the ordin ary printed books A true linguistic method is certainly subj ect to condition s other than those of an ordinary book It canno t aim at t o o great clearness at too much pr ec1s1 0 n It should to the highest point att ainable put in evidence each element of the language which for us means every se ntence This is w h y i n our exercises the sentences progress in s ingle ﬁl e ; b eing elaborated separately bein g born so t o sp eak beneath o ur .

O BJ E CTIV E

LAN G UA G E

very eyes one after the other in a regul ated succession each presenting a complete w hole on which a r e concentrated all the rays of the ey e as wel l as al l the energies of the i n t el l i gence upon w hich t h e mind which aspires to assimilate t h e idea together wit h its expression lingers and rests at le 1sure ,

therefore in our exercis es all is bound together stric t ly and logically the title is strictly connected with its devel op ment the pieces of this development are strictly connected among themselves A n d yet i n all this every thing is distinct the title is perfectly distinct from its d evelopment ; the e n d is distinct from the means the m ean s are distinct from each other If per fection consist in t h e union of these two extremes our system should att ain this point to the n earest possible limit So

In the exercise already ci t ed i t will be noticed th at certai n uiding points are marked by the sign These signs g to determine rigorously the a r e i n tended o n the one hand d iverse moments of the action on the other to indicate to the teacher when h e is giving t h e lesson the precise points at which he should stop both to repeat i t himself and to ask the pupil to recite it These signs mark so to speak the number and extent of the steps that the p u pil m ust take to conquer a given theme It is better in fact to banish the arbitrary as far as it -can be found possible , not only from the method itself but also f r om i t s application In itself the general d isposition o f our exercises considered as linguistic reading lessons alrea d y we think incontestably offer considerable advantages In t h e chapter on the employment o f t h e m ethod or the art of teaching we shal l see this same disposition a cqui r e a prim e import a nce ‘

(

If we sum up what we have ju st said we shall fi n d t h er e1n the five followi ng facts to be noted 1 E ach exercise is composed of t wo pa r ts to wit of a title and of a certain number of phrases which develop and define this title b y analysing it The title expresses an end a simple en d and the body of 2 the exercise expresses the means the equally simple m eans by which th e end is attained e n d of w sole relationship al ays the same from one n O e 3 the exercise to the other, that of succession i n time enj oys ’

O BJ E CTIV E

LAN G UA G E

If we re flect that the ordinary la n gu age that which suﬁi ces for the wants of everyday life hardly amounts at mos t to more than ten thousa n d w ords it wi l l be easy to calculate what i s the number of exercises an alogous to this which will be n eces sary to yield what may be called the fi rst b asis of th e langu age This interesti n g calculation we shall make in detail a lit t le farther on ,

I ntr i nsi c

val ue o

th e ter ms

conta i ned

an or d i n ar y

exer ci se

Let us now estimate the intrinsic value of the terms con t ai n ed i n our exercise And first o f all some may possibly be astonished at the comparative commonness of the fact chosen by us We shall reply provisio nal ly that the method does not contai n only these series translating common life but that it can be raised and as a matter of fact is raised t o the extreme heights of science as well as of poetry—the poetry Here indeed is wherein it o f nature an d the poetry of truth d ay t riumphs C onsequentl y if we do not disdai n these everyfacts if we deem it well to express them an d to accord them a place in our work it is because they ar e imposed upon us by a certai n character of utility and of practical necessity We will reply f urther once again that to learn a given l anguage is to translate into this language the whole of our individuali t y N ow fire and all that appertains thereto certainly occupies a page in the book of our perceptions and our remembrances Therefore the S eries of the Fire has the right to figure in our method .

”

Let us add that fi r e is the symbol of love an d there fore t h e source of those elevated metaphors by means of which the life of the heart is expre ssed and mani fest ed The hear t is set on fire glows burns is consumed the wood which the housewife arrang es upon the hearth Thus again the p assions t ake fire gro w cold smoulder die away are stirred spring from their a shes revive 85 0 O ur humble scene of the fireside is therefore found to con ceal the precious terms of the language of t h e heart C o u se r e has a d ouble v alue uently the eries of the Fi it serves S q i t serves also for the f o r th e pra ctical and material life m oral life ,

Th us it

with the grea t er part of the series which transl ate

VALU E

O F TH E E X E RCI S E

com m on li fe The life of every d ay the li fe of every one of us the terms by which each series expresses a certai n order of ta n gible facts se rv e at the same time to render a certai n orde r in other word s to interpret a phas e of o f psychological facts the soul For this reason our set of everyday se r ies takes a very high position Humble as they are who can dare to despise them S o much having been said let us return to our exercise of chopp i ng wood and from t h e st andpoint of utility let us weigh attentively in the balance all th e term s which it o ffers to us ,

‘

Take th e exerci se piece by pi ece and examine each piece by i t self and pick out if you ca n on e single e xpression ; quote one word an y single word to which you are n o t obliged to have recourse a hu n d red times a d ay w e k now that in order to act we must think and that thinking is talking to one s self by means of this interior speech whic h al w ay s s t an d s ready w ithin us which is the first minister of the reason an d the w i ll an d which analyses secretes ceaselessly ou r thoughts an d our volitions distributes the m classifies them as regards an actio n in the double category of ends and of means Dialogue or monologue our speech is conti n ual Lan guage is a constant need of the m ind This granted let us see fir st o f all if t h e verbs of our exercise are of t en to be found upon the pathway of thought if they serve this thought an d h o w they serve it ,

’

S e ek — \V h at i s there that we do not seek , from th e gar ments with wh ich w e c l othe our bodies to the glory whic h adorn s our life ? — Draw ne ar \V e draw near both t o th e t able which bears .

our meals and to the truth or perfec t ion for which our nature longs Tak e W e take both t h e bread which nourishes our body d the cour age w hich sustains us morally an P l ace W e place our foot on the ground an d w e also pl ace faith in our cherished beliefs Rais e —W e r ai s e a glass of wa t er to our lips or a di fﬁ culty to m en t al progress F al l —The f ru it in the orchard fa l ls and s o also doe s t h e m an whose will is abandoned to e vil or whose intelligence s t rays in the path s of err or ,

O BJ E CTIV E

P ic k up —\V e pick up not f r o m our h ands, but t h e moral .

LAN G UAG E

only t h e tool that h as dropped force which begins to fail under

m isfortune Carry Do .

we not see carrie d n o t only th e basket on the arm or the burden on the shoulder but d ismay to the ranks of an enemy compl aints to th e o fﬁcers of law or a new hope o f l ife to a condemned prisoner ? .

O pen

any good dictionary at these verbs an d from the len gth of the columns devoted to them j udge w hether these are the idle words in a language We can then appreciate at their true v alue the expressions which for m s o large a part of the web of the ordinary language ; an d appreciating this com mon lan guage itself we shall appreciate the series which translate i t ,

Let us next consider the substantives and the terms of r e l at i on sh i p cont ained in this same exercise These words are not idle i n themselves : Axe log wood maid air blade piece earth si z e pl ace N or these z—S ervant domestic girl wo m an article thi n g place spot position post sharp stee l m etal chopper billhook instrument tool & c N or these O f near on i n to 85 0 Have these terms all of which enter into our exer c1se the appearance of being idle an d low simply because they are grouped and organised or is it rather that they serve to ex press a scene which is too humble too familiar ? To most persons t here will be no necessity for maintaining the imp or tance of simplicity i n the early lessons an d we shal l presently demon strate the importan ce of order that is a regular grouping a logical organisation relative to the normal action of t h e memory—and we shall state besides the extreme value from li guistic point of view of the ordinary every day facts of h n t e life and of their expression .

T wo k i nd s

s ubs tant i ves

Speciﬁ

—Comm on

—Th ei r

nouns

and

n n l s e r a n o u e g

r el a ti on

one with anoth er the substantives in our lesson present two characters profoundly diverse : some are specific Axe is a specific n oun ; it designates the o thers are general species Instrument is a noun relatively general it marks a O f these two species of n ouns one is more necess ary k ind than the other The specific substantives are more import an t C o m pared

’

O BJ E CTIV E L AN G UAG E

coinage The large pieces have a greater value in themselve s t h e smal l piec e s are most indispensable for every day t rans actions and at need can serve instead of the former The smal ler pieces circulate largely in comm e rce Wh at should we do with out them ? The l arger pieces on the other ba n d could be re d uced to the le ast possible number or even totally d isappear as i ndeed has happened a t a period not greatly d istan t from the present as i n fact is still th e c ase in cert ai n countries S uch exactly is the rela t ion which exists between th e verbs w hich express ends and those w hich express m eans .

The verbs of means form a current coinage absolutely necessary for commerce The verbs of ends are useful with out being i ndispensable Their utility is analogous to t h at of the larger pieces of m oney They abbrevi ate and simplif y the language and cons e quen t ly accelerate and facilitate t h e exchange o f ideas betwe en m an and man But they can be perfectly w e ll replaced by verbs of mea n s and this s ubstitu t ion does in fact t ake place at every instant i n practice “ Inste ad of saying C lose the door w e ofte n say P ull the d oor to ; instead of saying Ring the h el l w e of t en say ” P ul l in th e se cases is not the end it is th e P ull the bell mean s It is this fundamental distinction which h as rendered possible b oth the organisation of our se r ies and t h e con s t r uc tion of our exercises .

”

C onsid ered

separately and outside the action out side the m ind which conceives this action or the will which desires it — a charac t er to which no verbs have the same character l l a n ame is given because every n ame is the result of a d i s t i n c tion and every name p1 es upposes a d istinction Ve 1 bs there fore only express ends an d means relativ ely and not absol utely It can now be understood h ow and why philolog y eX absolute cl usi v el y preoccupied w ith t h e mea nings and the value of words without any regard for the intrinsic me n t al value of the acts which these words may translate has nev e r notiﬁe d has never caught sight of t h e double character wi t h which the verb can be clothed in the practice of language ,

’

W e repeat these two characters which seem to have escaped the sagacity of th e philologists have nothing in them of t h e absolut e They are essentially relative ; t h e same v erb whic h here expresses an en d elsewhere w ill exp r ess a means A n exa m ple will t hrow a little li ght upon o ur tho ught ,

E ND S A N D M E AN S

To open the door of the woodshed i s an end in relation to the act of turning the key in the lock which is the means of attaining this end B ut opening the door of the woodshed is only a m eans by rel ation to the end o f going to fetch som e wood G oing to fetch wood i n its turn is a means by relatio n to the superior end of ligh t ing the ﬁre Lighting the fire itself is a means by relation to the more general end of heat ing the room or of cooking the meal The value of the verb s is therefore like that of the actions one which w e might call “ a shifting value .

In this series of ends and means in this a s cending hi er archy as i n the machinery of human industry the most import ant and the most essential wheels are j ust those whic h are th e m ost ele mentary the very smallest a n d a pparently Take lift up lay down carry leave t h e least precious turn push open shut stretch & c these ar e the elementary “ essential wheels of the language ; these are the true roots of tongues Y ou will ﬁ n d them at the base of all actions ; you wil l come across them at every line from the pen of the author at every phrase in th e mouth of the orator N ay more the gra nd the metaphoric sty le har d ly admits as verbs ” others th an these vulgar verbs and this because in thei r quality as expressions of the current tongue they surpass all other verbs in clearness and precision ; and because all the “ world maki n g constant use of them they are understanded of the people ,

”

E p i tom e

a nd

vi ew

gener a l

The natu ral development of the m an of the ani m al of t h e plant of the ele ments can be conceived as a s er I e s of d i vers e ends reali ed or attaine d by a c ert ai n number of means There are therefore two S pecies of verbs in the la n guag e and this language is not and cannot be other than the ex pression of this development S ome verbs there are whic h “ “ express ends other verbs express means The verbs of ends are not absolutely necessary ; the verbs of mean s are indispensable The greater part of the ends requir e for their attainment the action of a certain number of means Therefore for one single verb which expresses a n end there are several verbs which express means ,

”

existence is one

continued conversation

either with

O BJ E CTIV E

LAN G UAG E

ourselves or with our fellows —one continual ent er t ai n m en t or talk in which we express aloud or to ourselves our ideas our sensations our beliefs our perceptions our sentiments our volitions our actions An end perceived or pursued by us involves always the perception and therefore the expression articul ated or mental—o f the means necessary to the r e al i sa t ion of this end and the same end involves always th e employment and co n sequently the e xpression of the sam e means Therefore already the verbs of means in reality and in the ordinary practice of language repeat themselves with as great frequency as the verbs of ends B ut we should further point out that even this equality is not the true relation between these two sorts of verbs from the point of view of frequency In reality there is not a S ingle mean s which does n ot serve as such to a w hole crowd of diverse e n ds Therefore in practice the verbs o f means are repeated with far greater freque n cy than are the verbs of ends '

E ach

of our exercises faithfully reflects all of these distin o tions reproduces and manife sts al l of these relationships The ends are found therein perfectly distinct the one I from the other E ach end is distinct from its means 2 The verbs of means are repeated ceaselessly from one 3 end to another end from one series to another series To al l these observations upon the inner constitution of our exercises we need to add one other relative to these observa tions themselves The method ough t not to be j udged solely from the m anner in which we here present it Language being the most direct and immediate product of the hum an m ind the theory of i t s developm ent is and cannot but be at bottom a ch apt e 1 of psychology ; and whatever efforts a1 e made to render its principles intelli gible to the whole W C I l d these principles will always present themselves with that character inherent to all principle —I mean of abstraction .

t h l od e m e h f 7 Let us ex amine our theme from a n e w that is the purely practical point of V ie w This theme that we have given is i t within the re ach of every intelligence within the grasp of every memory in other words is it possible of easy assimilation ? .

Jil

nemoni c pr oper ti es o

O BJ E CTIV E

LAN G UAG E

complements but these nouns are repeated o r may be r e at e d quite naturally almost at every phrase e p C ount how many times in our exercise recur the words m aid axe block wood & c and fro m this how many times ” “ what we have termed their substitutes might themselves be repeated ,

This special form of our exercises offers very considerable advantages in practice I E ach phrase expressing a det ai l a new fact th e repeti tion of the same subjects and the same complements has not the character of an ordinary repetition of a repetition pure an d simple O wing to this new detail this step made in advance in each phrase neither tediousness nor fatigue is to be feared This natural repetition of the same nouns this constant 2 and periodic return of the thought towards the same object this reiterated e ff ort of the representative or v isualising faculty u pon the same idea is not all this the graver s tool which engraves t h e ideas and their expressions upon the memory ? This same repetition this perpetual recurrence of the 3 same sounds is not this the essential condition is not this the m ost sure and solid guarantee of a good pronunciation 4 The lis t ener feeling himself safe in this repetition of subjects and complements turns the principal e ff ort o f his attention quite naturally upo n the verb B ut the verb which is the soul of the phrase the most important and precious element of the sentence is at the same time the most di fﬁ cult to conquer and to keep It is import ant therefore that the attention should be ﬁxed entirely upon this term N ow by means of the beforementioned evolution all the visual rays of th e intelligence are verily concentrate d upon a solitary fact the action —upon a solitary word the verb Is it possible to place the mem ory under more advantageous conditions ? Would it be possible for any one to propose better conditions ? .

’

C R I TI CA L I

O B S E RVA TI O N S UP O N Th e p erp etual speech d iﬁ

E ach

A RT O F C

TH E

W r i tt en '

cul t i es

O MP O S I N G

S E R I E S.

—H i d d en

ser i es

one of us in reality from the ﬁrst dawn of intelligence fo rms series, constructs exercises works out themes Was i t

TH E M O

THE RS ’

S E RI E S

in seeing a child of three so d oing that we ourselves gained an insight into t hi s system —the formidable work of the human mind creating for itself spinning for itself a langu age condi t i on ed to its life ? The humble nursemaid forms a series or at least a theme analogous t o our own when leading the baby toward s the door she says t o i t Walk baby that s the way ! now go towards the door that s it now you ve got there bravo lift up your little arm capital I take h old of the handle that s quite right h o w strong you are turn the hand l e open the door ; what a clever little baby now pull the door open ; you little darli n g ! & c & c n ot

’

It has already bee n stated that in any language there are two languages It i s therefore by desig n that we have here disposed i n two columns the text which th e ordinary books present confo unded together in S pi t e of their di versity We S hall retur n at the proper time to this distinction ; for the moment let us pass on .

The mother or the nurse makes a series also when she d resses the little chil d a series which she repeats every morn ing always the same in substance and S h e makes a lesson of this series when she says C ome along ! let me put on your frock ; put your little head through ; give me your little arm pass your little arm into the little sleeve now let us button the sleeve & c & c ,

I omit the re flection s and terms of endearment with which sh e knows so well how to season each of her phrases and which form part of what we have called the subjective lan ” guage or relative phrases ,

life i s a perpetual talk You cannot open a door with out mentally expressing each movement necessary to arrive at this en d without commanding yourself to do it as the nurse commanded it aloud to her baby It is this constant and per manent exercise which alone can explain this prodigious facility ur

O BJ E CTIV E

LAN G UAG E

miraculous m obility of l angu age which ﬂashes fort h with an idea like the thunder with the ligh t ning which walks with the tho ught and run s with it like the shadow with its s ub stance lingering w hen i t lingers hurrying when it hurries goin g up hill and down dale without ever asking for respite Has it never happened to you in the railway trai n to ﬁnd yourself listening to two foreigners conversing together in an unknown ton gue ? Which is it that has most astonished you the intellectu al power which in the interval between t w o stations can thus reel o ff by linking them together the myriads of ide as or this language which strikes them o ff as quickly as they are produced without fatigue and without cessation t his

I repeat life from one end to the other even in sleep is a perpetual talk In the light of this fact one can a l re ady j udge of those methods and those masters and those astonishi n g G overnment regulations innocen t ly proposing to teach or to h ave taught any language in giving or voting for it one hour two h ours three hour s a week that is five to ten full days a year If therefore each of us constructs these series ceaseles sly and almost unaw ares even to himself an d if it is tru e that by dint of striking one may become a smith one might be led to b elieve that n othing is more easy than t o build up th e syste m of which we h ave thus laid th e foundations A n d this indeed is t h e convic t ion which at first is forced upon whoever is desirous of listening to the explanation of t h e system ; an d possibly this very fact is a presumption in favour of the sy ste m “ if the words of P ascal are true S eeing a good book y ou expected to find an author ; you are quite astonished to find not hi ng but a m an ,

”

But any on e on setting to work will soon find himself s t um l bling against unforeseen obstacles an d this method so natural wh en listened t o so natural when an experienced teacher you immediately appears bristling with a pplies it before di fficulties to the most skilful person who undertakes to con struct —I w i l l n o t say the system e n tire I will not say even This res ul t s o n e series —but the most lowly of the exercises from the first conditions that the system must ful fil in order t o be what it ought t o be —a system conformable to the nature ” “ of the hu m an min d a system truly psy chologic We w i l l e ndea v our to establish the most important of these conditions ,

O BJ E CTIV E

LAN G UAG E

electricity with an organism appropriate to his social wan t s In these creations ar t has magniﬁcently and gloriously van i u s h e d Nature q

it should also be with a good linguistic method P sycho logy will i nterrogate N ature and wil l ask of her a primitive an original force a principle ; then it will adapt a special organis m to this principle and the syste m will be of good repute if it can produce for instance within the duration of a single season that which N ature can only achieve in the space of one or of several years The s y stem will be defective if it cannot compete with Nature either in the quantity or in the quality of the products By its frui t t h e tree S hall be j udged A linguistic method is an art or shoul d tend to become o n e ; such is the idea which has been kept in v iew i n t h e co nstructio n of our own method and which has guided us in our work .

‘

—

Req ui si te

capaci ti es

P ed agogi c m easur e i nto exerci ses— Const r ucti on be obser ved

d i vi si on Rul es to

th e seri es —Th ei r th ese exer ci ses

f of o

The first conditio n requisite for com posing a series i s t o ha v e lived it To write the S eries of the Fisherman one must have fished or s een som e one fishing To write the S eries of the Hunter one must have hunted or have followed the hunters To wri te that of the S hepherd one must have tended sheep o r lived with shepherds To write t h e S eries of the Harvest o ne must have reaped corn To be able to To write the S eries S peak of the sea one must ha v e voyaged of the O ak or the Fir it is neces sa ry to have studied the tree not i n a book or according to a cold and dry nomenclature but in itself in its living reality and to have followed it if possible from its first germ and its first cell unto the most comple t e of its fruits And so for the rest: The construction of the fabric desired demands therefore an observing mind which has long been i n immediate contact with N ature and which after having widely lived the life of the fields and the li fe of the people has embraced with passion an d devotion the study of the sciences and of literature This is what m ight be called t h e subj ective condition of t h e Let us pass to the objective conditions e nterprise .

M E AS U RE O F T H E S E RI E S

A series being given to develop it is necessary before augh t else to trace its limits and to settle u pon its contents Thi s first operation already o ffers considerable diffi culties Too long the series will fatigue the child ; t o o short it will not occupy its imagination for a su fficiently long duration of time The intellectual incubation not having the desired length t h e hatching will not take place N either the phenomena itself nor its expression will be able to take root in the moral sub stance T h ey will leave in t h e memory like the shooting star in the heavens nothing but an ephemeral trace Upon what therefore must we base our measure ? C an Natur e here also serve us as guide ? Has she some wise indi catio n some model to o ff er us ? ,

We have seen in the ﬁr st place that the child begins by playing at games of the facts and occupations of serious life ; we have seen also that h e lingers a det erminate time upo n each of his games This time i s the measure sought I t is by the ordinary duration of a child s game that the duration of a series and so the e xt e nt of its development should be regulated C ut accordi ng t o this pattern the series will interest the scholar with out risk of fatiguing him If necessary we can divide and subdivide the material and by making several series to some extent concentric spring from the same subj ect we can treat them each at its proper time at determined intervals so leading the pupil s imagina tion back periodically as is d one in N ature towards facts i n appearance id entical in reality always diverse we might e v en say always new ,

’

The distribution of the general matter in chapters that is in di ff erent and special themes or e x ercises and the con st r uc tion of these e x ercises themselves have also their di ffi culties E ach exercise in d eed should form a comp l ete whole in itself an independent whole without ceasing to be a natural an d necessary link of the seri es M oreover each exercise should be conceived under a form w hich strikes the imagination should be developed with a certain movement which interests and captivates the mind w hile remaining accurately faithful to the reality A word a simple d etail sometimes su ffices to produce this e ff ect ; one must know how to find it A l l this necessitates very careful work which cannot be acco m plish e d without l ong experience and a clear idea of the end t o be attained ,

O BJ E CTIV E

LAN G UA G E

Upon the testimony of several su ffi ciently able persons who have attempted to write some of the series on the model of our o wn this work in appearance so S imple would seem to b e of co nsiderable di ffi cul t y It is usually not easy to say where to begin or where to end any p articular theme It is still more di ffi cult to say precisely to what dept h the analysis o f the phenomenon described should be pushed The temptation arises indeed at every instance of forcing matters and of doing violence to Nature in order to attain such or such an expression The plo ughshare too readily buries itself in the soil or to speak more d irectl y one becomes lost amongst details An exercise composed under these conditions is defe o tive in itself and indigestible by the student The pupil s mind cannot assimilate it He feels a miserable hesitation a repugnance that paralyses pa r t of his force s It can soon be recognised if an exercise has attained the wished for perfection when in the first place its contents attract the attention of the class and impress it an d i n the next when several of the more moderately gifted pupils dis pute at the first reading the honour of repeating it The tailor who is j ealous of his goo d repute will not deliver a suit until after he has caref ully fitted it to his customer The pedagogue who has a love and respect for his art before pub l i s h i n g his work will submit it t o the natural t est he has always to his hand and w i l l prove i t long and conscientiously u pon his class The pleasure and the ardour of his scholars are the true touchstones of the school book ,

’

It is i n the highes t degree necessary that the lesson given by the master S hould do nothing but awaken in the mind of the pupi l a conception a representation which already exists in his imaginati on The method m us t not propose at any rate at ﬁrst and in the elementary series to endo w t h e pupil s mind wi t h fresh ideas but to tran slate those which are already the r e to express his individuality such as it is without changing an y thing thereof in a n e w tongue ; to r e make to reconstruct t h is individuality in French in G erman in G reek in Latin & c N ay more than this : the method proposes and proposes essentially to place the pupi l in those conditions under whic h he will be enabled to r eth i nk his own being to take up agai n and r e read the book of his existence to re live his E go i n For example if the pupil G erman in G reek in French Sec ,

’

O BJ E C TIV E

LAN G UAG E

—

L ogi cal l i nki ng togeth er of th e sentences i n an exer ci se O r d er — n d i s er T m a d or d h e h u an br eath M easur e of th e p h r ase P l aci ng l i n e by l i ne Th e i ntel l ectual eﬁ or t, i ts exten t P ed agogi c m easur e of a l i ngui sti c exer ci se

—

We have already estab l ish ed the high value of the relationship o f successio n in time We have said that it forms i n itsel f alone the elementary logic of the human mind and that it is before all the logic of the child the only one it understands well and th e only one it knows how to apply The pedagogue therefore in constructing an exercise will practically employ only this relationship He may however from time to time use the relationship of cause and e ffect the most familiar t o the child after the former He will use very rarely an d only “ by e x ception the relationship of the whole to the part which is a relationship neither logical nor constant but alto gether accidental fortuitous and gen erally arbitrary The most ordinary j udgment kno w s how to discern that which goes before from that wh ich comes after knows how to d istin guish the cause from the e ff ect the end from the means the whole from the part There is here therefore no real ly serious di fﬁ culty If any arises with reference to the arrange ment or order of the sentences it does not belong to t his arrangement itself It com es from something mo re abs tr use it belongs to the nature of the conce ption t o the separation o f the exe r c is es o r to the progression of the series and con se quently the problem enters into that of the previous one .

With reference to this arrangement or order let us say that the logic severe inﬂexible constant which links exercise to exer cise sentence to sentence m akes of our labour an essentially original work W i t hout precedent as without model an d places an abyss between our method and all others bearing this name It is necessary to repeat it : the attempts of O llendorf of Robertson o f Ja co t o t an d of others are not methods at al l “ Who says method says order N o w all these books o ffer in reality nothing but a hideous confusion a frightf ul muddle worse eve n tha n the fortuitous sequence of the dictionary Have you a hat 2 Yes I have a hat Have you a t abl e fl Yes I have a table What knife have you that of the E nglishmen or t hat of the S paniards 2 N o I have the basket of the Jew There you have the logic of O llendorf ,

”

O RD E R

AN D DI S O RD E R

What think you is the natural relationship which connects And how could t hese four words : hat table knife basket ? it be hoped that I should dispose within my memory by mean s of this astounding j ugglery the thirty thousand words of the vocabulary and the sixty thousand turns O f expression O f the ord i nary lan guage ? C an we then be astonished that routine still continues to rule supreme i n the school and t hat the universities still al w ays prefer the an cient way of Charlem agne or King E dward to the impossible paths traced by the modern linguists ,

Instead of studying words upon the facts and by the facts they express and in the eternal order in w hich these facts are d eveloped —as does the little child and with such good r e s ul t s —the scholar stud ies the words for themselves as absolute “ sounds or rather as abstract numbers The unforeseen — — the unconnected disorder in a word these are the ordinary and universally received springs that are set in action in t h e “ handbooks written for the study of la n guages There dis ” order i s raised to the height of a principle the unforeseen and the strange are converted into a mnemotechnic means A singular proceeding this which proscribes order and anni h i l at es logic and reason to strengthen the memory as if th e true memory was not the faculty which classes facts and se ts them logically in order with i n the mind ,

”

This error—I should say this aberration —evidently proceeds fro m a defect of observation already notified by us The authors of these methods have not reflected that Nature had “ solved the problem of language long before them ; that she “ holds as we have sai d for early childhood a permanent an d open school at which we could assist and where we could study her always infallible processes In the turmoil of the child s life so feverish and fi t ful they have not caught sight of the regular development which takes place in the child s mind by language and for language In th e hurried and confused suc cession of its acts sensations and fantasies so diverse and manifold they could see nothing but a pure game O f chance and have never imagined that there could be therein anything which resembled order—a principle of order .

”

’

This is why imita t ing Nature as they call it they have erected disorder into a principl e and have inscribed i n letters “ o f gol d upon their books N A TU R A L M E T H O D 1 ,

”

O BJ E CTIV E

LAN G UAG E

Have you a hat ? Y es I have a hat but my brother has the Frenchman s fork “ Have you bee n to sea ? “N O but I have been skat , ing &c Robertson Jacot ot an d their followers mark time as i t were upon t h e same substanti ve to the point o f vertigo ; or again without regard to commonsense w ithout pity for the reason they will turn over and over and o v er again [like P rendergast] one and the same sentence and work it about u nhappy collection O f words —until it is thoroughly worn to rags ,

’

E verything

that is developed in Nature animal or vegetable is subj ect to fixed immutable laws The life of the child does not escape therefrom any more than the rest of Nature We “ have defined it thus A series of general ends which it pro poses either aloud or to itself and which i t attains one after the other by successive and perfectly determinate means Here there is sequence ; here there is order Who can deny it ? B y i t s inward speech the child talks explaining all that it feels all that it wishes all that it desires Language the faithful and constant acolyte of all its internal developments participates thus itself and from the beginning in this order Therefore chance does not preside over the developm ent of langu age any more t h an it does over anything else This philological linguis t s is wha t y o u will learn first of al l in the school for little children kept by N ature if you are neither blind nor deaf if you are not dis t raught and if you can becom e teachable O nly be observant and you will lear n many other things B ut above all be logical ; then have the courage to burn if it is necessary w h at until n o w you have held in respect or even reverence ,

”

method therefore is l ight a thousand times right when it links series to series exercise to exercise sentence t o sentence It is right again when amo n g the various relation ships by which the human mind can associate two ideas it has chosen the most simple of all that which is fami l iar to “ the chil d the relationship o f succession in time It is by reason O f this solely by this double character of logic and of simplici t y that it is a method ; and if a method could a r rogate to itself the title of natural it should be that one which appropriating the secret processes of N ature simpliﬁes O

”

O BJ E CTIV E

LAN G UA G E

sounds without i ntervals a melody will never be made The reading of the most beautiful book i n the world given in one â&#x20AC;&#x201D; breath i f the thing were possible â&#x20AC;&#x201D;without stop without repose would fatigue confuse deafen the ear without trans mitting a single idea to the seat of intelligence S o also is it with the eye an d its glance and S O also with all the senses E ach has its proper movement each has its period each has a constant arc O f oscillation or vibration We may draw from this two consequences O f the greatest import ance for a ling uistic method ,

In the ďŹ rst place the phrase will always be a S i mple sen tence and this sentence will be as short as possible that is the verb will always appear therein with one complement or with two complements rarely with three C onsequently we s hall usually be able to write the sentence in o n e line Hence the original method of arrangement of our exercises w here each phrase is on one line and where eac h phrase has its line to itself O ur phrases never therefore e x ceed the dimensions of an ordi nary conception even of a little chil d whose phrases are eminently and necessarily brief The short est breath can compass each of them By this relation ship therefore the method is put into perfect accordance with the lessons prescriptions an d dictates of N ature I

The second consequence is of still greater importan ce The theme the exercise each link of a series will have a precise measure which it S hould never e x ceed We have studied from this point of vie w some of the principal literary masterpieces and this is what we hav e discovered The ideas or general conceptions found therein succeed e ach other at intervals of an almost m athematical regularity The complete development of each idea is found to occupy fro m twenty -two to twenty seven sentences or complete phr ases To cite an example the most beautiful scenes of Virgil his most beautiful pictures are all presented under these condi tions all without exception ( see for example the t r an scr i p tion of the Z E n ei d on our system ) It is interesting to read them through again and to count them Homer observes the same rule perhaps more strictly still even when he nods and the great prose writers are not less faithful to it in all the lan guages known to us 2

This d iscovery if it be one is worthy of being taken into ,

LE N G TH

E XE RCI S E

serious consideration It will yield precious and fruitful precepts for the science of teaching Let us attempt to raise this fact to the height of a rule or a law by submitting it to the double test of rea soning and of e xperience Let us fi rst hear the v erdict of e x perience When before a well-disciplined class I develop a linguistic e x ercise be it in G reek i n Latin in G erman or i n E ngl ish each pupil remains seriously at t entive up to the twentieth the t w enty second or the twenty fourth sentence s O f this atten tion of the pupil I have as guarantee first of all his looks which will be fix ed upon m e and then his good behaviour After the twenty fi ft h sentence involuntary nervous move ments begin to S how themselves Legs begin to shift feet scrape on the floor papers rustle and faces len gthen E vi The d en t l y the wits are wandering in quest of other things human patience is at an end ; the intellectual force is over loaded the limit of voluntary e ff ort is overstepped The bow bent to excess i s relaxed In fine the souls have flown else where The menace and fear of a punishment is now necessary or rather the interval necessitated by thi s to recall them momentarily to the tree of knowledge .

I say momentarily for you will never succeed whatever your talents and the charm of your language whatever the ability the resources the ar t i fi ces of your discipline you will never — succeed for a longer time with profit b e it understood —i n holding your class prisoner And your severity will be in reality a want of tact if not a cruel ty betraying an entire ignorance of the elementary laws of the intelligence which you have in charge to direct and to form At this moment what is absolutely necessary is a rest a release an interval or rather a diversion for th e mind does not rest and never remains absolutely idle But what diver sion shall we choose that may be of profit to the intellectual sustain it c or t that our lesson has just provoked that m a y complete it render it fruitful ? This we will give farther on “ in the chapter upon The Use of the M ethod The e xtreme limit of a li n guistic theme is therefore settled Where shall we place its lower limit ? ,

ﬂ

’

In order that an intellectual e ff ort may beco m e fruitful the mind must take this e ff ort seriously ; it must work upon itself must become heated must bestow pains to produce a result ; in a word this intellectual e ff ort must be s ubmi tted ,

O BJE CTIVE

LAN G UAG E

in or d er to be hatched to an in cubation of a determined period of time E xperie n ce h as pro ved to 1i s an d continu es to prove every day that an exerci se which contains less than eightee n sentences fulﬁls but ill the conditions which result from the preceding pri nciple The pupil disdains and d e his power He does S pi s es it as being too far benea t h not stay thereat the time des i red ; he is not su ffi ciently i n ” t er e st ed he does not ponder over or incubate it an d there fore he d oeS not assimilate it The length of an e x ercise will vary therefore from twenty two to twentyseven sentences from twenty to thirty at the Outside This is the verdict of our personal experience It fully agrees with the result o f our study of the great writers E ach one may if he pleases experiment in his turn and pronounce thereupon ,

B ut

if we submit the verdict of experience to the verdict of reason the secon d will only confirm the first In fact have we not established in principle that every eff ort of the i n te l l i gen ce has a determinate measure ? that every conception has a definite amplitude both when it is developed soli tarily in the mind of its author and when it clothe s a form i n order to penetrate to the minds of others ? in fine that all i n t el l ec tual development t o become durable must be submitted to a kind of incubation Reason therefore lays down the fact in principle e xp erience s ettles the question w ith exactitude ’

‘

S E CI

M E NS

’

TH E

E L E AI E NT A RY

RI E S

To precepts we j u d ge it useful to add examples Instead Of referring th e reader to th e book of the S eries or to the method itself we w ill attempt to build up before him one or two O f these series W e will choose them amongst the short est and the most rudimentary—say the S eries of the P ump or of W ater and the S eries of the Fire .

Th e S er i es

th e P ump

f Let us remark ﬁ rst of all that th 1s serl es elementary though it may be i s not that by which the m ethod should or in prac 1

O BJE CTIVE

C onfronted with

L AN G UAG E

the reality it wi ll al ways be allowable to t h e teacher to modify our e x ercise an d to push matters to more minute particulars To go and fetch water from the pump is a comple x act i n which three distinct division s m ay be counted ,

G oi n g to the pump P umping the water Carrying the water

back to the kitchen

The S eries of the P ump will furn i sh us therefore with three exercises If i t i s considered better to leave t o the maid this domestic work we shoul d develop this short series in t h e followi ng manner ,

S PE CI M E N E LE ME NTARY S E RI E S

TH E P U M P

Th e m ai d gees t o t h e pump

tak es hold of the pail by the handle lifts up the pail goes across the kitchen , opens the door crosses the threshold goe s out of the kit chen , tur n s round shuts the door

Th e maid

the the the the the the the

maid maid maid maid maid maid maid

The maid leaves the k itchen leaves the maid mo ves away from the kitchen m oves aw ay the maid turns towards th e pump t urns t ow ar d s the maid draws near to the pump d r aw s near the maid comes to the pump com es the maid stops at the p ump st ops th e maid l ifts the pail the maid puts out her arm the maid sets down the pail under the spout of the maid l ets go the pail handle the pump [ .

M aid

woman gir ser v ant girl housemaid ser v ant man l ( l ad boy domes tic servitor P ail ( bucket watercan pitcher, j ug ew er bo wl tub pot , vessel ute nsil K itchen ( house homest ead dwelling domicile ,

O BJ E CTIV E

l oo

LAN G UA G E

T HE P U M P

som e

Th e m ai d pumps

Sh e

she Sh e

Sh e

she sh e

the the

puts out her hand grasps the pump handle raises the pump handle lowers the pump handle raises the pump handle lowers the pump handle pump handle creaks pump S hakes

wat er

The water rises in the pump the water ďŹ&#x201A;ows along the S pou t the water falls into the pail the water strikes the bottom of the pail th e water splashes at the bottom of the pail th e water swirls round in the pail the water foams in the p ail the water rises i n the pail the water rises and rises high er an d higher it ďŹ lls the pail the maid l ets go the pump handle ,

l et s go

handle (the handle arm lever machine thing P ump ( the body of the pump the cylinder the i n t e1 i or inside S pout ( th e cond uit the chann el P ump

th e

“

B E J C TIV E O

LAN G UAG E

Th e reader shall decide for himself if these three exercises are properly constructed according to the rules previously laid down We S ho uld however like to draw his attention t o sundry facts which co ul d not be raised in the general explana tion of the method ,

N ot

only do the same substantives and the same verbs reappear indeﬁnitely but whole groups of phrases are repeated from one e x ercise to the other S uch for example is the case with the whole of the phrases w hich translate the fact of loco motion ( to leave to move farther away to turn towards to draw near to to come to to stop at ) These com ple x elements are at the same time a cement which bind together and ﬁ x the whole a v aluable bri d ge upon which the imagination passes without eff ort from the known to the unknown After these elements have bee n conquered analytically they would be i n cluded in one S ingle verb For ex ample the si x phrases which correspond t o the si x verbs mentioned are contained in the ” “ phrase The maid goes t o the pump In one step therefore we have now taken six and it i s thus that the forwar d march is continually accelerating and the scholar ends by really p ul l ing on the sevenleagued boots 1

I am not at all sure that it i s possible to define any on e substantive e x actly but I defy the greatest philologist in the world ev er to defin e even o n e of the best known the simplest and the most common of the v erbs—and indeed especially one of this kind N ow observe : the knowledge w hi ch science is incapable of yieldi ng up to us our e x ercises give to the child intuitively as is t h e case in N ature What we mean is that in o ur method each verb is defined h y t he part icular place it occu pies either in the recital or upon the paper For e x ample to leave i s not t o mo v e farther away To leave represents one moment of the locomotion and t o move farther away r epr e sents that which follows and i s complementary to it The second v erb l imits the fir st that is to say defines it and vi ce This del imi tation of one act by another act of on e verb 118 7 3 62 by another verb is the only definition possible with these kinds of expression a definition purely intuitive Let us fu rther recall t o the reader that each e x ercise is the definition o f its title 2

’

E x ercise

II S hows us the working of the pump There here a pitfal l to be avoided We might be tempted to go

N CE N TRI C

S E RI E S

103

into scientific d etails of the interior work i ng of the machine and t o ex plain i n pas sing an interesting chap t er of physics It would O ur series would thereupon ce ase to be elementary no longer reproduce a perception a personal conception of the scholar M oreover the matter o f it could only be as similated by a person to some e x tent scien t ific Let us however at once say that this part is only deferred and that later on in a series concentric to the one j us t given the complete working o f the pump would be scientifically set forth and e x plained ,

ﬂ

h u a s The eries of the mp as its natural complement P S 4 the parallel S eries of the Well and the S pring We thi n k it u seful to S ketch out the principal e x ercises of these latter ; in the ﬁ rst place i n order to a or d a glimpse of what d evelop ments and e x pressions of what resources and li nguistic riches are contained i n the most elementary acts Of ordinary e x ist ence and in the ne x t place in order to establish and obtain acceptance of t hi s truth , that the e x pression of every— d ay li fe the domestic l ife is the fundamental basis and bedroc k o f the — human language a truth hardly more than suspected in spite of its evidence an d one which no linguist up to the pre sent day h as thought of thoroughly applying and e xploit i ng M oreover without this i n sight we S hould have some d i tﬁ culty i n treating the chapter which should round o ff and make complete the theory of the const r uction of the system to w i t the coordination of the S eries .

At the foot of each of our e x ercises is seen a collection of 5 te rms destined t o be substituted oral ly for their equivalents in the e x ercise proper These appendices only occupy this place for the present occas ion and solely for the purpose of facilitating our e x planation The deﬁnitive method relegates them to the end o f the S eries Th eir presence at the foot of the pages indeed impedes and hinders the regul ar progress of the e x ercises conceals and weakens their logical sequence unnecessarily overloads the S eries an d disturbs the general eco nomy taking away from it its character of S implicity .

Besides this these terms themselv es are susceptible of a certain organisation They can and ought t o be arranged according t o their degree of generality so that they may be deﬁned as are th e verbs on e by another and by th e intrinsic mental value they occupy in each table Let us add also th at their n umber being sometimes fairly large there would oft en ,

O BJ E CTIV E

10 4

LAN G UAG E

be a risk of their e n cum ber i n g the pages and of preventing the development of th e ordinary e x ercises C onsequently it is better to assign them a separate place We shall therefor e suppress them in the exercises which follow believing that the f ew examples already given will su fﬁce to S how how these species of terms are treated by our method This grouping and the establishment of their intrinsic value i t self necessitates considerable work After a series is con structed what we do is to read through the entire d ictionary and carefully gather every term which can relate closely or more distantly to the development O f this series This done we organise the material S O found .

The S eries of the W ell comprises four e x ercises as follows The housewife goes to the well I 2 The housewife lets down the bucket into the well u The housewife draws the bucket 3 p 4 The housewife carries the bucket of water to t h e kitchen I n order not to load our te x t with too many e x amples we leave on one S ide all such e x ercises as would arise from the possible an d ordinary accidents which are connected with th is series and complete it We will S imply point out that as an aim can be attained it can also be missed A n aim missed is what we term an accident The maid who upsets the water in carrying it to the kitchen would miss her aim This fact constitutes an accident The development of the indirect and complementary series of the accidents is hardly less rich in terms and sentences than th e development of the d irect series itself .

The well which I picture to m y sel f i s that of our village the ﬁrst I suppose that I ever observed A S with the pump the pupil and the reader are invited to do likewise that is to say to cal l to memory a real well and one know n t o themsel ves There e xi st several kin ds of wells or at least of mechanical arr angements for drawing water We have thought it best to start with the most ordinary if n ot the most simpl e—that system havi ng the Wi ndlass as its basis In the vast develop ment whi ch the whole set of the seri es presents the occasion w ill not be lacking for the d escription of the working of other systems and from thence to glean the S pecial locution s to which they give rise This Observ ation applies to all the “ series each o n e having what may be called its variants r

O BJ E C TIVE

10 6

LAN G UAG E

add that provides a permanent test as conv enient as it is easy, for the teacher to e x amine and report upon the degre e of assimilation of the series previously elaborated This pro perty of our themes and our s eries does away with a drudgery more barren even than it is wearisome that of the cor r ec tion of the pupils exercise books whi ch always costs so many hours and is usually productive of little save the disgust of the pupil and the discouragement the lukewarmness and the i ndi ff erence o f the teacher Instead of correcting we do over again Thi s is simpler more profitable and infinitely more e x peditious Is it not by circulating that t h e s ap purifies and corrects i t s acerbities ? We wish our processes of instruction to be organic and n ot mechanical ,

’

”

abridged S eries of the Fire will be represented by two parallel or concentri c serie s —that of the fire on the ordinary hearth and that of the fire in the st o v e The S eries of the S pring was bas ed upon that of the P ump ; the S eries of the Fire in the S tove will be based upon that o f the Fire on the Hearth To light a fire is an act that can have the most diverse fin al aims It is needful therefore t o state that t o heat the room i s the sole motiv e of the action developed b y the present series Fur thermore all t h e Observations which the S eries of the Water occasioned equally apply t o the devel opment of these t wo new facts of domestic life We will decompose the first into eight exercises ur

7 8

The The The The The

housewife goes t o the woodshed housewife gets some wood housewife lays th e fire housewife lights the fi r e wood bur ns Th e wood consumes The housewife mends the fire The housewife puts out the fire

We S hall defer as with the S eries o f the W ater the possible and ordinary accident s which might giv e material for an in d irect and complementary series ,

The theatre in which my imagination places and see s this new scene is stil l the house in which I was h or n The m n l sa e 1 1 n d 1 s e b of ﬁre for us are r educed to the r u n r m e t s st p .

‘

S U BS IDIA RY S E RI E S

107

elements : a woodshed some wood a fireplace a grate some Fires are lighted in many other fi r ed ogs and a ch i m ney places : under the baker s oven in the limekil n in the field s in the forest in the forge in the workshop & c 85 0 These various fires wi l l be the objects of as many series S im il ar and which will rest upon the at the same time complementary fir st without repeating it and wil l give rise t o a host of special expressions and n ew sentences A detail and consequently an expression relativ e to fire whic h would not be comprised in the fi r st series will certainly find its place in on e of the others ,

’

there are subsidiary and completing series so there are subsidiary and co m pleting exercises The exercise of the fi r e a ff ords us an example The act to unlock the door being given for de v elopment we must not descend at first into the e xtreme li m its o f analysis We must guard ourselves for instance from S peak ing in the early lessons of the working of the bolt and of the hasp and of the movements of the S pring in the lock How ever these facts requiring to be placed and named somewhere they are reserved f or other and later series where there will be further doors to be opened The primitive theme wil l reappear but more or less modified charged with fresh det ails yielded t o us by a closer and closer analysis W e S hall thus penetrat e gradually to the v ery heart of the phenomenon un til we hav e definitely e xhausted it and possess the totality o f its expression It is necessary also to remember in con s i d e r i n g the early lessons that the fundamental l iterary ex pressions have taken their rise from habitual acts of simple and primi tive life A

The

S eries

of the S to v e is reduced to two exercis es I

C hopping

the wood Lighting the stove

The other acts ha v ing been written out in the pre viou s series n eed not ﬁgure herein The E xercise I (chopping wood ) has already been giv en as a model : we will however reproduce it in its place S O as t o present the complete series and to ensure its continuity ,

O BJ E C TIV E

10 8

LAN G UAG E

W E LL

TH E

Th e m ai d g oes t o d r aw wat er

The maid takes her b u cket the maid goes out of the house the maid bends her steps t owards the well the maid draws near to th e well the maid gets t o the well the maid stops at the well and sets down the bucket on the brink of the wel l ,

t h e wel l

t ak es goe s out

b end s h er

d raw s

st eps

near

get s t o st

ops

s et s

d own

The maid leans o v er the well sh e stretches o ut her arm she catches hold of the chain she draws this chain towards h er she opens the hook places the handle of the bucket in an d closes this hook

l e ans

st r et ch es out

cat ch es

h ol d

d r aw s

opens

pl ace s

c oses

Sh e

puts one hand t o the crank and with the other pushes the bucket into the mouth of t h e well the bucket swings t o and fro Ov er the depths the chain rattles and makes the d epths resound ,

S w i ngs r at

tle s

mak es r e sound

O BJ E CTIVE

LAN G UAG E

THE W E L L

Th e m ai d wi nd s up t h e b uck et

The m aid rises from her seat grasps the crank handle with both hands winds up the rope one turn and S O draws th e bucket out of the water ; she lets the rope go again plunges the bucket into the wate r agai n draws up the buck et once more tests t o see if it is ful l an d then turns the handle vi gorously ,

The W indlass turns round t h e vvi n d l ass creaks and creak s the rope coils up round the W indlas s covers up the W indlass little by little the bucket rises towards the mouth of the the water drips off the bucket the bucket gets near t o the well mouth and comes t o the level o f the brink ,

The maid stops turn i ng seizes the handle of the bucket with her left hand brings the b ucket o ver t o the edge of the well l ets go the crank handle Opens the hook unhooks the bucket i n gs back the chain into the well and carries away the bucket of water t o the ,

ďŹ&#x201A;

carri es

S PE C I M E N E L E M E NTARY S E RI E S

TH E S P RI N G

Th e gi r l d r aws wat er

Sh e tak es the bucket an d goes away t o the s h e stops at the brink of the spring she bends o v er the brink and cl ips the bucket in the water the bucket displaces the water the wat er r u sh es into the bucket mak i ng a gurgling sound ; the water ďŹ l ls the bucket

( II

th e

spr i ng

The g i rl draws the bucket out of the S pring the overďŹ&#x201A;ow run s o v er the edge of the bucket streams do w n the sides o f the bucket and falls back into the S pring the girl sets down the bucket on the brink and takes a breath ,

Finally sh e catches hold of the handle the bucket with on e hand takes up the bucket puts the other hand to her hip , leans her body o v er to the left balances the weight of the water l ea v es the spring an d carries the water to the kitchen ,

d raw s

out

run s over s t r ams

d own

e f al l s

back

s et s

d own

t ak e s cat ch es

h ol d

O BJ E CT IVE

F I RE

THE

Th e h ousewi f e

LAN G UAG E

goes t o t h e w ood sh ed

Th e key of the woodshed is h anging on a the cook takes do wn t hi s key the cook goes out O f the kitchen the cook leaves the kitchen the cook goes away from the kitchen the cook goes towards the woodshed the cook d raws near to th e woodshed the cook gets to the door the cook stops at the door ,

Sh e

puts out her hand inserts the key into the keyhole turns the key in the lock the bolt S hoots back from the hasp the cook opens the door she lets go of the key she pul ls the door the door yields the door turns on its hinges the door creak s on its hinges ,

The cook crosses the doorstep enters the woodshed and goes across the woodshed

Th e

coo

h ouse m ai d ,

ser van t

i s h angi ng t ak es d ow n goe s

out

l eave s goes aw ay goe s t o w ar d s

d r aw s n e ar get s t o st ops

O BJ E CTIV E

1 14

LAN G U A G E

F I RE

TH E

Th e h ousem ai d l ay s t h e ﬁ r e

The housemaid takes some twigs ben d s her knee places the twigs against her knee and bends the wood the wood gives way t h e wood bends more and more the wood cracks the wood breaks the splinters ﬂy over the kitch en the housemaid doubles up the twig s stoops down to the hearth, and lays the twigs on the ﬁ r ed ogs

t ak es

b e nd s

pl aces d oubl es back

ﬂ gi ve s way

b end s

crack s

br eak s

d o ubl es up

st oops

l ay s

Sh e

stands up again goes back to the woodbo x takes some bigger pieces of wood carries them to the ﬁrepl ace bends do w n to th e hearth places the logs on the twigs fetches a handful of shavings an d stu ff s them in beneath the twi gs

d ow n

st an

up agai n

goes b ac k

t ak e s

rie s b e nd s d own pl ace s f et ch es car

st uff s

S PE CI M E N E L E M E NTA RY S E RI E S

T H E F I RE

Th e

ser vant

li gh t s t h e ﬁ r e

The servant takes a bo x o f matches S h e opens the m atchbo x sh e takes o ut a match sh e shuts up the matchbo x sh e strikes t h e match o n the cover the mat ch takes ﬁ r e the match smokes the match ﬂames t h e match burn s and S preads a smell of bur n ing o v er the kitchen ,

The servant bends down to the hearth puts out her hand puts the match under the S havings holds the match under the shav ings the shavings take ﬁre the servant leaves go of the match stands up again looks at her ﬁre bur n l n g an d puts back the bo x of matches in its place ,

115

O BJ E CTIV E

1 16

LAN G UAG E

T H E F I RE

’

Th e wood b ur ns

ets fi r e t o t h e S hav in gs the S h avi ngs catch light the shavings smoke the sha vings burst into flames , the shavi ngs blaze the shavings burn the sh avm gs set fire to the twigs , and the twigs catch fire The

m atch

set s

ﬁre

cat ch sm

ok e

burst

b l az e

burn

The twigs smoke the twigs burst into flames the twigs blaze the twigs burn the twigs crackle and throw out S parks all around the twigs s et fire to the logs of wood the logs take fire

l i gh t

s et

int o

ﬁ re

cat ch

ﬁre

ﬂ ﬂ ames

ames

The logs smoke the logs burst into ﬂames , t h e logs bla z e the logs bu rn the logs crackle ,

sm ok e

b ur st i nt o bl az e

burn cr ack l e

ﬂ am s

O BJ E C TI VE

I 18

LAN GU A G E

T H E F I RE

Th e h ousewi f e m end s t h e ﬁ r e

The fire burn s and burns away the embers are consumed little by little the fir e gets low for wan t o f f uel ; the housewife notices this she tak es up the tongs stirs the fi r eb r an d s together rakes out the as hes from underneath , puts the tongs back in their place and then puts on some more wood

burns

ar e

c onsumed

get s l ow not i ces

t ak es up

st i r s

r ak

out

put s b ack put s on

pair o f bellows are hanging near chimney piece th e woman takes down these bellows places the nozzle to the ﬁre then she blows and blows the air rushes hissing out of the nozzle comes against the redhot embers, and brighten s up the ﬁre A

ar e

h angi ng

t ak es d own

b l ow s

rush es

com es agai nst

bri gh t en s up

The ﬂames spring up from the charco al the ﬂames lick and lick the wood heat the wood the wood blazes the woman b l ows blows and keeps on blowing presently she stops blowing and hangs up the bellows o n the i r nai l ,

spri ng up

S PE CI M E N

E L E M EN TAR Y

S E RI E S

T H E F I RE

V I II

Th e h ousewi f e put s

The fire burns for on e hour the fire burns for t w o hour s the fire burn s all day long the fire burns until the evening the fi r e burns un t i l bedt i me

out

t h e ﬁ re

When bedtime comes the housewife takes the ﬁ r eshovel rakes the hot embers together on the heart h takes a shovelful of the ash es empties the ashes upon the burning brands covers them up with ashes puts back the shovel in its place and the ﬁre smoulders u n der the ashes

com s

e t ak e s r ak e s t oget h er t ak e s e mptie s cover s up put s b ac k sm oul d e r s

The woman takes up the tongs removes th e ﬁ r eb r an d s from the grate and stands th em on end against the chimney a thick smoke is given o ff by them and escapes up the chimney the burnt part cr i ckl es combustion ceases t h e ends of the burnt logs become covered the ﬁre dies away little by l ittle [with ash , and at l ast goes right out ,

ceases

b ecom e

di es

co v e r e d

aw ay

goes out

O BJ EC TI VE

TH E

LANGU A GE

S TO V E

ch ops s om e

Th e gi r l

wood

The girl goes and seeks a piece o f she takes a hatchet she draws near to t h e block she place s the wood on thi s block , S h e raises the hatchet she brings down the hatchet , the blade strikes against the wood the blade penetrates the wood the blade cleav es the wood the pieces fall right and left

d r aw s

near

pl aces

i e

ra s s

bri ngs d own st r

ik es

agai nst

penet r at es

c eaves

f all

The girl picks up on e of th e pieces places it upon the block, raises her hatchet brings dow n her hatchet and chops the piece of woo d she chops another piece an d t h en an ot h er she chops up all the woo d

pi ck s up

pl aces r ai s es

bri ngs d own

ch ops

puts down her h atchet gathers up the pieces into her apro n takes on e or two logs and some shavin gs and carries the m t o the stove ,

s eek s

t ak es

Sh e

goes and

ch ops ch ops

O BJ EC TI VE LA NGUA GE

I 22

VI I I CO

O RD IN ATIO N

—

SE R I ES I M PO R TA N CE D O M ES TI C SE R I ES

TH E

O F

TH E

For every fabric made there is a be gin n ing and an end The life of a tree commences at the germ and en d s with the fruit At what point shall our method take its birth ? By what series S hall it begin ? Upon what series shall it come to an end ? What order shall be assigned to its development ? .

We have said that the speech of mankin d is perpetual and that its l inguistic development takes place by a continual creation of series which our m ethod has taken or claims t o have taken as models We will now go further : we wil l say that to think is to speak S peech and thought are identical In other words m an does not think 5 he speaks Thought and word are certainly two distinct names S o are hatchet an d implement yet no one would pretend that they represent t w o different facts O n e is the speciﬁc name the other is the general name o f on e an d the same thing “ “ thought an d word S o it is with the t wo names ” Word is the speciﬁc name the true name the proper name thought is a common name or noun o r noun ; ,

”

The word is a principle it is the mind itself in process of development and the mind only develops in point of fact by th e wor d But what has provoked i t s de v elopment and what continues to provoke it ? It is action that is to say move ment The word starts under the impression and the percep tion of movement as does the waterwheel un d er the impact of the water Here we ha v e the true origin of lan guage The development of this theme would take a thick v olume ; prudence bids us st0p We wi ll content oursel v es by saying that if this gra v e problem has remained unsolved up to the present day it is because t h e data were false It has been s t ated in fact as an axi om not only that thought was essen t i al l y di ff erent from speech but that it actually ga v e ri se to N o w the reverse is S peech that speech was subo rdinate to it the truth M an does not speak his thought ; he thinks his spe ech ; and this thought itself is st il l speech ,

I M P O RTA N C E

O F D O M ES T I C

SE RI ES

1 23

The child speaks from its birth that is to say , as soon as its organism is ﬁnished and complete Its ﬁrst word is the cry it utters on entering the world And this speech is deter mined set free by what ? By the shock produced on its organism by the double action of air and light It is move ment which endowed and still endows our species with lan guage ; and it i s by the word and not by thought that the mind o f man has its beginning It is wi t hout doubt the duty of an author of a linguistic method to giv e his opinion at least incidentally upon the “ ” origin of facts produced by a force which he undertakes to discipline ,

The inarticulate langu age corresponds to the syncretic phase Th e world in fact appearing before the primi of human life tive perception as an undivided whole calls for a single name ” ‘ only a monosyllabic noun This will be the art i cl e under cm um , el 16 d as th e o n e of its forms —a, e 15 0 We will pass over this preparatory period its creations not being those that we are seeking t o s et in order and reproduce We will pass at once to the analytic phase that in which the mind begins to unravel to batter down by the aid of speech the pri meval chaos At thi s moment the linguistic develop ment of man takes place perceptibly I repeat by a continuous creation of series Henceforward we may be allowed to rest upon this fact as a xiomatic ,

ﬂ

This stipulated in what sphere and under what in u ence does the child elaborate its fir st series ? To ask this question is to answer it E vidently it is under the influence of its mother and inside its father s house W e d esignate this W ork “ by the name of the Domestic S eries The varied and manifold actions of the mother of the family around the hearthstone this is the material of the child s first l inguistic e x ercises And let there be no mistake here This material is prodigiously rich so rich indeed that the day the child is strong enough to cross t h e pat e r n al t h r es hold and venture out under the vault of heaven he is already able t o analyse and to put into words the great un k nown world that lies spread before him ,

’

our thanks once again are due to our mothers whose blessed words for us have added the life of the mind t o C onsequently also our respect is d ue t h e life of the body C onsequently

O BJ E C TI VE LA NGU A GE

I 24

to the most common the most elementary of the series They constitute the marvellous organ of nutrition by which speech is fed and strengthened the whole life long D o you know why it is that the adult arr ives so seldom at ass i m il at i n g another language than his ow n ? It is because he usually never thinks o f translating these rudimen t ary series which form what might be called his ﬁ rst words that is to say the ﬁrst basi s of his individuality E very one knows how worthless and unenduring must be a building of which th e foundation has either been forgotten or neglected “ The method will commence therefore by the Domestic S eries But what limits shall we assign to their develop ment ,

”

The child does not wait until he has finished the whole of the series of indoors before he tackles those of outdoors From the first days of his life i n the arms of grand m amma or of one of his sisters he will go o ut into the open air will drink in the light and will take into his eye the vast heaven with the sun the moon and the stars The S eries o f the Fire that burns on th e hearthstone does not commenc e at the woodbox but at the woodsh ed Th e S eries of the Water does not begin at the basin where the sponge i s so aked to wash baby s limbs but rather at the pump or at the wayside S pring If therefore the S eries of the Water and the Fire have one end in the room where the chi l d li v es they have their other end out of doors ; and thus with almost all of these earlier series But so soon as the child kn ows one end he wishes to know the other ; from e ff ects he goes back continually towards the causes and will neither rest himself nor leave you to rest until he has completed the series already partly executed in the house Hence his insatiable curiosity ; hence his passion for the open air and the surroundings of the dwelling It is here indeed that he completes his first know ledge and lays the beginni n gs of furt her progress .

’

final aimof the acts translated by the Domestic S eries “ is the immediate satisfaction of the everyday wants of human nature This indeed is the characteristic by which a D omestic S eries is known Its starting point will be the first act which prepares for this immediate satisfaction The Domestic S eries of the fire for in stance will not go righ t back t o the action of th e woodman who fells the tree This Th e

O BJ EC TI VE LA NGUA GE

1 26

i o r d i n ar

The Rural S eries will lead us straight to the y country trades those which prepare o r crown the action o f mankind out of doors We shall then open a third chapter, ” “ that of the Technical S eries We shall class i fy them as we did the previous ones according to the degree of utility of the fact which they translate according to the relation more or less immediate of this fact t o the needs o f mankind ,

After the child has contemplated for some time the acts and scenes of serious lif e the idea comes to him to play at them This mimic play is the natural transition from the conception to the action that is to contest It leads very shortly to the game properly so called the game of emulation to the struggle of man ag ai nst man in which are seen force arrayed against force skill against skill trick again st trick The mimic games which do nothing but reproduce the series — domes tic rur al or tech n ical —can give rise to no new kind of series It is far otherwise with the games o f emulation These occupy a considerable place not only in the life of man For them the method will but in the domain of language open a fourth chapter to which it will gi v e the title S eries ” o f the G ames The succession of the games is usually regulated by the suc ” cession of the seasons Festivals says the poet open and ” close th e great labours of life We shall put the S eries of the G ames in the sam e order that N ature or tradition ha v e already done ,

The games and festivals with the trades will lead us t o the door of art and of science At t h e end o f its fourth chapter the method will therefore have both e xh austed and placed i n order the whole of the ordinary obj ective language We should not think of spreading before the reader here the whole network of our S eries and of enumerating al l our marches and countermarches But we are satisﬁed in being able to show that their co ordination is not and ought not to be founded u pon the arbitrary and that before establishing this co ordination we have taken pains t o unravel the more or less tangled skei n o f the lin guistic developments of mankind It is therefore N ature once more, attentively observ ed and inte r preted that has furnished us for this n ew lab our, with both a rul e and a direction ,

NE E D

A REFO RM

O B J E CT I V E LAN G U A G E

M ODE

A 1

Ur gent

TE A C H I N G

need o

a r e orm

i n th e

SERIES

TH E

LA N G U AG E L ESS O N

t each i ng l anguages

ar t o

We will suppose the method constru c t ed , constructed accord ing to the r ules which we ha v e j ust laid down —cons t ruc t ed with the most consummate art : in short i n accordance at all points with our ideal Would the reform proj ected by us b e W e do not hesitate t o declare that nothing accomplished ? will be done if the art of teac h ing is not itself reformed The b ea t constitute d plant wil l be struck barren or w i ll yield but abort ive fruit if during the time of fr uct i ﬁ cat i on it is taken from the vi vifying action of the light and the hea t of th e sun to be placed in a cellar and submitted to the inﬂuence o f a lamp or stove ,

The spoken method must therefore be reformed equally with the written method B ut how are we to reach an art so personal as that of teaching ? Th e quality of the voice the accentuation the rise and fall of the S peech, th e gesture the look these are things that defy all regu lation We grant it like eloquence t h e art of te aching comes from the heart But the art of speaking well has its rules Th en why sho uld not the art of teaching well ? The truth is that a large part of the present teaching not only cannot be authorised upon any real pedagogic principle but violates at pleasure the least controvertible prescriptions not only of science but of ordinary c omm on sense The art of teaching languages therefore calls imperatively for a reform We may perhaps be perm itted to point out a few of i t s essential feature s ,

, ,

Th e m aster organ

f ﬁ rst of all, what is th e natural organ of language receptive organ ? Is it the eye ? is it the hand ? or is it 2.

l anguage

th e th e

O BJ EC TI VE

r2 8

LA NGU A GE

ear ? A puerile question you will say and one which bears its own answer A question of the ﬁ r st import ance we reply and so l ittle settled that i n all the methods for teach i ng lan guages almost without ex ception and in all the schools the proble m is sol v ed e xactly the wrong w ay — r it i s w it i ng that is to say the touch that is to say Fo r ” “ the hand —that is there taken as the master organ It is reading-that i s to say, the S ight that i s t o say , the eye that occupies the second place often e v en dis p uting t h e ﬁr st with the before mentioned organ The ear come s last of al l N 0 on e we think will contradict us upon this point ,

Has this proceeding anyt hing in common with N ature Is th i s programme due to any inspiration any indicat ion what ever gat h ered from Nature ? D oes N ature allo w the child t o read an d write does she even allow h i m to speak before he h as already in h i s ear a large part of the language ? W hat motive can it have been that has led the school to adopt e x actly the re v erse order, and t o direct the development of a ful ly gifted child a child wh o h as the use of all h i s senses ” as if it had to work upon a deaf mute Yes the school has certainly forgotten t o consult N ature upon t h e part the ear should play in the teach i ng of languages Upon this point as upo n so many others the school has taken as guiding compass chance an d thoughtl ess ness ,

The ear is the natural organ th e first organ the most immediate organ of language To substitute for it the eye or the hand as is don e in all the schools at the present t i me is to commi t a capital blunder which i n itself alone condemns the greatest philologist i n t h e world to be unable to accomplish in twenty years what the humblest nursemaid can achiev e in si x months It is this proceeding so absolutely contrary to N ature which ex plains both the disgus t inspired in childhood by the study of foreign lan g uages and the certificates of incapacity which routine delivers t o so m any children The child who w ith h i s m other and in playing has been able to learn a first language surely this same chil d i s not utterly incapable of learning a second on e ,

ﬂ

Let us state it as impressi v ely as we can : the incapacity of t h e c h ild i s t h e in capacity of the te acher and the defectiveness To l ear n t o sp eak n o m at ter wh at l anguage i s of the method .

a th i ng as natur al and easy

a ch i ld

l ear ni ng to

y i s to

O BJ EC TI VE LA NGU A GE

x3 0

The door moves moves the door turns on its hinges , t urns the door turns an d turns t urns I open the door wide I open I l et go the handle I l et go The end proposed is attained my v olition i s realised I stop M y e x ercise is dictated and written not upon the paper b ut in the ears and by way of the ears it has penetrated into the mind s O n e of the pupils the weakest o r the most distracted should now go through this analysi s agai n in E nglish and the whol e class sho uld be invited to imagine clearly t o themselves not only the end but the s uccessive means by which it can be Attained ,

This done and when th e whole class hav e thought the exercise the teacher once more takes the first phrase in E n g lish detaches the verb —I walk and thereupon throws the 1 French v erb - m ar ch e upon which he emphasises by repeat ing it several times over slowly—m ar ch e m ar ch e m ar ch e He then calls for the second sentence I draw near t o the ” ” “ door separates the verb draw near, then pro n o unces the French v erb—app r och e lean s upon it a ccentuates it forcibly as he did with the fi rst He calls for t h e third sentence and treats it in the same He attacks the fourth then the fifth and arr ives m anner at the end of the paragraph He has now give n what I term t h e first step The sign at the beginning of the paragraph indicates at the same time both a res t and a repetition The teacher ” “ therefore begins once more th is first ste p that i s to say the v erbs which represent the sentences He r epeats them if necessary a third time ”

let us see what h as taken place or ought t o hav e taken place In the first place it is certainly the ear which has played the chief part it is the ear first which has received the lesson in E nglish and transmitted it not to the eye but to the imagination The exerci se has been not read but thought —an entirely different matter It is the ear again which has received the fi r st fruits o f the French ; and the sounds mar ch e appr oche arr i ve arr e te are identified not with the words w al k N ow

O r t h e G er m an , i f i t i s

G erm an l esson

M E T HO D

O F TEAC HI N G

SE RI ES

TH E

13 1

draw near get to stop & c but with the ideas the percep tions the representations revealed by these words There has “ been n o t ranslation of E nglis h words but a d irect and immediate translation of ideas o r perceptions Th e E nglish verb has simply served as a bridge f or passing from one bank t o the other but a bridge that has been drawn up as soon as the pass age was eff ected In other words we have made the cla ss think in French The third repetition could be done and ought t o be done without t h e ai d o f the E nglish Th e ﬁrst e ff ort has suc What proves this to us cee d e d ; our ﬁrst end is attained is that hand which is raised over there ; o n e of the scholars wishes to repeat what he has heard A l l eyes are turned towards him an d each mouth attempts t o articulate in a l o w voice what he articulates aloud ,

”

The e ffort of the b ear er has not been divided between all the portions of the sentence — article pronoun adverb prepo sitio u case subj ects attributes comp l ements It h as been conce n trated with care upon one and th e same point upon a single element the essential element , the generating element “ of the sentence the v erb Therefore be n o t astonished if “ all the class are found to know thoroughly the step given and if that pupil reputed to be the least gifted of his com panions knows it equally well with the cleverest B oth have learnt their mother tongue w ithin sensibly the same time an d It appears that our process has r e— estab w ith the same ease l i sh ed at any rate with regard to languages the native equality of intellects ! Here i s a result worthy o f the most serious consideration We leave the reader t h e pleas ure of drawing the inferences of this fact The second step i s elaborated in the same manner as t h e ﬁrst ; and the third if there is one like the t wo others ,

”

The co nquest of the e x ercise is accompli s hed so far as regard s the verbs How about th e other terms ? I take up the theme once more and giving beforehan d each French v erb hence forward well known I build up upon thi the sentence which corresponds thereto I seek the subj ect ﬁrst and place it in front of the verb I nex t seek the com plement and determining grammatically the case desired I place it after the v erb I thus arrive at the end of the ﬁr st step E ach subj ect has r eappeared so many times the sa me .

’

O BJ E C TI VE

13 2

LANGU A GE

compl ement has returned so often under the same form that this once going through reall y suffices t o set down and en grave upon each memory the e x ercise i n i t s totality Th e work here is reduced therefore to the task of thinking the exercise by the verb and in the verb and when the v erb i s conquered the learner finds himself suddenly and without need of any fresh e ff ort in possession of all the rest Fro m this results a considerable simplification worthy of the best attention of lingu i sts We earnestly beg that our e x perience may be repeated and our assertion v erified ,

The work we have j ust described is so si m ple so elementary so easy both for teacher and pupil that we are almost ashamed every time we are obliged t o hav e recourse t o al l these words and circumlocutions to e xplain a pro cess that any chil d of si x years ol d thoroughly comprehends at the end of ﬁve minutes practice W e are tempted at e v ery time , to sub s t i t ut e as did the G recian philosopher action for explanation of throwing down our pen and of appealing to a demonstration before the class A si ngle lesson indeed shows the whole system and ne ver fails to convert the attentive listener to our side The most obstinate prejudice always gives way before this living demonstratio n The exercise is conquered conquered in its totality A l l the class h as repeated or is capable of repeating it To what task shall we ne xt pass Here is the moment t o treat a question pre v iously reserv ed We have said that after the oral e laboration of each exercise should come a releas e a rest a diversion usef ul t o the work al ready accomplis h ed What shal l this di v ersion be ? ,

’

—

Al l intellectual development , to be durable , must be s ub ” — to a S pecies of incubation w e repeat it once more m i t t ed Th e mind must brood for a certain time over each on e o f its mors el s of knowle d ge This is a law of N ature which pedagogic science will have to inscribe at the head o f its code This mental incubation is an essential condition of al l real progress It is n ot enough , i n fact , to acqui re knowledge ” “ O ur work , t o be entir ely it must be taken possessio n of in ac cordance with reason and with N ature, must count t wo

—

disti nct moments

First, conquest—an d that by active force Then , thinking o ver and taki ng possession

O BJ EC TI VE LA NGUA GE

13 4

and the lesson ceases to be fruitful The p upil no longer th i nks —h e translates ; he no longer assimilates - h e dwells upon the written word the written line The visualising facu l ty is n o longer brought into play t o look at the fact itself taking place before it but is content to notice the place of the expressions of this fact in the book to remark if this expression is to be seen on one page or overleaf at the top o f the page or at the bottom or i n the middle What is the conseque n ce ? The consequence is th at the lesson now only y ields th e fruits we know of old The child leaves the morsel of intellectual food which he has been able for one brief instant to separate by the reading carelessly to fall back into the book giving it back faithful ly t o the boo k instead of seeki n g to wrest it therefrom Truly there is l ittle proﬁt in such m orsels .

the other han d transmitted as we have set forth the lesson passes ( one cannot repeat it too often ) really passes into the nature of the pupil and n ever more becomes rubbed out whether he hav e or have not what routine call s a “memory ” It must also be well understo od that the e x ercise taught is not any e x ercise no matter what but a page of o ur method ; that is to say a picture whose d etails are logically linked together linked together by the most natural of all relationships t h at o f causation or rather that of succession in time a relationship that th e feeblest mind can grasp and which becomes the all powerful aux i l iary of the memory which it creates even if this does not already e xist n

The class upon which we have operated i s s uppos ed t o be composed of pupils new to the system or of beginners These will wr ite o ut the exercise by simply copying it But at the end o f o n e month s practice the programme will be modi ﬁ ed they will no longer C opy—they will write it out of their heads Will they be able to d o it ? you ask How can they possibly carry out this task ? The pupil w h o has gone through a single series a general series has assimilated (like the little child who h as arrived at being able to express his daily life ) all that is most essential of the language After our S eries of the S hepherd for instance the pupil ﬁnds him self in possession of nearly all the elemen t ary verbs of the language h e is studying that is to say of those by mean s of which al l ordinary matters can be .

’

ME T HO D O F TE A C H I NG THE SE RI E S

e x pressed A n ex ercise which at t h e be ginning would have taken a quarter of an hour or more may henceforth be given in ﬁ v e minutes at the outside ,

ﬂ

The teacher s labour i s therefore simpliﬁed and consider ably abridged At the end o f ﬁve minutes the pupil is s u i ci en t l y familia ri sed with the exercise to open his book Then covering with one hand the te xt of the sentences he goes down the column of verbs step by s t ep an d upon each verb he attempts to reconstruct as did the teacher the cor responding sentence o f which th e verb recalls to him th e idea As is seen at this moment th e e ffort of th e pupil is partially substituted for the e ff ort of the teacher After a simple and short period of listenin g the pupil elaborates and conquers by hi mself the proposed e x ercise We have arrived at the personal work In two or three minutes the pupil w ill have reconstructed the exercis e sentence by sentence He then writes down in his e x ercise book the column of v erbs closes his book and to the left opposite each verb he composes an d writes out his sentence This phrase is his own work ; h e has drawn the whole phrase out of his own conception The process follow e d has permitted (and this is not one o f the least of its merits ) the thought of th e master or the e x pression of the b ook to become the personal work of the pupil This is the second stage established by our method and it is not the last ’

”

H i s strength increasing quickl y under such a system , the

pupil will be v ery shortly able to reproduce the whole exercise verbs and sentences That day he will have put on the garb of manhood Henceforward it will no longer be an isolated e x ercise that he wil l be given t o digest at a time but an entire series all that can issue from the teacher s mouth in the space of a quarter of an hour at firs t then of half an hou r then of a whole hour But at this rate the fifty or sixty partial series which t ranslate the entire life which exhaust the whole generality of our conceptions will soon themselves be ex han sted W hat shall we do then ? Will the book be closed and the work declared finished ? Before replying to this question we wish to develop two points w hich have an immediate con nection w ith the process of teaching of which we have just sketched out t h e general features ,

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136

Th e pronunci ati on

S ub m itted t o

the discipline which we have e xplained wi l l our pupils acquire what is termed a good accent a good pro n un ci at i on ? The child S peaks with a good accent pronounces correctly when his nurse or his mother speaks with a good accent and pronounces correctly Where indeed can he acquire a bad accent if he never hears any other than a good accent ? How should he be likely to pronounce badly when he h as never heard anything pronounced other than well ? How is it then that so many people pronounce so badly the foreign languages that they have begun to learn at school ? We believe we have found the true answer to the enigm a The ﬁrst great cause of a bad accent is reading—reading undertaken at t h e wrong time too soon The second cause is reading degenerating into a bad habit ; and the third cause still seems to us to be reading Let us expl ain ,

ﬂ

Is it more d i i cul t to pronounce boo sh than bowch In French the word written bouch e ( mouth ) E vidently not is pronounced h oosh and not bowch If therefore you pro nounce the French word bouch e to m e before I have seen how this sound is represented in writing ; if the sound hoosh strikes my ears before the letters 6 c a c h e strike my eyes I S hould have no reason for ﬁnding the French pronunciation at all odd though I m i ght perhaps its S pellin g A S is seen the thing i s turned the other way round ; and if o n e l earns French without being able to read it as the little Child does there will be no longer much greater difficulty I n pronounc i ng it than I n pr o This is perfectly evident n o un ci n g words in E nglish ” How about the spelling ? you wil l ask The spelling 1 You would learn it like the young French children learn it as you yourselves have learnt the E nglish spelling ten times more di fﬁcult than the French and this without letting the study of the S pel l ing spoil your already acq uired pronunciation Besides the spelling is a thing tha t can be reformed—the pro n un ci at i on hardly at all We must choose between the two evils ,

The mo d ern G reek chi ld of four or ﬁve years old who has hardly yet left his nurse does he or does he not know how to pronounce this beaut i ful language better than the most learned of our philologists ? E very one will answer yes and our philo ,

O BJ EC TI VE

13 8

LA NGUAGE

In other terms and to close the s ubject we hav e mistak en ” N ature has f un i sh ed us with ears for the the organ study o f languages ; we have though t it possible to substitute the eye i n their place Here is the pri m al fall here t h e original sin in the present teaching O ur method returns t o the order of N ature ; it S hould arr ive and it does in fact arrive at the same result as N ature ,

What must we say of those books where the author amus ing himself by figuring the pronun ciation of each word super poses an artificial and abstract language upon the real language abusing the human patience and force to t h e point of desiring t o paint upon the student s eye the thirty thousand words of the dictionary along with the thirty thousand shadows of these words ? If such a labour were possible thi s would mean the learning of two languages in ord er to know on e These never t h el ess are the aberration s which govern schools and maintain whole legions of printers and c ompositors We never allow any child to read or to write any exercise that h e has not heard that he has not repeated that h e has not assimilated ; any lesson which is not in his ears which is not at the end of his tongue as a pianist has a tune in h i s ears and at the end of his fingers The pronunciation of our pupils therefore will not be wrong unless that of the teacher himself is wrong ,

’

Like the little child o ur school mock s an d laughs at all — these pretended difﬁculties of pronunciation E nglish French G erma n G reek & c or rather it ne v er encounters these ki nd s of obstacles upon its path It gives the pronunciation of each word as each word is met with in our series and it does not preoccupy itself with building up theories or formulating rules to settle —months o r years in advance—t h e pronunciation of them When a word occurs in an exercise taught by us it occurs ” “ under the form of a spoken word that is to say together with its pronunciation and not as a vai n assemblage of printed characters When once the word mouth has be en translated ” by the spoken French word bouch e it is impossible to hear without laughing any one translate it by any other so und ” Without laughing I This e x pression or rather this fact is on e of the bitterest criticisms of the ordinary teaching Can s trous pronunciation m o u c te a c l ass where the most on i y ,

”

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13 9

e x cites the least hilarity ? Is it the same outside the class room ? P ronounce once before a young G reek the superb and i n the burst of laughter that your P ol uph l oi sb oi o learned pronunciation will provoke you will be able to j udge if your teaching is on the right path The pedagogic error which we point out is decried by every one yet such is the ﬁxi t y of tenure enj oyed in the schools by the Opposite process to that which we are prescribing so much has it pas sed into a habit and in appearance so convenient is i t for the ease of the teacher that we almost tremble for fear of being neither understood nor even accorded a hearing I “ say tremble for if this prescription of t h e manner of teach ing is neglected our method will remain as sterile as all the others ,

”

Address the ear then ﬁrst o f all and principally After wards take as a uxiliaries the eye and the hand in reading and writing The ear i s the prime m i nister of the intelligence It is the sense which watches with th e great est co n stancy and ﬁdelity at its gateway ; i t is the one that the intelligence listens to most willingly the one that speaks with the greatest authority and the greatest intimacy the one that guards Let t h e eye then reign over the l ongest its depositions dominion of colours and forms and restore to the ear a fun c tion which the schoolmen and pedantry have forced the eye to usurp The memory will thereupon gain a vi gour hitherto unknown and will recover that power which so astonishes and confounds us in the little child ,

I cannot re member these v erbs ; I must see the m ” written down exclaims the adult who trained in the ordinary schools is subj ected for the ﬁrst time to our discipline What ? D o you h ear the little ch il d make this remark to his mother ? C an h e not go direct from the fact to the word without pass ing by the intermediary of the written representation ? O ur n ature upon this point has been so deformed by o ur scholastic habits that to arrive at the reality we have ﬁrst to pass by way o f the S hadow Is not th e written word the shadow of the spoken word and so the S hadow of the idea ? B ut

A man who fro m some accident has been obliged to renoun ce the use of his arms and wh o has learnt to use h is feet in their place —this is the image of our adult learn ers “ He has been atrophied by pedagogic science When t h e ,

O BJ EC TI VE LANGUA GE

1 40

ear is called it is the eye that answers leaving the sense of hearing slumberin g peacefully at the door and com m un i cat ing—ill or well as the case may b e—with the intelligence in i t s place Hence this cry of distress If only I might see the words written down ” “ It is precisely these written words that hav e paralysed your linguistic sense Renounce them I pray you coura eousl y as the cause of al l evil k tri e against this perni S g cions habit Accustom yourself to learn only by listening that is by going directly fro m the fact to the articulated t h e S poken word Your sense of hearing will promptly awake fro mits torpor and after a fe w d ays practice will completely recover i t s native activity and energy ,

’

Th e little child stamm ers and lisps long over each word newly pronounced in his presence This is because the ear is far more docile than the tongue The word is in the ear long before being on the tongue B ut do not fear The ear has received the correct imprint of t h e sound it will act as tuning fork correcting and regulating the attempts and eff orts of the tongue The same fact is reproduced in o ur teaching The pupil has i n h is ear the accent of a phrase before the tongue is able to reproduce it exactl y Be careful therefore not to ge t impatient if the pronunciation of your pupil be not perfect at the ﬁrst lesso n The essential thing is that the spoken word sh al l be deposited within the ear that it vibrate and resound therein , before the tongue has attempted to repro duce it It i s the ear that must give the law to the tongue The spoken sound must reside in n ot the tongue t o the ear the ear as a type or ideal to which afterwards the tongue will conform to fashion its products .

Do not, therefore , attempt

obtai n a perfect pronuncia tion at the first lesson Tal k yourself talk continually At the commencement l et the pupil S peak as little as possible ; it is in his ear and not on his tongue that it i s important t o fi x the word or the phrase When the spring is abundant it will flow of itself and the liquid supplied by it wil l have the advantage of being pure Let us not forget that the little child listens for two years before const r ucting a phrase and that he h as possession of both the sound and i ts idea that is the S poken word long before attempting to produce it himself For language s Nature to

;

O BJ EC TI VE LANGUA GE

become more and more absurd and consequently perfectly potent But who is responsible for this result ? Is it the exercises themselves or t hose who fabricate them ? The child i n the family only does and only hears exercises in the l an guage he is studying Does he succeed or no in learning the language there spoken ? If yes it is because the process is a good one we must preserve i t It is not the abol ition of this exercise which the headmasters must decree ; it is its reform which they must strive to pro v oke ,

O ne tea ch er

th r ee cl asses

f While the class i s taking possession of the lesson by writing it out the teacher is idle How could he best occupy his ti m e ? S hould he give it to rest or to superv isio n ? W e believe we employ ours more profitably by p ass ing into an adjoin ing class -room and giving a second lesson \V e have S poken of pupils of three kinds more or less advanced t i eat i n g and elaborating the series in three different manners These three classes may be very easily taken in charge by a single teacher If each lesso n is properly carried out the moment at which the teacher reappears i n the first class will coincide exactly with the moment at which this class finishes the w or k pr o posed O n e teacher therefo r e with our method of teaching is worth three A n d if the teaching of science were susceptible also of r efo r mation—of reformation in the sen se which a future chapter will indicate —our syste m would carry into the pedagogic machinery a simplification of v ery considerable ex tent 5

We trust we m ay be permitted in the interest of the cause pleaded once more to bring our own personality t o the front By the aid of our l in guistic historic and scientiﬁc methods we ha v e carried on three classes simultaneously with more ease and inﬁnitely greater success than before we had carried o n at college a S i ngle class by means of the ordinary methods At the risk of sinn i ng against modesty we will state another result I f one teacher is worth three on e year of our method i s worth t wo or even more o f those passed under the ordinary curriculum There is not on e of our boys who cannot subdue in o n e year and this without pain an d fatigue the work of tw o and often of three years of college And this S ho ul d not be otherwise because by teaching the sciences by the lan ,

AD D E D

P O W E R O F T HE

T EAC H E R

guages and the languages by th e sciences we necessaril y gain a considerable amou nt o f time without counting the numerou s advantages assured t o us by a plan of progress logically and sev erely drawn up ,

This is not all N o one thoroughly knows a science or an art until he has taught it himself to others Th is is specially true of languages N ow the simplicity of our linguistic exer cises added to the S implicity of our process of teaching allows a n y of our pupils to give the lesson of any of the series learnt by the m almost as well as the teacher could do it himself And not only is this exercise possible but we recommend it we impose it upon our students It represents in our eyes the last phas e o f as similation O ur method amply pr ovides therefore for the multiplica tion of te achers If anything h in ders the progress o f our school it will not be the scarcity but rather the super ab un â&#x20AC;&#x153; dance of embryo teachers An d the discipline imposi tions we shall doubtless be asked Discipli ne ? W e speak after a long experience Dis cipline such as you understand by the word i s only necessary in classes where the studies are a torture instead of being a pleasure .

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1 44

“

S U B JE C T I VE LAN G UAG E I TS O

R G ANI SATIO N X

C LA SS I F I C ATIO N 1

7 5

TH E

R E LATIV E

PH RA SES

D eﬁni ti on of t h e r el ati ve ph r ases— Th ei r t h ei r num ber i n each t ongue

ob ect and

In e v ery language there are two languages The one translates the facts of the e xt ernal world the other translates the facts and gestures of the soul or the mind The ﬁrst con ” “ s t i t ut es the obj ective lan guage the second constitutes the “subj ective ” language These two languages are irreducible in terms of each other The ﬁrst forms the material of our “ series ; the second is the source of what we term Relative The relative phrases are destined t o translate the P hrases complex play o f the soul s facul ties that is to express o ur ideas our j udgments our sentiments 85 0 .

’

M an , we hav e said ,

“does

not only perceive the pheno mena of the e xternal world ; he appreciates them j udges them that i s he reacts upo n them He enj oys this and disl ikes that he approves this and blames that he believes ” t hi s and doubts that The expression of each of these move ” “ ments of each of these operations is a relative phrase I wan t you to I am gl ad I am sorry Attempt to I think that That is good I hope that That is bad I w ish that It is true I believe that It is false I am certain that It is easy Do what you can to It is di fficul t Try t o You must I wish you would It is important t o Have the kindness to I regret that “ These are rel ative phras es ,

’

These e x pressions d o not stand alone They rest upon the “ e x pression o f another fact they have a relation to another ” “ fact Hence the name relative phrase by w hi ch we think we can v enture provi sionally to designate them This l i n .

SUBJ E C TIVE

LAN GUA G E

It is necessary to -work hard I want you to attend well I think you can manage it I hope that you will succeed Tr y to conquer the di fﬁ culty I should like you to su cceed

—

&c , &c .

The ﬁrst are relative phrases properly so called which ” “ might be named perfect We term the second sp ecies “enclitic ” “hung as it were sus because they are ( pended from o r inclined against the expression of a second “ fact which serves them as complement I want you to ” “ leans or is inclined upon attend well ,

E very

language h as about seve n hundred words g1v1n g birth t o these enclitic phrases This uniformity has nothing very surprising in it As a m atter of fact the number of faculties is the same with all men Therefore the enclitics which e x press in preci s e terms the play of these faculties ought to be equal i n number in all tong ues To him who seeks properly each phrase has its equivalent in the language o f his neighbours We can afﬁrm that it is th e s ame with the simple or perf ect r elative phrases and that the richness or the poverty of a language in these e xpressions is in fact nothing but the richness or po v erty of mind o f h i m who makes this j udgment We have followed step by step ﬁve or six modern besides the classic languages and must declare that in this respect none of them has pr oved weak er than the others .

This remark is of great importance It is su fﬁcient in point of fact to dra w up i n a ﬁrst language- i n French or E n glish for example —the complete system of relativ e phrases and this syste m w il l hold v alid for al l other languages Is not the mother s process the same in all latitudes ? A good method o n e tr uly inspired by N ature should itself ad m it of but one manner of proceeding whatever m ight be the langu age to be studied In this our method o ff ers the closest analogy with the natural process For the rel ativ e phrases as for the series our system when once constructed i n one language will really be done for all “ languages W e shall no longer h ear of a special method for learn i ng G erman of a S pecial method for learning ” “ Frenc h of a special method for learning Arabic or S ans krit & c There will be Th e method o f studying languages We shal l s ee S hortly how the grammar itself becomes O N E .

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O F THE

C LASS IFI C AT I O N

ENCL ITI CS

1 47

the human m i nd i s O NE Let us return to our work of class iﬁcation ; and in the ﬁrst place we will attempt to clas enclitics sif y the

”

Cl assi ﬁcati on

E ncl i ti cs —G ener a l i ns i gh t

f The enclitics as we have said express an d translate the complete play of the faculties o f the soul If psychology were a thoroughly developed science we could borrow fro m it the list o f these facul ties and w e sh ould then only have t o group around each o f these the e x pressions which relate thereto Thus the expressions : I belie v e that—I think that—I fancy that —I doubt whether -I t seems to me that & c relate evi The expressions d en t l y to faith or the fac ulty of believing try to —attempt to evidently belong to the wi l l or t o the faculty of willing U nfortunately psychologists are not agreed either as to the number or the essence of the faculties of the mind The linguist is therefore obliged to work here t o so me e xtent at his risk and peril but at least h is way i s clearly tra ced 3

First of all he will consider the rel ative phrases one by on e he will determine with the closest possible accuracy to which faculty of the mind they are related and will again divide the m into a certai n number of natural groups psychologically distinct so produci n g from this linguis tic labo ur a work in itself fundamentally philosophical The numerous expressions ranged around any one faculty might also in their t urn be distributed in secondary groups correspon ding to the variou s moments of this faculty E ach facul ty in fact has distinct moments passes through v arious phases and v arious states For e x ample : belief certainty uncer t ainty do ubt hope & c are all diverse states of the facul ty o f believing ; as love hate desire resolution & c are distinct states or mo v ements of the faculty of willing ,

The linguist wi l l dete rmi ne these moments and will deter mine his cl as siﬁcation accordingly The relati ve phrases which compose these secondary groups can only be an d in fact only ar e synonymous locutions e x pressin g the various shades of me aning of the same idea the same conception the same vol i tion or the same j udgmen t —S ynonym s which can be them sel v es classiﬁed by bas i ng them upon the relationship of the most general t o the least general or vi ce ver sé If thi s work were properly carried out the p upil who should practise the ,

148

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LA NGUA G E

relati v e phrases would have studied at the same time important chapter of psychology ,

Let us take the number of these faculties of the mind or soul as twelve and let us grant to each of them twenty di ff e rent moments or states a supposition which is evidently exag gerated Twelve times 2 0 are 2 4 0 E ach language would thus comprise at most 2 4 0 simple en clitic phrases elementary and irreducible types of all the others of which all the others are v arieties This number is found t o be entirely in accord ance with the v erdic t of e x perience or o f direct observation The child of ﬁve years old has not two hundred enclitic phrases at his disposition ; but those he does employ form part of the 2 4 0 types of which we have j ust spoken The child does not ,

Have the kindness to -pass me the bread I invite you t o come and play with me He will say far more simply for e xample P lease pass me the bread come and play with me ! I want you to P rovided w ith this light mental outfit the child cannot , indeed understand everything b ut he can say everything O urselv es w he n we wish to undertake th e study, of a foreign language the first thing we do is carefully to col lect and assimilate the 1 5 0 or z o o enclitic phrases chosen according to the before mentioned process At that moment we are not yet able to understand all we hear but like the little child we can say all we wis h if besides this we possess the w hole of the ordinary series inally who would believe it ? F The Z En ei d itself does not cont ain 3 0 0 di ff erent enclitic phrases If this number s u i ced for Virgil assuredly it can su ffi ce for others s ay

—

”

—

”

ﬂ .

The three o r four thousand enclitic locutions or formul ae can therefore be reduced t o 2 0 0 primary enclitics This reduction appears to us to deserve the attention of linguists To study these 2 0 0 formul ae abstractly or separately would be the work To study them afterwards i n their o f t w o or three days various shades of meaning would be a longer task but rela t i vel y easy if these formul ae were properly classiﬁed and logi cally set in order As a matter of fact to learn them in the way we hav e set forth i s not even a task ; it is a G AM E Y es a game ! W h y should it not be a game ? Ask yourselves if the littl e .

SU BJ E C TI VE LA NGU A GE

After long meditations and trials of every kind I eventually caught a glimpse by a sudden intuitio n of the true and unique relation by which the two languages could be linked together And this relation was so simple so simple—was so natural and so close to me al l the time that I actually felt sorry for myself S o much labour for so small a thing ! S uch long researches to ﬁnd what was under my very hand ! The disproportion between my e ff orts and their result was enough to make a child laugh ,

The third problem was therefore seen to be sol ved before the second B ut while e x amining more closely the solution found I perceived that it contained within it that of the second and presented a means as simple as it was practical of subdividing the orders in question into species At the same time the secret process by which N atur e trans formed for the child the study of the subj ective element of language into a game was explained and laid bare ; and thi s process by its perfect conformity with the solution already found j ustiﬁed o ur conception But let us hasten to descend from these generalities and approach directly the problem itself ,

In order to prepare the reader for the full understandin g of the solution announce d we will conduct h i m q f o r a moment t o the school of N ature and we will interpret before h i m the object lesson and the l anguage lesson which the nursemaid gives unconsciously to the li t tle baby in her charge when she amuses it for instance in making it open the door F or this pu r pose we may be allowed t o gi v e once more a well known e x erc i se Walk my pretty ; Th at s it That s very good G0 towards the door N ow you ve got there Bravo C apital Lift up your little ar m Take hold of the handl e That s the way ! Turn the handle ; How strong you are ! What a clever little man 1 O pen the door There s a l i t t l e darling ! & c & c P ull the door ope n ,

’

This e x ercise which every o ne of us h as done or rather played under a mother s direction is i n miniature the system which we belie v e we have wrested from N ature It contains “ it as the acorn contains the oak N ever can the saying All ” is in all be in v oked more truly or to better purpose The left hand column represents the series or the objecti ve ,

’

THE

A CCEN T

15 :

language the righthand column represents the relative phrase or the subj ective l an guage ; and these two lang uages so diverse an d so opposite as they seem are here uni ted to form one and the s el fl sam e exercise Let us here add that each phrase of the right hand col umn expressing a j udgment “relative ” to the corres ponding objective fact t h e name relative phrase i s seen to be su fficiently j usti ﬁed P hilologis ts li n guists and grammarians ! To weigh these ex pressions so widely di ff erent one from the other y o u hav e only kno wn up t o the present moment of t h e use of balan ces in whi c h substantive is weighed against substantive pronoun against pronoun , adjective against adj ecti v e These s cales are goo d p erhaps for the weighi n g of syllables but they are not made for the weighing of ide as Your logical and grammatical analyses have found nothing which ess entially distinguishes the sentence How stron g you are from the sentence Lift up your little arm ,

while the most ignorant of mothers has the knowledge of their di ff erence and knows ex ceed i ngly well how to translate it and make it un derstood by the chi ld “What is her secret ? u o ask me It is a secret which you y know full well your selves ; it is a process with which you are j ust as familiar as she i s and which you practise continually ,

Livin g S peech is not solely composed of syllables —b f words and sounds You may perhaps have heard a talkingmachine What d iﬁ er en ce do you ﬁnd between the phrase articulated by these ingenious pieces of mechanism an d that which is uttered by the mouth of man ? The speech of an automatic S peaking machine a ff ects you disagreeably It is wierd hollow un earthly— the speech of a corpse What is lacking for it t o sound like the speech of a living man ? A thing that art can ” “ never give This thing is called TH E A C CE NT .

we have it i It is by the accent —the stress accent of the v oice—that the mother initiate s her child into the subj ee tive language ; it is by the accent that she teaches it t o d i s t i n guis h the word s which e x press an e x ternal fact from the words which translate a movement or a state of the so ul A n d the baby —a better analyst h er é than N oel et Ch apsal — M n terprets admirably its mother s accent or Lindley urray i [ ] and accordin g to the note of this accent classes such and such N ow

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152

an ex pression in the obj ecti ve language and such another expression in the subjective language Without this virtue of the natural accent confusion would be inevitable Where otherwise is the reason that should hinder the baby from trans lating the sound How strong you are by Lift up your arm “ and the sound Lift up your arm by H o w strong you are ? ,

”

A child assists i n a conversation between grown up persons He assists i n his own style that is by playing about and by attend i ng i n appearance at least to anything el se than the conversation An hour after the n e xt day perhaps one is as tonished to hear is sue from his mouth suddenly and dpr op os o f nothing a form of e x pression which he had ne v er articulated before and of which the sense more or less abstract seems altogether beyond his age W h ence has the child taken this expression ? Assuredly he h as n ot evol ved it from his in ner conscious ness ? G o back in your m ind to the conversation which took place this morning or yesterday and there is the place W here you will indubitably ﬁnd it .

“The

Quite a young child remarked to us a li ttle while ago weather is dark ; I really S hould not be surprised if it rained hard It has been snowing u p on the mountai n The deuce ” “ the winter has begun early ! N ow I reall should not be ” ” “ surprised and The deuce ! are e x pressions éh i ch certai nl y He must d o not belong t o the v ocabulary of the little child therefore have tak en them fro m some remark or other made i n h i s presence This explanation i s generally held to be quite s u i ci en t We declare however that it does not entirely satisfy us and we put this question W hy and how 1s it that he h as retained out o f a long conversation this phrase and not another ? Why h as b e fastened by preference upon an abstract expression that he does not understand or that he interprets as often as not the wrong way round ,

ﬂ

He retains it we may perhaps be told simply because it seems strange to him This reason would be a good on e if it were a question of an i solated term—of a proper name for instance But we are S pe aki ng here of a comple x form o f e xpression of an e x pression composed of words ordinarily well k nown to him and consequently not having even the attraction of n ovelty We put the problem therefore once more Why this phrase and not another ? And why is this expression instea d of ,

SU BJ EC TI VE LA NGU A GE

expressio n recently acquired Follow him attentively and yo u will notice that the new phrase will be found at the tip of his tongue quite as often as the newest of his toys is seen i n his hands He serves this formula as one might say with every kind of sauce He applies it wrongly or rightly to all his con ce t i on s l h He uses it for ta king to rocking horse to his i s p carriages or their coachmen h e uses it to apostrophise his wooden P unch and Judy or his living pets He thus rapidly appropriates and assimilates this particular expression P r e sently he will listen to another con v ersation he will pick out a new relative phrase and will assim i late this like the ﬁrst There y o u have the whole process of Nature Was I not right when I stated tha t e v en the study of the abstract and subj ective part of the language is for the child simply a game ? We have here evidently arrived at the end of the phenomenon We may here halt awhile in order t o meditate upon the pro cess of N ature to extract therefrom the precepts it may con tain and ﬁnally to engraft them upon our own method .

In the school of N ature the subj ective language and the obj ecti v e language are developed simultaneously and parallel with each other They advance together and side by S ide harmoniously and without e v er becoming confused the acc ent marking the m each with a character of its o wn What would happen if we were to advise the study of the various groups of the obj ectiv e expressions separately in a S pecial vocabulary ? We are able t o reply to this question having made at our own ex pense the experiment of this deplorable proceedin g All your e ff orts would be and necessar i ly made in pure waste They will even be prej udicial to y o u, i n as m uch as you w ill have t o pull down before you can rebui l d If one reﬂects for a moment it will be seen that it cannot pos The relative phrases are formed t o lean or s i bl y be otherwise rest upon some other thing In themselves they present only empty hollow forms as vague and fugitive as bubbles of ai r applying at one and the same time to everything and to nothing ,

Try to Would you please I want you to I e xhort you to It is i m portant to Reﬂect that You mi ght read these f orms of expression

ver and o v er

M O TI VES O F

R E LATI VE

PH RA SES

15 5

a gain till t hey became thoroughly imprint ed upon your eye ; you m i ght train your tongue as much as you pleased to articulate t his indeﬁnite sequence of sounds ; when you have reached as you supposed the end of th i s wearisome exercise you w ill ﬁnd you r self j ust at the point where the author of these lines found himself after having thought he had passed the entire dictionary into his memory .

A man is not a joi n er and cannot pass himself for on e simply because he has j ust made the purchase of a complete kit of j oiner s tools N or will he become one any the sooner by twistin g and turn ing about indeﬁnitely in his hands and contentedly contemplating the tools which he now regards as ih his stock trade The mere acquisition has not advanced him one S ingle ste p in his art S o also 1s i t with him who by sheer force o f reading over and over again —that 1s of regard ing the same syllables—h as succeeded l n heaping together the whole of the forms of the subjecti v e language in what he is pleased t o call his memory He would not be less awkward less a ff ected if it were necessary for him to con v erse for a few moments than our raw j o i ner if any one gave him a window to make or rather a simple mortice to out We repeat no one will ever learn a language by studying isolated words disconnected e xpressions and abstract and Nature absolutely condemn s this e q ual l y d i s con n e ct e d ru les process Unhappy is he who works in opposition to Nature ! B ut h o w are we to put the indications and the teachings of Natu r e into pract i ce ? How ar e we to introduce Nature s pro cess into the schools ? P erhaps we have discovered this secret The reader S hall j udge ,

’

The general motive the sole m otive which gav e rise to the relative expressions employed by the mother or the nurse in the lesson of the door is the manner in which the c h ild carries out his task realises his intention attains the en d which he proposed to himself or which others had proposed for h im N ow the whole subjective language ﬂows from a similar source There i s not a sin gle relati v e expression which cannot b e made “ to have for motive the manner in which an end has be en attained is being attained or will be attained W as it not this motive which i nspired our mother to utter the following “ “ expre s sions Brav o V ery good That s i t That s ,

”

’

SU BJ EC TI VE LA N GUA GE

6 5 ”

”

the way ! How strong you S plend id ! are ! 85 0 Well the manner in which the scholar himself has carried out , is carrying out or will carry out his task that is to say has recited is reciting or will recite any given exercise has “ been adopted by us i n our method as the general motive of all the subj ective forms of expression imaginable An d amongst those which ﬁgure in our immense collection not a single one escapes this generalisation How indeed should it escape ? To recite a lesson to repeat an exercise is an ai m o r an end like all other ends N ow a relative expression from “ relative can only arise dp rozaos of a t h e very fact that it is determinate fact or aim ”

”

B esides

this phrases l i ke the following ,

I think t h at Try to Take care I congratulate you ,

are absolutely independent of the nature of the al m ; they cannot be conceived as special to such or such an ai m but can be applied to all indi ff erently and with the Same e ff ect To open a door t o go and draw water to st udy a lesson these are ” “ aims perfectly distinct Yet the expression I think t hat can be adapted when required j ust as well to one as to the others ,

I think that I think that I think that

—he has opened the door

—she has gone to draw some wat er 7

—y

have studied this lesson

A relative ex pression is and can only be dependent upon the con cept i on of the person emplo y ing it ,

This granted , it i s evident that the aim of reciting well or reproducing correctly a linguistic lesson is in itself alone capable of supporting the whole of the relative phrases of any gi v en language an d in whatever number they may be presented This conclusion is important extremely important However S imple however puerile and innocent the dialectic that has led us to this point may appear thi s conclusion V ictoriously cuts the gordian knot of the practical teachin g o f the subjective langua e g ,

SU BJ EC TI VE LANGUA GE

1 58

grammar ; I will also add i n morality —the religion of work being therei n recommended preached and glorified by every word of the teacher The aggregate of these special motives constitutes the aggre gate o f the species which we were seeking for the purpose of “ subdividing our orders and so completing our classification When in a general treatise the relative phrases are classified and the whole subjective lan guage thoroughly organised there will then only remai n to make therefro m e x tracts or partial treatises appropriate to e very age O n e o f these will repro duce for example the relative phrases familiar t o the child of se v en another will contain the subjective language practised by a child o f ten a third will be destined for the youth and a fourth wil l be composed for the use of the adult ( S ep arate treatises upon the subjective language and graduated coll e e tions of relative phrases will form part of the practical part of t h e system ) ,

”

These new categories wil l present besides many i n con t est able ad v antages By their aid the work will be graduated and the steepnes s o f the mountain to be scaled will be pro lessened The elementary e x tracts will natural y or t i on at el p y l present those relative phrases which ar e the si mplest the most usu al and the most indispensable those which form the types Hence the most necessary or the roots of all the others phrases will be ﬁrst learnt This labour will a ff or d a ki n d o f practical classiﬁcation of the species themselves ,

A s w e have already stated , the dialectic that has enabled us t o di scover these species has at the same time a ff orded the means of allying the subj ective d an guage to the objective ” language , of wedding the r el at i VS phrase to the phrase of

the series The theoretic question is therefore solved Let us now pass to the purely practical part W e rely upon this both to enlighten and to conﬁrm our theory itself as well as dissipate any doubts that the reader may have still preserv ed upon the didactic virtue of th e system .

It was by meditating long and deeply upon the du al ism presented by language as by al l N ature it w as by following attentivel y an d opposing on e against the other the t wo currents therein manifested it was by disentangling and severely separating the subjective element from the obj ective element ; ,

T E A C H I NG

TH E

SU BJ EC TI VE LAN GU A GE

isolating the ﬁrst in order to be able to contemplate it face to face it was by following the idea to the extremest l imit , as certain philosophers would say ; in plain term s it was by determining with greater and greater precision th e general part played the supreme and exclusive f unction of the relative phrase in the language that we have been enabled to conceive the possib i lity of form n it into the pedagogic organ which we hav e j ust ex plained and which we shall see presently in action i t was by

S UB J E C TI V E L A N G U AG E A RT

O F

T E A C HI N G

“

O R DE R E D C O N V E R SATIO N CA RR I E D O N TH E R E LATI V E PH R A SES

M E NS O F

ﬂ

To thoroughly grasp the linguis t ic Operation brought about in o ur system of teachin g by the relative phrase it woul d be necessary for the reader to give at least a few moments attendance at one of our classes A lesson held in dialogue as ou rs is held i s extremely d i i cul t to represent upon paper It loses its mo v ement an d with this a great part of its clear ness and of its interest W e will nevertheless attempt as it is the only means within our reach o f presenting an exer cise to the public to give a lesson by means o f writin g The imagination of the reader must do its best t o supply what is lacking amongst other things the accent —so pene t r at i n g and so e ff ective — o f the living speech and the wonder fully communicative play of the physiognomy ,

’

, .

a basis of Operations we propose to take the known

theme To

open

t h e d oor

In order to be un d er s t oo d by every one we will go through the process ﬁrst of all in E nglish Before we begin let us m ake quite clear the e x act moment at which the teacher ,

SU BJ EC TI VE LANGU A GE

160

appears befo r e t h e pupil s The teacher i s supposed to hav e already given the lesson and the pupil to ha v e elaborated it C onsequently we are at the point where r ecitation by the pupil commences .

—

Teach er Here i s a door to open it , what is it you do ? P up i l —First of all , I walk towards the door Teach er C apital And then what do you d o ? P up i l —I draw nearer t o the door T ea ch er — Capital ! And then what do you do ? P up i l I get to the door Tea ch er — C apital And the n what do you do P up i l —I stop at the door Teach er —C apit al And then what do you do ? — u P p i L I stretch out my arm Teach er And then what do you do ? C apital P up i l — I take hold of the handle Teach er — C apital ! And then what do you do ne x t ? P upi l —I turn the handle Teach er — C apital ! And what do you do after that ? P up i l —I pull the door Teach er And then what happens ? C apital P up i l The door moves And after that what happens ? Teach er — C apital P up i l —The door turns o n its hinges Teach er And then what do you do ? C apital P up i l —I leave go the handle T each er C apita l ! The aim is attained and the lesson .

—

ﬁnis hed

We will transcribe this dialogue Und er another form where the two languages ar e distinct without ceasing to be unite d without ceasi n g to be geared on e into the other and t o com l each other mutually e t e p ,

TH E P U PI L

TH E TEA C H E R

To Open the door I walk towards the door I draw nearer to the door I get to the door I stop at the door I stretch out my arm I take hold of the handle .

C apital C apital Capital C apital C apital

Capital

And then ? And then And then ? A n d t hen ? And then ? And then ?

SU BJ E C TI V E L A NGU A GE '

162

the l ast as to the ﬁrst provided only that the teacher s v oic e would carry so far ’

Final ly we have hitherto placed the relati ve phrase o r inter locutory sentence in the mouth of the teacher there is nothing to prevent it coming fro m the mou t h of one or of several of the pupils themselves who turn and turn about acting as leader of their class would guide the con v ersation w hil e the teacher would pass to the adjacent classes or divisions While one harvest is ripening two others m ight be sown ,

For three classes

teacher

O NE

T h is is a refr in which we shall yet repe at more than once as ﬁnale to our chapters In N ature one child can and does teach another child to talk Is it so terribly difficult think d o u for a pupil to irect a conversation like the preceding y in no matter what l anguage ? Under these cond itions the pedagogic apprenticeship may commence early and has some chance of being success ful a

We shall o f course have the que stion of disorderliness again thrown i n our teeth W e answer : Disorderliness is the d augh ter of inaction and of weariness No w our lesson or Ordered conversation permits neither the one nor the othe r Varied i n the subj ects of the lessons varied in the details of these lessons alive and holding the attention like S peech itself it stimulates the curiosity continually occupies the vi sual i si n g faculty continually and until the very end keeps the attentive forc e upon the strain There are schools in which the ill “ omened words strict and lax discipline are practically un a r e organised upon different nown Apparently these school s k m ethods t o othe r s that we know of as much for the scholars as for the teachers We may take it at any rate for certain that our opinion s with reference to schools will change on that In any case a m an d ay tha t the methods themselves change t o ke ep discipline will be less di fﬁcult to ﬁnd and less costly than a professor equipped by science in the way that we desire ,

”

Let us n ow C apital 1 is an absolute relative e xpressio n take an enclitic phrase ; for example the phrase as common place as it is frequent ”

’

V i ll V

you kindly

U S E O F E N C LITI C PH RA SES

163

“to

and let us res t this upon the S imple motive of The lesson will be presented as follows P U PI L

Wil l you kindly continue ? Will you kindly continue ? Will you kindly continue ? Will you kindly continue ? Will you k i ndly continue ? Will you kindly continue ? Will you kindly continue Will you kindly continue ? Will you kindly continue Will you kin d ly continue ? The exercise is ﬁnished

TE A C H E R

I walk towards th e door I draw near to the door I get to the door I st ep at the door I stretch out my arm I take hold of the handle I t urn the handle I pull the door The door moves The door turns on its hin ges I let go the handle Instead substitute

continue

the enclitic phrase

“Will

you k i ndly

ca n

—

continue Have the kindness to Have the goo d ness to continue continue Be so good as to P lease continue Try to endeavour to continue D o all you can to continue D o your best to continue Will you please -continue ? I beg you to -continue I should like you to continue You are requested to continue I think you can continue I hope you w ill continue 7

—

— 7

— —

— 7

—

the thousand e x pressions by which we can formulate invitation , a counsel an order a recommendation 85 0

an d

We have in the above a second example of an ordered con versation carried on by means of relative phras es a con versation which progresses not blindly and at haphazard but w here each step is counted and regularly marked o ff in the total journey to be accomplished —a conversation where each “ expression exercised passes deﬁnitely from the debtor to ” “ th e creditor side In other terms having given a good classiﬁcation of t h e relati ve phrases the master and the pupil ”

”

SU BJ EC TI VE LA NGU A GE

164

know to day w ill k n o w to morrow wil l also know in t wo months e xactly what they have done and what r emai ns for them to do But t his is a statement of account that can never be rende red by the teacher however conscientious he may be w h o follows the ordinary course of lessons ,

In Olden days at the end of the first week I S hould have been greatly e m barrassed if required to recount the number and the kind of expressions that I had bee n able to give to my pupils I imagine that more than one of the teachers n o w practising would feel the same d i fii cul t y It is i n f act a zig zag course to which we are condemned by the process termed classical —a course in which we traverse the same road over and over again a h undred times —a course in which each advance is annulled by a retreat and one consequently which never allows us to arrive at our destination We are pleased to hope that a thorough clas sification and a j udicious use of relative phrases will f urnish the remedy for this v ice in lan guage teaching an d that the professor of languages will find therein the guiding thread of which h e stands in so great a nee d ,

that the reader understands—at least we h O pe he d oes —O ur manner of proceeding and the mod e of teaching t h e subjective language we will remove the relative phrase from the place we have given to it for th e occasion at the right hand of the exercise and we will write it once only and as appendix at the foot of this exercise We shall thus economise space and labour in the composition and permit the t w o languages to develop freely We ought indeed to point out that neither the sentences which compose the exercises of our series nor the relative expressions which O ur col l ection contains are a lways as S imple or as short as are the p h rases which ﬁgure in the preceding exam ple Instead of one relative phrase we shall be able to write three or four at the foot of each e xercise a n d the teacher w ill deal with them one after the other exactly in the manner shown in the example above Instead of asking a single pupil to repeat the phrase he w ill ask three or four different pupils to do so having at hand the material for many such d ialogues N ow

’

M oreover , this arrangement of the text permits one last d etail

to be added which our ﬁrst exercise lacked to be fai t h fully repre sen t ed upon p aper We ha v e stated in a previous ,

SU BJ EC TI VE LANGU A GE

16 6

too S hor t appendix presents only a few relat i ve phrases an d w e ha v e chosen by preference perfectly S imple enclitics The motive upon which they r est is that of the pronunciation and the b o ok is a S ign which we have adopted to r epr e sent the relation o f these expressions w ith the fact to which ” they apply which they are so to speak hooked upon How ever few for want of space these expressions may be and t herefore however little variation there may be i n them they ‘ c ertainly s u i ce in the ﬁrst place to give a correct idea of our process a nd in the next place to a ff ord a glimpse of the use that linguistic science may make of this element of the lan guage ur

, .

—

ﬂ

A langu agelesson t h us constructed i n E nglish is perhaps insu fficient for a decisive peremptory demonstration of the e x cellence of the new process P resented in a foreign tongue this same lesson will be more striking and certainly more con vi n ci n g It is the night that makes us appreciate the day At the risk therefore of overloading our te x t we wil l repeat t h e above lesson in the eight following languages —E ngli sh French G erman I t alian S panish N o r wegian Latin , and We would gi ve it also I n Russian and Ara bic if thi s G reek would ser v e any useful purpose ,

The l ast two words of o ur pro gramme ( Lati n and G reek ) w ill let loose upon us a perfect tempest from the C lassicists “ Your system the pure Humanists will e x claim may be an e xcellent o n e for living langu ages but do not touch the sacred you can do nothing but profan e a r k of the dead languages b “ In a f uture chapter entitled G re ek t hese grand monuments we shall suitably reply to this strange dogm a a n d Latin P rovisio n all y and to j ustify to some e x tent our audacity let u s remark that the ling uistic process of the mother of a family a t Rome or at Athens— s o at least it seems to uS —must have been exactly the s ame as that practised by t h e mother of a family at this present d ay i n London i n P aris or i n S t And let us also emphasise to dissipate the piou s P etersburg alarm of our opponents the statement that no phrase or pression employed by us will ever be risked—that i s fabricated by th e so l e aid of the dictionary .

”

’

veneration an d love for the ancient languages is so profound an d sincere that we have imposed upon ou rs elves l n t heir honour a task w hich perhaps would frighten more tha n O

O R G AN I S ATI O N

O F TH E D EA D

LANGU A G ES

167

one of the purists scandalised by o ur temerity —to wit we ha ve dissected sentence by sentence the wo r ks of the principal This done in the ﬁrst place the G reek and Latin authors expression s belonging to the obj ective language have been distributed 1n the vast pigeonholes of Our series and of our exercises ; and in t h e next place the relative phrases hav e been arranged in the categories t o which they are ca l led by the classiﬁcation of which we have already es t ablish ed the g r and out l ines ,

the aid of this double work a d ead la n guage m ay be treated exactly i n the same way as a living langu age B ut there is something further ; we are enabled to present to whoever desires i t th e language of whichever writer he prefers In our manuscripts each sentence bears the name of its author with the number of the chapter and the number of t h e li ne It was i n fact of ﬁrst i mportance to ob v iate this grave ob j ec tion Your Latin and your G reek are made up Lat i n and — made up G reek We think we may make the following declaration : That the day upon which the student has assimilated our se ries an d our relative phrases G reek and Lat in he will have assimi lated Virgil C icero S allust Q uintillian & c Homer Hero d o t us X enophon P lato & c and he will be able to read and understand these authors exactly as he understands the master pieces oi his native tongue S O much sa i d we wil l commen ce by the Latin lesso n ,

”

SU BJ E CTI V E LA N GU AGE

168

O S TI U M A PE RI O

L at i n

ex end o

appr eh en d o

t or q ueo

r ec ud o

ad d uco

s eq ui t ur

vert i t ur

pand o

d i mi t t o .

ptime dictum ! Amabo ut -per seq uar i s P er gr at um m ihi feceris si progredi ? P lacet n e tibi 7

Ad ostium per go ad ostium appropi n quo ad ostium ad ven i o ad ostium subsisto brachium extendo ansam appr eh en d o ansam t or q ueo ostiu m recludo ostium adduco s equi tur ostium ca r d i n i bus ver t i t ur ostiu m ostium pando o st 11 ansam d i m i t t o

pergo appr opi n q uo ad veni o sub s i st o

P erge, te pr ecor , e t bene dicas C on ar e ut

—

—p

' l

er seq ui vol uer i s.

bene dicas operam ut r e r am r o n un t i e s C ave n e e p p p Te hortor ad —bene d i cen d um: 7

’

N e parcas Oper ae Tua r efe r t ut g in N on te pocni t ebi t

M act e animo

dies pr oﬁ ci as laborem i n s um psi ssc .

—

in dies pr oﬁ ci s quod Tibi sane con t i n get -tuum as seq ui propositum bre v i latine l ocut ur us sis N on dubito quin G aud eo

SU BJ EC TI VE LA NGU A GE

1 70

10) A PRO LA P O RTA

I tal ian

Vado all a porta m i avvicino all a porta arrivo alla porta m i fermo alla porta stendo i l braccio prendo la maniglia della port a giro la maniglia della po rta tiro la porta la port a ced e la porta gira sui suoi cardini lascio la maniglia del l a porta .

Bene Benissimo Abbiate la bont h di -continuare Abbiate la compiacenza di co n t i n ri a e r V olet e v oi avere la bonta di continuare Dimostrate che -sapete i l seguito Fate v edere che sapete la continuazione

—

— 7

—

C ontinuate , i o vi prego , e C ercate di 7 pronunziare bene Fate tutto il possibile per pronunciare

—

S tudiate

con zelo voi facciate dei progressi Bisogna che N on vi pentirete di aver lavorato

—

bene

Fatevi cor r aggi o Arriverete ben presto a —sapere la lingua voi arriverete al vostro intento S pero che V i prometto che —in sei mesi voi saprete la lin gua i n sei S iate sicuro che

—

— 7

FIR S T L ESS O N IN E I G H T

F rench

L A NGU A GES

J O UVRE L A FO RTE

17 1

marche vers la porte m appr och e de la porte e j r i ve a la porte a r j m arr te la porte e a e j al l on ge l e bras j prends la poign e é e j tourne la po gn é e e j i e tire la porte j la porte cé d e la porte tourne sur ses gonds l a che la poignée e j .

’

—

Tr é s

bien continuer Ayez l a bonté de Faites moi l e plaisir de conti nuer continuer Ayez la complais ance de continuer J e vous prie de M ontrez que -vous savez l e reste 7

—

C ontinuez, Tachez de

’

vous plait et bien prononcer Faites tous vos eff orts pour -bien prononcer Faites votre possible pour -bien prononcer s

—

Appliquez vous vous fassiez des pr ogr é s I l importe que d avoi r bien travaill é V ous n e regretterez pas

—

’

C ourage

— —

Vous parviendrez t apprendre la langue en S i x mois J esp ere que -vous attein drez b i e n t Ot l e but dans si x mois v ous s aurez parler S oyez certain que 7

’

F r an eai s

SU BJ EC TI VE LAN GUAGE

Spani sh

YO ) ABRO LA PUE RTA

Voy h acia la me aproximo

voy

x imo

apr o

a puer t a

llego m e par o

me paro cerca de la puerta alargo cl brazo tomo la e m pufi ad ur a volteo la em pufi ad ur a h al o la puerta la puerta cede la puerta gira sobre sus goznes suelto la em pufi ad ur a .

a ar go

t om o

lte o

h al o ced e

gi r a

lt o

sue

3 M uy

bien Tenga la bondad d e continuar e H agam e cl favor de -continua r continuar d Quiere V tener la bondad de i .

—

C o n t i m i e,

me hace e l favo r y Trate de pronunciar bien Haga to d o lo posible para -pronunciar bien S1

A pl i q uese V d E s conveniente que V d no se ar r epe n t i r a de

haga progresos haber trabajado

i A n mo ! i saber pronto cl idioma V d llegar aa E spero que 7 V d sabra la len gua en seis V d sabra la lengua en O s prometo que E sté seguro que 7 V d sabr a la lengua en .

meses seis meses seis mese s .

S U BJ E C TIV E

LAN G UAG E

I O PE N THE DO O R .

walk towar d s the d oor I d raw near to the d oor I get to the door I stop at the door I stretch out m y a I take h old of the handle I turn the handle I pull the door The door moves The door turn s on its hinges I let go the door handle I

Quite right ! Very good ! Have the kindness to continue Will you have the k indness to continue ? continue Be so go od as to I beg you to -continue Let us see that -you know the rest

— 7

on please and Try to —pronounce well E ndeavour to -pronounce well to pronounce well D o your utmost ,

—

Take pai ns ; W ork hard It is important that you should make progre ss You will not regret hav ing worked hard

Be of good cheer ! Take courage ! speak E nglish You w ill v ery soon be able to I hope we shall soon see a good result in learning E nglish You will soon succeed in si x months you will speak E nglis h Rest assured that w ell 7

— 7

FIR S T L ESS O N IN E I G H T LAN G UAG E S

175

JE G A A BNE R DE BI TN

h e n i m od D oer en n aer m e r mig D oer e n J eg kommer til Doer en J eg st an d s er ved Doere m J eg ud st r aek k er Armen Jeg tager D oer gr eb et J e g dreier D oer gr ebet om J eg t r aek k er D oer en t i l mig D oer en giver efter D oer en d reier sig paa sine H aen gsl e r J eg slipper D oer gr eb et Jeg J eg

gaar

’

M ege t go d t !

—

at f or t s aet t e saa god Hav den G od h ed at f or t s aet t e Vil De have den G od h ed at for t saet t e D e k j en d er Resten V is at

eer

— 7

—

V aer saa god at blive v ed o g for at ud tale go dt B est r aeb Dem G j oer Deres B ed st e -for at ud t al e '

od t

V eer ﬁ i t t i g D e t er n oed ven d i gt

—De gj

at D et vil ikke angre at

F r em sk r i d t ar b ei d et go d t

oer

D e har

Tag M od 1 D et vil l yk k es Dem at l ae re S pr oget i sex M aaned er J eg h aab er at -D e vil naa M aalet De v il l eere S pr oget paa se x M aa J eg lover Dem at neder V eer f or vi sset om at -D e vil l aere S pr oget paa sex M aa neder .

—

Th e N or w e gi an b ar r ed

aced b l p y

09.

SU BJ EC TI V E LAN G UAG E

176

C R ITI C AL O B SE RV ATIO N S UP O N TH E P R AC TI CE R E LATIV E P H RA S E S

O F TH E

Remark up on our app end i ces—D oubl e f unct i on of th e Rel ati ve P h r ase—I ts p racti cal va l ue

We d o not wish our system of th e subjective lan guage to be judged alone upon the semblance of organisation presented by the above appe ndices In the first place our limi t ed space does not allow any really methodical and didactic arr angement of the matter The relative phrase appears therein further more i n an unfavourable light and under a strange and almost b i zz ar e form W e shall appeal therefore from the se mutilated groups to our special treatises In the next place an d more especially these e xpressions have been taken so to speak at hazard and solely with the view of awakening certain reminiscences of college life Lh omond to whom we several times refer and for a reason , seems to have had some slight idea of this subj ective lan guage The third part of his G rammar in fact —that to w h i ch h e “ gives the title Lati n method —is nothing else than a smal l treatise upon relative phrases It contains some sixty of these divided into a dozen groups It is fro m these groups copied and recopied by the modern grammarians that we h av e borrowed the expressions w hich figure in our appendices O ur intention as every one will at once divine was to interest the reader by showing him with what facility our process triumphs i n a few moments ove r the difficulties which in other days so long hindered us and which cost us so many e ff orts and so many written pages .

”

appendices furnish us with the occasion for a ﬁnal and important remark upon the inner constitution of the relative phrase and in particular the enclitic phrase If exam ined “ the phrase C ontinue and try to pronounce well is found to be composed of three distinc t parts “ C ontinue —the motive which is the occasion of t h e I relative phrase and which serves as transition from the words o f the pupil to those of the teacher “ 2 Try to —pure enclitic ex pression “P ronounce well another motive acting as obj ect 3 or substratum to the enclitic ur

”

—

SU B JEC TI VE LAN G UA G E

‘

1 78

the whole len gth of the same exercise without o ff ending reaso n until it has penetrate d our intellect u ntil it form s part of our thought and as we have said becomes a verita ble organ of thought The study of the subjective expressio ns that is to say of the mo st abstract and certainly the mos t arduou s portion of the language becomes in our school according t o our prediction ac t ual p l ay —a mere game Th e grammar itsel f that bugbear of childhood becom e s trans formed into a quasi attra ctive s c1en ce inasmuch as it reveals a n d explains to the scholar d a by day the marvellous action y of the human intellect and of the gen i us of the people upon th e forms of language The relative phrase by slipping into the enforced inter val between two con secutive sentences of a given e xer c1s e does not require a speci al period of time consecrated to its st udy You develop the series and obtai n the subje e tive language into the bargain ,

F a1

from standing 1n the way of the objecti ve langu age the r elative phrase renders it ﬁrmer by adding to the movement o f the facts that of the life of the sp i rit V ocabularies and treatises u pon pro n unciat ion play n o part in our instruction Here 1s a still greater corresponde nce between our sy stem and the m aternal process N o intermediary comes between the wo r ds and the perception of the thought These two identify themselves; an d arri ve simultaneously at the ear and are thence transmitted to the understanding before bei ng beheld i n other words by the ey e or being translated by the hand — before being subj ected t o the artiﬁcial pr ocess ess of reading and of writing ,

Upon

al l

these points our proc es s is in exact correspondence with t hat of N atu r e But there 1s a n additional feature which makes of 0 m system an art and consequently endows it with an incont estable superi ority O ur series have a precision which is necessarily lacking to the natural series and our exercises o ff er a richness of development which cannot be expected of those of t h e child s nurse The order of succes sion and the coof the series are themselves or d ination reasoned out while the child progresses more or less by chance and often lingers long of necessity upon the same order of facts With regard to the subjective lan gu age our school d el i ve1 s it r eady organised to the pupil In N ature it is a slow growing .

’

TH E C O RR EC TI ON O F

E X E R C I SES

I n si x f ruit , w hich regul ates its maturity by that o f the child m o nths o ur scholar can learn as much , an d mor e, of the sub ect i ve langu age than could be learnt i n six years outsid e the j .

school

child has however an advantage which it is right to mentio n I ts ear is more tender more se nsitive m ore im pres The sounds are engraved upon it with greater force s i o n ab l e and greater rapidity B ut the more te m pered will of the adult a more continuo us attentio n and a more developed perseverance these compensate and more than compensate for the privilege of early childhood While conforming there fore to the prescrip t ions of N ature we can d o bet t er and teach more rapidly than Nature herself And is not the “conquest of N ature the true ﬁeld of art 1 Th e

There is one duty which at present w astes the strength an d t h e time of tea chers of lan guage ; we mean the correction of Has it been f ully rea lised that the ordinary pro e xercises ceed i n g condemns the conscientio us professor t o d eciph er a manuscript of more than 3 0 0 0 pages a month of more th an p ages a year ? O ur method does away entirely with « this long and painful labour by rendering it ab solutely useless U pon w hat I woul d ask could a correction be m ade l n our system l Where is the work which is not corrected ten times over be fore the end of the lesson And where is the co r r ec tion that a bright scholar could not m ake for himself 2 Is h i s oral lesson think y ou not per fect l And if he 1s n ot sure of th e written reproduction he has before him a fai thf ul mirror which will point out h i s mistakes to him more certainly th an the most at t entive professor —his printed exercise A correction can be of no profit except to him who seeks to find out his faul ts In our Opinion man should ea 1 ly begin N ow this exercise both moral and pedagogic t o j udge himself is within the reach of whosoever possesses as in our syste m a settled rule an d a definite model To deliver the teacher from t h e overwhelming drudgery of th e correction of exercises is to increase his power tenfold to incre ase tenfold the power of th e teacher is tenfold to enlarge the fi eld of study and th e know led ge of the pupil .

” .

’

When a native of an y country ta k e s upon himse l f to give a course of lessons m a foreign language it i s not long before he begins to hear behind his back d i scou1 agi n g r em a rks against his teaching Were he the ﬁrst philologist of h is time w exe ,

S U BJE

1 80

C TI VE

LAN G UAG E

he able to speak the language he teaches with greater ele ganc e than any person no matter who in the co untry where this language 1s spoken it would still be said his accent was not pure and a foreig n teacher will always be p1 efer r ed Is it necessary thus always to recruit the ranks of our schoolmasters fro m foreign nations ? O f this gr ave pr obl em the syste m generally i n use well knows it has no s olution By its O ur system appears more happy in t his respect means the teaching of languages m ay become frankl y ex e l usivel y national while yet challenging the severest criticism and this privilege it owes to the organisation of the lessons upon the basis of th e relative phrase ,

fact arranged and conducted as w e have set for t h the lesson is not only accessible to the willing student but he ﬁnds himself in the position of being able to teach it j ust so soon as he has elaborated it himself If desired we can ope n our classes to adult foreigners to which h ospi tes as we m ay term them we should conﬁde in our ordered conversations the exercise and the ban dying about of the relative phrase In this manner a teacher o f the pupil s own nationality can lead his class without fear and without reproach having in his class and ready to his hand the foreign accent and that a selected one As to the h osp i tes we are quite sure hundreds of applications would be received from foreigners ready enough to learn our own language under such conditions '

”

’

”

A d ecl ar ati on by

M i ni ster of E d ucat i on—Th e k eystone of th e ed iﬁce

of the French M inisters sai d some time back S peaking of the teaching of languages that what was necessary was to seek some means not of making the whole class of chil d ren sit still on the school benches but on the other hand o f putting them to work and of utilising the unconquerable n eed of movement of childhood upon the side of instru ction ; that the means should be found not of imposing s i lence upo n 2 P ossibly a class but rather of requiring them all to speak 1

O ne

M J ul e s S im on ( T ran s ) .

T h i s pr i n ci pl e h as l o n g b e en ack n o w l e d ge d an d i t s pract i ce at t e m pt e d i n t h e K i n d e rgar t en s ch o o l s wi t h m uch su cce ss i n s t i m ul at i ng t h e i n t el l i i h e r e se n t sy st e m a d van ce s u t il s i n g t h e e n e r gi e s o f t h e pu i l s T n n e a e c d p p g t h e m e an s for t h e appl i ca t i o n o f such a se r i ous a r gum e n t w h il e i n d i cat i n C g D a sy s t em t o m or e a d van ce d s ch ol ars ( T r a n s 2

FI GU RATI VE LAN G UAG E

1 83

F I G U RATI V E X

O BJ EC T

THI S

LAN

III

G U AG E

UD Y—TW O P RO B L E M S

O LVE D

Above the obj ective language alongside and often at t h e n ea 1t of the subj ective lan uage appears a third the fi u ra g g t ive l an guage A s its name indicates it is not at al l an original language ; it is the language proper—the obj ective language—put to the service of the abstract ideas or con cep tions of mank ind and lending thereto if not a body at least an appearance a figure “I fall into the river —is objective la n guage ” I fall into error is figura t ive language The second is visibly grafted upon the first ,

Unfortunately pedagogic science hardly separates at all these two langu ages and teaches them mingled together pell mell just as the book happens to be printed without rule without method Abstraction is a natural product of the human mind ; therefore the metaphor which is its form or its expression deserves as such to be taken into co nsidera tion by linguistic science and made the object of a somewhat serious study N ot only should this science instruct the scholar upon the character properties and usage of this i m portant part of language but it should also deliver humanity from many errors and disastrou s m y ths which have often n o other root and no other n ourishment than a vain symbolism ,

The work we are h ere asking for has nothing in common with the treatises which used to be imposed upon us under the name of ﬁgures of rhetoric It is not so to speak the cus tomary name by which a garment is known which we are i n need of but the secret of its shape an d an harmonious ad ap t ation to the conception it is called upon to clothe T h e fanciful names o f the rhetoricians no more represent the science of ﬁgurative language than the common nomencla t ure of the s t ars and constellations represent the science of astrono m y ”

TW O

PRO BL E M S T O B E S O

LV E D

The treatise which we have in mind should reveal to us t h e 1 n t i m at e relationships that the symbol bears to t h e abstrac t i dea or conception which it is desired to translate Without this prev i ous s tudy the questio n of a rational system of teach ing the ﬁgurative language cannot even be distin ctly put O n e is evidentl y the corollary of the other Before storing the harvest in the granary we must ﬁrst gather the wheat into sheaves .

’

Linguistic science finds itself once more face to face with the two problems it h as al ready had t o solve with referenc e to the objective and th e subj ective language namely 1 To set i n order the material of the figurative la n guage 2 To discover a rational process for teaching i t Th ese two chapters are n either so long nor so complica t e d as the previous ch apters In th e first indeed w e ought t o set ourselves not to distribute the entirety of t h e figurative language into its various categories but s i mply to di scover a principle w hich might preside over the arrangement in or der of this last portion o f t h e language ; and the second problem w ill be solved as soon as we have discovered a logical mean s o f attaching the metaphorical lessons to our series les s ons ,

F I G U RA T I V E

A N A TT E M PT e

LA N G U A G E

X IV

O R G A N I S A TI O N

O r i gi n

th e m et aph or

M E TA PH OR I CA L 1

TH E

MES

—I t

s const i tuent el ements

I ts d eﬁ ni t i on

‘

To set the material of the ﬁgurative language m order we need as we have said a pr inciple This principle must be drawn from the very source of the metaphor itself — must be dedu ce d from the function proper to the metaphor It will most certain l y be brought forth from a rigorous deﬁnition of ,

FI GU RATI VE

1 84

this form of lang uage to i ts origin

LAN G UAG E

Let us try t otrace back the metap h or

The h uman mind as we have seen in the episode of t h e mill cannot dwell long upon a pure perception In the mind every perception tends to become metamorphosed into a con ce t i on This is because in order to assimilate a n item of p knowledge it is necessary to transform it exactly as the s tomach transform s the food desti n ed to nourish the body This work this intellectual ope ration is known under the name of generalisation To generalise i s to pass fro ma per ce t i o n to a conception ; it is to raise the perception of the p i ndivid ual thing to t h e conception of the S pecies or the kind it is to pass from the actual and ephemeral fact to the con cep t ion of a constant and eternal fact it is to cross the space which S eparates the contingent from the necessary the variable from th e absol ute The mind is the sense of the immutab l e of the eternal the crucible in which is elaborated and secr et ed t h ese S upreme forms of thought the energy which t r an s ﬁ gur es every “ perception and makes thereof a supernatural product ,

‘

”

The perception of two or th r ee imperfections of character enables us to sketch out if not to constitute the idea or the general conception of v ice as the perception of several good qualities su fﬁces for us to s ketch out t h e idea or the general conception of vi rt ue There is the possibility however of establishing two cate “ r i es of abstract ideas The general conception of a ill m o g for instance is essentially distinguished from the general idea “ of virtue If we re fl ect it is see n that their di ff erence is derived from the di ff erence of their origin I n fact the ﬁrst is bor n of the perception of an obj ective fact while the second arises from the percep t ion of a subj ective fact Alth ough they are both and from the same reason direct products of abstra e tion it is the last which bears excl usively the name abstract idea ,

”

The general idea of a mill being n othing more than th e primitive perception in m iniature an extract a kin d of n aturall y by the uintessence of this perception is expressed q terms which translate the perception itself From this it is s een that the ﬁgurative language is not made for this clas s of concepti on The abstract idea properly so called is found under oth er conditions A direct product of the perception of ,

F I G U RATI V E

1 86

LAN G UAG E

“

To fall into an abyss is the direct immediat e and ade q uate expression of an objective fact “To fall into error ” is the indirect mediate and i n t en t i on al l y symbolic expression of a subjective fact We would in the second place observ e that the abstract “ idea of error is a generalised conception of the mind and “ that the word abyss equall y represents a generalised con ce t i o n r o un d o ur two facts are of Therefore upon this p g the s ame natur e F rom this it results that they are com parable together so that in a given case the one may logically s erve as symbo l for the other ,

”

, _

By the light of this theory upo n abstract ideas it is easy to determine the essential elements of every metaphorical “ exp r ession Let us an alyse for instance t h e locutio n to uproot an error We find t h er el n “ I An abstract idea represente d by the word error “ 2 A symbol unexpressed (that of a weed but clearly indicated by the v erb to uproot A secret comparison between the abstract idea and the symbol 4 The tacit identification of t h e i d ea with the symbol S uch a S imple conclusion at the en d of an almost labo riou s I n v estigation may perhaps recall to the reader t h e m ons B ar tur i ens of the fable ut this disproportion between the p end and the means is inherent i n the solution of every psy ch o logical problem In the intellectual field the sl ightest fact cannot be thoroughly established wi t hout relatively con é i d er able de v elopments ,

r d i nar y sy m bol i sm

— Constructi on of t h em es

th e m et ap h or i cal

Th e

principle which we need to set in order the material of the ﬁ gurative language should and in fact does spring from the preceding study or anal ysis This principle may be “ — formulated thus The abstract ideas of mankind are not embodied in forms proper to themselves they are manifested by the means of symbols t aken from the external world and therefore borrow their ex pression from the obj ective language From this principle it is easy to deduce the process to be followed for di stri but ing in natural groups the general m at e ,

‘

O RDINARY S Y M B O L I S M

137

ri al of the ﬁ gurative language First the list of the abstract ideas of mankind w ill be drawn up Th e most elementary of dictionaries will cont ain their names ; they will be collected from these This done they will be grouped into cl asses and “ fami l ies U nder the heading of Virtue for exampl e all the “ good qualities will be united ; under the heading Vice the names of al l the bad qualities will be placed and so foI the rest We must warn the reader that the nu mber of general abstract ideas is relatively quite s mall It will certainly be impossible to discover more than ﬁ fty species .

”

\Vhen

the groups have been co nstituted the research will be comm enced upon the sy mb ols whic h relate thereto —those which t h e custo m or the genius of the nation h as consecrat ed The same species may have several symbol s It i s thus that the sy mbol of the abyss and of the harmful plant equally ﬁt the abstract c onception of error as we can say both to fall ” “ i nto err or, and to uproot error B ut w h at will yield us the symbolis m of a people ? H o w and where are we to ﬁnd the various symbols destined for one an d the same class of abstract ideas The solution of t his problem is perfectly simple ,

’

S uppose

we have gi ven the general abstract idea of vice at command the last open at this word th e best ictionary d I published that consequently which includes all the others I f t h is diction ary I S a good one it will present a special para r aph i n which ar e gathered t o ether fir stly all the ordinary g g metaphors conse crated by usabge to the abstract idea of v ice a n d secondly t h ose m e t a h o r s special to th e great writers p new and original metaphors as a rule n o t very numerous We shall find for example amongs t them the follow ing which are set d own at hazard To leave vice To repress vice To fall i nto vice To hate vi ce To turn away fro m vice To fly from vice To become abandoned to v1ce To c ast one s self into v ice To yield one s self to vice To be ruled by vice To withdraw from vice To remain in vice To plunge into vice To stagnate in vice To wallow i n vice To come out of vice To uproot vice To extirpate vice To renounce vice To propagate ivi es To S hake o ff vice & c &c .

‘

’

FI G U RA TIV E LAN GUAG E

1 88

Amongst t h e se expressions we ha ve chosen two which see m to be more particularly suitable for casting light upon the process in question ; these are the expressions alre ady m en ~

t i oned

To fall into vice To uproot vice

“to

The two verbs fall into and uproot clearly indicate t hat the popular i m agination sees wickedness some times under the form of a miry abyss sometimes under the form of a poisonous w eed ,

From the ﬁrst symbol evidently come the expressions To fal l into vice To remain in v ice To plunge into vice To stagnate in v ice &c &c To wallow i n vice .

and

t h e se

also that trans late a movement away from ’

To tear one s self fro m vice To turn away from vi ce To withdraw from vice .

vice

To escape from v ice To ﬂy from v ice

in their totality these locutions may pro vide the material for an exercise or a fragment of an exercise which ” “ we term metaphorical theme M oreover the v arious parts resting upon a perfectly determinate o f this double picture obj ective fact are capable of being set in order and o r ganised upon the model of the exercises in our ser l es C onsidered

From the second sy mbol (wee d) are deriv ed the expres s ions To uproot vice Vice germinates To ext irpate vice Vice takes root & c 85 0 To propagate v ice .

set t ing these latter e xpressions in order around the symbol from which they aris e we S hall obtain a second meta h or i cal theme analogous to the ﬁrst p By

In this way m ay be determined one after the other the various symbols under which the popular imagination r epr e sents the abstract idea of vice or wickedness In the sam e way the symbols of all the other abstract ideas of which t h e human mind is capable w ill be determined The sam e sy mbol will serve for al l the ideas of one gro up and each ,

FI G U RATIV E L AN G UAG E

190

”

This fact is the condemnation of a le gion of books writte nfor the use of children and which contain more metaphors tha n the m ost misty treatise upon metaphysics -

The ﬁgurative language cannot be taught —an d therefore no attempt must be m ade to teach i t —until after the language prope 1 or obj ective has been lea rned To follow a di ff erent course as at present practised in most school s wh ere th e metaphysics of the sacred books comes before all the rest is to begin the ediﬁce by the ridge of the roof to try to force the fruit before the bud Worse than this it is to accustom the child to tak e the e ff ect for th e cause the shadow for the reality the false for the true In short it is to teach him the ar t of d eceiving himself —w e migh t even say the art of stupefying himself The question of the order to -b e follow ed in the teaching of the thre e parts of lan gu age is therefore not one of pedagogic science alone —i t is one of morality ,

’

The figurative languag e should b e engrafted as we hav e said upon the objective language N ow before thinking of inserting a graf t we must possess a subj ect capable of support ing it For instance the child who has never seen a plant either u prooted or propagated will certainly not be able t o understand the metaphorical expressions To uproot vice To propagate an error This is perfectly evident Therefore be fore teaching a m etaphorical theme we shall wait until the pupil thoroughly knows that series in which the symbo l ic fact serving as basis to this theme has been d eveloped N ot h i n g i s so vague as a metaphor ; nothing is so light vaporous subtle u n stable We know only one means m obile as this flower o f language of fixing it in the memory : this is to link knowingly and resolut ely the abstract idea to its symbol ,

“

Between the objectiv e and the ﬁgurative l anguage is a per — natural trans i t i on stage the subj ective langu age It fect l y wil l be observed indeed t hat a very large number of rel ative phr ases include a m etaphor and that many m et aph m s are at the same time relative phrases To take courage To work with redoubled z eal , To lose patience , To hit the m ark To take pains &c &c .

ME TA PHO RI CA L THE M E S

19 1

these are e xpressions which assuredly represent metaphors ; but under this other form Take courage Do not lose your patience Take pains !

Work with redoubled zeal You will attain you r aim .

& c , 85 0

they may pl ay if desired the part of relati ve phrases ,

In reality it is in great measure by the channel of the relati ve phrase that N ature tran smits to each of us wha t figurative language we have at our disposal for the translation of our abstract ideas We w ill even say N ature cannot do otherwise C oming from such a teacher the process cannot but be irreproachable and it would be fo olhar dy either to disd ain it or to apply it otherwise than does Nature It is therefore to the relative phr ase that we shall first of al l hav e re course to transmit to our pupils the part of the fi gura tive language that can be given to them in this way .

N evertheless it must be perm itted to A r t here as elsewhere to do better and more rapidly than Nature In the first place in yielding to us by the process w e have j ust described the metaphorical expressions N ature neglected to re v eal to us In t h e hidden symbols from w hence the s e expressions arise the next place these expressions strike our ears more or less irregularly and somewha t at h azard ; a n d here assuredly is one of the reasons which cause the figurative language to remain all our life less familiar an d more rebellious to the thought than the objective language Lastly and a bove all whoever receives a metaphor wrapped up withi n a relative phrase assimilates this metaphor unwittingly N ow a treasure 1 whose existence is not known is no longer a treasure There fore there still remains something for A r t to do If it can make mankind assimilate consciously the figurative language after having assimilated it unconsciously ; if it ca n make this assimilation take place regularly and methodically if in fine it can cause this last part of the language to be attached logically and harmoniously to the two others and to form with them a homogeneous whole then Art wil l have ,

Th e ab s en ce o f co n s ci o us n o wl ed ge o f t h e r o ot of t h e m et aph or , an d ” t h e em pl oy m e n t o f gur at i ve e xpr e s si on s as si m pl e r el at i ve ph r as es, i s, o f co ur s e , t h e cause o f t h e use o f m i xe d m e t a h or s b p y un sk i l l e d r h et or i ci an s ( T ran s )

ﬁ

FI G U RATIV E LAN G UAG E

1 9;

what N ature does n ot accomplish an d can n ot accomplish other than ro ughly that is A r t will have conquered N ature And A rt can do this

d one

O ur

metaphorical themes will firs t make plain the unnamed symbols from which they borrow their development then the diverse pieces of these themes will be set in order and orga n i s ed in the direction indicated by the nature of the symbolic fac t itself It therefore only remains to discover between the figurative language and the objective language a natural rela tion w hich permits the exercises of the one to be harmoniously allied to the e xercises of the other To study the figurative language indeed in itself and for itsel f separately and in the abstract would be a perfectly barr en labour if not an impossible on e It would be simply to repeat our early e x perience with the dictionary In the everyday practice of l ife the metaphorical e xpressions are mingled and interlaced continu ally with those o f the language proper coming one after the other and linked together accord i n g to th e secret dialectic of the n atural facts upon which these expressions depend But how ar e we to discover the relation which we need to carry out the synthesis of the two languages ? How are we to determine the exact point of their j unction ? The abstract language has no origin within itself Its occasional cause is in the exte rnal world ; therefore its roots reach down into the objective lan guage The two languages touch therefore at certain points If these points tion can discover them Let us see if w e can find them ,

l i nk bet ween th e m etaph or i cal th em e I d ea of d omi nants a nd th a t of t h e ser i es Cr ossi ng and h ar m oni ous p r ogr ess of t h e t wo l anguages

S ear ch f o r

a connecti ng

—

E very

obj ective fact perceived by man provokes a j udg This j ud gmen t is the origin of m ent on the part of his min d generalised conceptions and represents the raw material out of which abstract ideas are m ade We have already stated and described this elementary operation by which the under standi n g t r an sfi gur es all that happens to fall w ithin its field o f action But i f it t r an s fi gur es isolated f acts it will also t r an s figur e t h e groups of facts presenting as in each exercise of our series the synthesis of an end developed by its means The groups .

FI G U RATIVE LAN G UAG E

19 4

most quickly that into which the whole theme seems most directly to resolve itself In the exercise where the shepherd s dog at a mere sig n from his master does his utmost to gather the scattered ﬂock t oget h e1 what is the abstract idea which comes before all others ? To our mind it is n ot agility nor courage nor promptitude nor even zeal but rather obedience ,

’

The D ominant here 1 s t h e intermediary of which we were in search here is the true connect i ng link between t h e o bj e c tive language and the ﬁgurative language It is upon this dominan t that the passage fro m one to the other will b e e ff ected and this without embarrassment and without d i th culty S uppose for instance an exercise having as domi nant the abstract idea which is represented by the term “courage We shall construct the metaphorical theme of taking or losing courage and we shall m ake it an appendix to the primordial theme The one will be the complement and as it were the satellite of the other It will be given as a lesson and studied after the ﬁrst .

”

It has been established that our series reproduced or might reproduce all the situations in which are presented either animate or inanimate objects It has been established besides that every abstract idea proceeding at the same time fro m the mind which abstracts it and from the objective world whence it is abstracted must perforce emerge from one or other of the facts developed i n our series Therefore every abstract conception which the human m ind can conceive wil l find occas i on of expressi e n within the limits of our system And if each theme of our series receives as we have j ust indicated a metaphorical theme as appendix the figurative language w ill progress in our school as in practical life side by side w ith the obj ective language The two languages w ill not overlap sentence by sentence but they will overlap exercise by e x ercise They will none the less from this consti t ute a homogeneous whole a firm and harmonious synthesis analogous and pedagogically superior to that w hich is elaborated in the school of N ature ,

To sum up and conclude : our method o ffers t w o means of transmitting the ﬁgurative lang uage to the pupil to wit the relative phrase and the metaphorical theme and it employs them both The metaphorical theme the logical complement ,

S TI L L

AN O THE R QU E S TI O N

19 5

the series and its crown leaves intact both the character and the unity of the latter therefore modifies in nothing what ever t h e con d ition s and the mode of teaching it It does not complicate the study of the objective language lesso n it illumines it ; it does not increase it it does not ext end the material of G onse w ork it r aises it or as we have said t r an s fi gur es it quently this appendix does not constitute a n overload of W ork either for the master or for the pupil It is to the m ass of t h e linguistic work as the salt is to the food of the body as the yeast to the dough a solvent—a solvent which instead of overloading the conception or the memory aids the intellectual Hence this deduction a wellknown and obligatory d igestion refrain of our chapters “The S ingle master who suffices for th ree classes for the study o f the objective language will be suffi cient also for the teaching of the complete or integral language i n its three por tions —obj ective subjective figurative And each lesson w hich had the virtue after the work of assimilation of transforming the disciple into teacher will continue to enj oy this e xtremely ” important property of

XV I S TI

N O TH E R

Q U E STI O N

programm e is fulﬁlled the triple material of language is organised our linguistic instrument is complete I S there anything lacking to o ur exposition of the system ? All the secrets of the construction of the said instrument hav e been revealed as also the comp l ex play of its mechanism The raw material itself which enters into the composition o f th i s instru m ent alo n e has not been studie d In other words the S ystem has been established d i i ect l y u pon the double base of the verb and of the sentenc e but neither the properties of t h e verb nor t h e organism of the sentence have been dealt with thoroughly “G rammar is the ordinary name for this study When an d how in our sys t e m w ill the grammar be dealt with and then practised This is the important question we hav e n ex t to answer O

”

G RAM MAR

19 6

P A RT

TH I RD

7 4

G RA M M A R

O P I NI O N S UP O N

TW O

TH E

P RA C TI CA L

VA L U E

C O NS I D E R E D

G R A M MA

O F

as a means of studying langu ages grammar a t the present t l m e i s th e Object of two absolutely contradictory j udgments The one says —The child proves to us every d ay that a language can be learnt perfectly without knowing grammar ; therefore the gram mar is useless if not harmful for the practical study of languages The other says z—TO learn a language is to learn words and to construct sentences now this construction is subj ect to certain rules : therefore before all else it is necessary to study these rules Which of these two j udgments is wrong ? which is right To our mind both are well founded and it is by reason O f this that they are reconcilable The reconciliation must take place upon the basis of a grammatical reform —a reform in theory but above all a reform in practice ,

Long before going to school t h e chi l d uses grammar and I assure you good grammar He decli nes and conjugates he uses the genders and n umbers he m akes the verbs agree w ith their subjects ; he dete rmines bends to his use and adj usts certain direct or indirect complements long before he is assisted by a gram m ar There is therefore a natural gram m at i cal teaching as there is a natural linguistic teaching The science O f pedagogy must seek to be inspired by the one as it should be inspired by the other and the artiﬁcial pro cess ceasing to be in itself in contradiction to that O f N at ur e o ur two contradictory judgments will evidently become reconciled B u t how are we to formulate t h e nat ural grammar an d h o w are we to apply it ? If our linguistic system is really constructed upon the model of that Of Nature it ought to lend itself with the greatest ease to this new enterprise We m ay attempt the task an d by basing it upon our system ,

’

MA R G RA M

19 8

The order to be followed is indicated The study of the e xpression of the moods presupposes the knowledge of the simple sentence and the study of the sentence pre supposes the knowledge O f the verb We shall therefore begin by the study of the verb ; we S hall continue by the study O f the sen tence or synta x and shall ﬁnish by the mod al expressions .

V E RB

S T U DY O F TH E E X E RC I SE S

I N TH E

C O NJ U G A TI O N S

F I RS T W E E K ) (

/Qj

ND I CA TI VE ( P RE SE N T A C TS) “ We will again take our theme I Open the door an d we will suppose the course of language lessons to commence by this exercise When it has been elaborated for the time quired before the class and afterwards by the class themselves we have stated that it is absolutely necessary to a fford the class a rest a relax ation or rather a diversion which shall be of proﬁt to the intellectual eff or t by completing it and rendering it fertile and this diversion we consider we hav e found in the act of writ ing out the exercise studied But th is transcription may be done in several ways ; it shoul d indeed be varied wit h t h e varying aptitudes of the pupils We give it ﬁrst of all the form of a grammatical e x ercise I

’

F ir st E xerci se

The pupi l wil l write down the verb only and this upon his “ slate conjugating it in what is termed the present indica ” tive in the present tense only and according to a table pre pared by the master i n which the root part of the verb or radical is carefully separated from the vari able part or the termination We Will present our e x amples in three living languages and one dead language ,

I wal k thou w alk est he wa l k 3

— 2/

S TUD Y O F THE 2

V E RB

1 99

march e j tu march es i l march e

nous marc h on S vous march e z ils march ent

ich schreit e d u s chreit e s t er schreit et

wir schreit ihr schreit si e schreit

Th e pupil will conjugate in this way, in the language studied , the whole O f the v erbs of the ﬁrst oral exercise , the whole of th i s work constituti n g the ﬁ rst grammatical lesson ” “ A second oral exercise wi l l b e followed by a second verbal .

exercise the third by a t hird and so on It is of course unnecessary to say that these exercises are only written by t h e pupil af t er they have been treated orally by the teacher The verb al forms must like all the others be spoken ﬁrst of all and strike the ear before being presented to the eye or th e hand We have too Often and too strongly insisted upon this principle and upon i t s consequences for any further insistance t o be neces sary ,

S econd E xer ci se

The v erb will not be conjugated alone and in an abstract fashi on but rather with its subjects and its complements and above all the mistake must never be made of enumerating the terminations alone but t h e termination must be connected to i t s radical ,

I walk towards the door thou walkest towards the door he walks towards the door we walk towards the door you walk towards the door they walk towards the door .

J e marche v ers la porte tu marches v ers la porte i l marche vers la porte nous marchons vers l a porte vous marchez ver S la porte il s marchent vers la porte .

G RAMMAR

20 0

Ich schreite auf die Thur z u d u schreitest auf die Th ii r z u er schreitet auf die Th ii r z u wir schreiten auf die Th ii r z u ihr schreitet auf die Th ii r z u S i e schreiten auf die Th ur z u .

Ad ad ad ad ad ad

portam portam portam portam portam por tam

er go p

r is e p g

i t p g r i m us e p g er i t i s p g r un t e p g er

This second e x ercise still presents something abstract and factitious We have already pointed out how per n l c1ous in the study of languages is abstraction It is therefore most important t o hasten as quickly as possible t o the concrete the real .

Th i r d E xer ci se

The sentences will no longer be conj ugated separatel y and isolated from each other but the whole e x ercise will be put for example into the second person ,

Thou walk est towards the door thou d r awest near to the door thou arr i vest at the door thou & e .

marches v ers la porte t u t appr och es de la porte tu arri v es al a po r te tu , & c

â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

D u schreitest auf die Thur z u d u n ah er est d i eh der Th ii r d u komm s t bei d er Th ii r an d u, & c

Ad portam per gi s ad portam acced i s ad portam ad ven i s ad portam & c .

G RAM MAR

20 2

also F urthermore owing to the n at ui e and the organisation of our exerc i ses we conj ugate one after the other some ﬁfteen or twenty verbs without allowi n g a ny one of them to appear under the form of an abstraction Few books assuredly can “ O ffer this advantage to force the pupil t o think of an actual thing to represent real facts while conjugating verbs ,

”

Does thi s grammatical diversion it may be as ked trouble or fatigue the pupils ? All that we can say is that it always has the advantage O f amus i ng ours B ut the irr egular v erbs some one will exclaim The irregular verbs by our process far fro m frightening the child interest him even more than the other verbs And this ought to be so ; for in itself the regular verb is monotonous ; now the genius o f childhood is the enemy of monotony The result wo uld evi d ently be quite other if instead of g1v1n g him at any one time two or three irregular verbs to digest we were to force him as in m ost schoo l s to gorge himself wi th a parcel O f ﬁft y to eighty irregular verbs and thus in the abstract completely in the abstract that is to say stupidly In our exercises the irregular verb stands out from the mass of regular v erbs as black stands out from white and for this reason i m presses itself O u the memory in characters almost ine ffaceable For us there are no longer irregular verbs in the language or rather the irregular verbs reappearing over and over agai n, continually seem to be the true regular verbs ,

The grammar at the beginning at any rate becomes there ” “ fore lik e the study o f the relative phrase a mere game I ” “ hasten to add a fertile game It creates or awakens I n the “ mind O f the pupil in a few days a new sense the gramma tical sense Yes a grammatical sense ; thi s sense which you and I possess which e verybody possesses and by reason of which i n the mothertongue we recognise intuiti v ely and without recourse to any grammar whether a thing is properly spoken or not by which we distinguish one mood from another the form of one tense from the form of another tense either when employed by o urselves or coming fro m the lips of others To be what it S houl d be the grammar ought thus to pass from the state of being in a book to that of becoming an organ The method which can carry out this m et am or O f the mind phosis will hav e deserv ed much from the human mind ,

”

B ut i s

n ot

the grammatical work mentioned premature ?

PE RS O N S IN G U L AR

THI RD

THE

20 3

it respond to a real and actual need of the scholar ? In other terms does he learn the rules of a thing of which he knows nothing or to repeat the words of C ondillac does it load the memory O f a pupil with an entirely unknown tongue ? D oes the abstract precede the concrete ? D oes the general come before the partic ular and the individual The reply to this question has already in part been made Was not our ﬁr st consideratio n to avoid everything that had the appearance Of abstraction ? Have we not applied ourselves precisely to transform the abstract i n to the concrete to deal with the general by the part icular ? M oreover the thing which we attempt to submit to rules is already known to the pupil ; it is this column of verbs whic h we have j ust used to e x press a Series of real actual personal perceptions Does

Lastly the e x ercise put into the second or third person is not more premature than it is at the time O f the fir st giving O f the lesson in the first person Language is not formed to b e employed in a solitary monologue but on the contrary to bring us into relation with the minds O f others The need O f speak ing in the second and above all in the third person is perhaps more imperious than in the first person The child (like Julius C aesar ) S peaks at first only in the third person e v en when s peakin g O f him s elf B ertie fell do w n B ertie hur t himself ,

f th e conj ugati on We ha v e detached from the general conjugation on e of its elements : we have isolated it and studied it separately Are we right i n S O doin g ? Will not the unity o f the conj ugation suffer therefrom ? Is it not important to respect this unity ? ” “ — And does the present indicative form a whole in itself a deﬁnite real concrete whole ? The following is o ur answer Upon th e uni ty

C onsider

the little child In what mood does he when fol lowing Nature s process S peak h i s thoughts ? M ost assuredly it is not in the venerable supine nor in the gerundiv e nor ev en in the redoubtable but insecure subj uncti v e He speak s in the indicativ e A n d woul d y ou know why ? It is beca use all that he S peaks about i s real N ow the indicative as i t s “ name implies ( that which points with the inde x the ﬁ n ger .

’

G RAM MAR

2 04

i n dicative is the mood o i the real And in what tense does this same child talk ? Listen to him yourself and you will soon notice that he hardly uses any other than the present We have followed the course mapped out by N ature therefore if this road leads the child to success we need not fear to mis s it ourselves .

to the unity of the conj ugation such as is commonly taught such as is found in all the gram mars without excep “ tion it is not a unity at all ; it i s at most a table Of con tents and still further a very incomplete and badly arranged table in S pite O f the pl ethora of bars and cross bars amongst which right or wrong the grammarians strove to quarter the various movements of thought It is a scaffold i ng which is based upon analogies t oo Often quite untrue O ccasion al ly it is an enigma absolutely undecipherable What indeed is more di fﬁ cult to understand than that which has no reason for its e x istence ? The unity of the conjugation such as we have al l studied at school only e xists upon paper That which is a unity is the container but not the contained it is the page on whi ch the conjugation is written b ut not this conj ugation itself The unity of the latter i s purely a question of size of page or O f typographic artiﬁce This is so true that he who studies in one gra m mar often cannot understand another ,

If th e classical conj ugation formed a v eritable unity it ought ev erywhere and always to aff ect the same form present the same organism and the same org anisation The artist cannot change according to his fancy t h e num b er or the order O f the limbs upon the creature he wishes t o reproduce But can you quote two grammarians wh o completely agree upon this ques tion i n our opinion t h e most elementary ? “ as it is called which one S uch or such a form or tense admits as necessary is neglected by another as useless What ” ” “ O ne absolute the other treats as relative o n e calls adj udges subj unctive what the other attributes to the con d i t i on al and what still another places und er the heading ” optative And in point Of fact why is it that new gram mars are published continually if there is n othing t o be changed in the Old ones ? M eantime amongst this logomach y what becomes I would ask of your unity of the conjugation ? ’

”

But suppose that a boo k were to

ppear in which the con

G RAMMAR

206

paper : the eye is taught by means of lines and bars ; we have to strive to form therefrom a perception a stereotyped view N o one seems to think of writing not upon paper but “ upo n the thought of forming of the conj ugation a con B ut how can this be d one ception you wil l ask W e will endeavour to S how ”

”

The unity of the conjugation may be assimilated to the unity O f each of our series The moods thereof represent the natural chapters or divisions The diverse forms of these “ moods so improperly called tenses are the themes thereof E ach mood forms a veritable an d indivisible whole —a perfect unity for i t corresponds to a mode of existen ce of the mind ” “ But like the theme of the seri es the tense forms in its ” — turn an indivisible whole a unity as perfect but more true and more concrete than that O f the mood itself .

”

Th e conjugation may therefore be taught as a series theme by theme that is tense by tense that is form by form and if t h e distribution O f a linguistic series in various themes far from distraining the unity of the series strengthens it by recall ing it continually to the min d nei t her will the partial and suc ” “ tenses or time forms prove prej udicial to cess i ve study of the the unity of the moods ; and for the same re asons the unity of the conjugation will remain intact provided only th at the teaching proceeds ra t ionally The sun does not S hine the less brightly becaus e it shines over a wider extent Furthermore this unity will gain considerably both in force and i n precision : in force as does everything which is developed in its constituent elements in precision as does everything which passes from the general and the abstract to the concrete ,

Therefore by studying the conjugation piece by piece and as a series the unity of this conjugation will not be a ff ecte d O ur proceeding is therefore j ustiﬁed we are ri ght in teaching each mood separately and each form separately From this fol low three practical consequences of the very greatest i m portance The memory O f the pupil will be relieved of t h e over I To w helming burden of the conjugation le a rnt in its totality express each O f his ideas he w ill not need to unfold before his imagination the e x trem ely comple x pigeon hole arrange ment of this conjugation with its forms regular and irregul ar ,

THE G RAM MATI CA L S E N S E

20 7

He will have only on e wheel to set in motion he will have only one form to regard at any one time This form separated from the essentially abstra ct system 2 of the conjugation m ay be assimilated to the idea which it expresses m ay be made to form one body with it and so become stripped of all feeling of abstractio n Thenceforward there is no intermediary between the idea and the form — a result absolutely impossible of achievement if a special form were forced as in t h e classical process to remain adherent to the whole O f the conj ugation and if in order to apply this S ingle form it were necessary to embrace and set in motion the whole body of the conjugation—that Riveted to an is to say to imagine it in its totality ‘ abstract whole this form would inevitably remain abstract i tself Lastly and most important this operation will prepare 3 the awakening of the new sense of which we have spoken “ the grammatical sense The f or m being identiﬁed every wh e re and always with the idea it will not be long before the pupil will apply the foreign gram m ar by instinct .

”

O ur pr ocess

and

gr am m ati cal

th at

sense

t h e p r esent tense, ver b

—Th e

a nd

n at ur e

—A w

akeni ng

th e

i nd i cati ve m ood , t h e f or m of th i r d p erson Th e ser i es of th e

—

th e

Let us now compare our process wi th that of Nature and see if they agree the one with the other In the ﬁrst place the two results thereof are identical : the child also applies “ the conj ugations by instinct Long before he has heard of conj ugations long even before he has learned to read the child disti n guishes perfectly well the moods and the time forms of the verbs Whence comes this marvellous int uition We have already fully stated that in learn i n g the moth er tongue the language forms one with the perception what the child sees that he S peaks about directl y and without inter mediary an d his perceptio n in early childhood being always t hat O f an actual fact he gives it the form which we know “ under the name of the present As with our method there fore the child commences w ith t h e prese n t S ubsequently thi s form owing to its freq ue ncy become s i d e n ti ﬁ e d naturally “ w i t h a l l that appears as present and the child instinctivel y bor r o w s this form whenever it w ishes to e xpress anything that ,

”

G RAM MAR

20 8

— it perceives as present that is to say this operation become s ,

“sense

”

after a time the effect O f a true feeling or not our process equally lead to the same point ?

Does

Th e child plays about a very long time upon the present he expresses therewith so to speak the whole of his indi Hence the excep vi d ual i t y before passing to a nother tense t i on al importance of this first form It is to the entire conjugation what the verb is to the sentence —the soul or the substance In all languages the third person of the present tense contains i n itself the complete germ Of the whole verb And this S hould be so the third person being the first form that the child distinguishes and in which he babbles his infantile language As we have said alread y the child at first employs this third person even when S peaking of hi m self Teddy is hungry The third person includes within itself the entire conj uga tion which develops t h er efr Om piece by piece according to the needs of the age or of the thought It is in the third person that at the commencement the unity of the conjugations resides It is not yet t h e unity of the oak but it is the un ity of the acorn and as fas t as a new form issues from it the mind will easily recognise this form by its appearance as b e lo n ging to the same whole In this manner the conjugation “ becomes a kind of progressive unity which at no time h inders or burd ens the development of the various parts ,

G uided

by this Observation we have adopted for the ordi nary and constant form of our seri es the third person singular of the indicative mood present tense Like N ature we make this thi rd person the basis O f our operations We have h ad the idea of sometimes taking as point O f depart ure instead of the form of the present tense that O f the future or of the past tenses hoping by this means to advance the knowledge of the verbs while saving t i me ; but we soon perceived that the exercise lost in clearness and S implicity by so doing ; that the assimilation took place with far greater troub l e ; and lastly that with these forms it was not easy to ascend or r e descend to any other We were forced to r e establish the verb upon “ its natural basis t h e present The present or rather the form of the present te n se is a k n own quantity and a constant one ; the other form s are unknown quantities which are deduced from the one given ,

ﬂ

G RA MMAR

2 10

abstract which renders simple things d i i cul t an d trans forms what is easily represented in th e mind into that which is n ebulous and indeﬁnite It is this principle turned the other way round which we should follow in teach i ng languages W e should take the abstract and ren d er it as con crete as pos sible O ur formula will thus be to procee d at once from the abstract to the concrete that is to transform whate v er is abstract and render it concrete ,

attain this aim i n the study of the v erb we propose to assimilate the conjugation to a series of which the various links that is the separate themes would be what are termed ” E ach form or tense would be elaborated sepa the tenses r at el y not in the vague form of the abstract but u pon the actual material of our series and until the pupil applied it instin ctively S pontaneously int uitively This process appears to us t o o ffer great advantages The m ind deals with but one form at a time and runs 1 no d anger of succumbing under the burden of the complete conjugation 2 E ach form being separated from its abstract whole b e comes rapidly identiﬁed with the idea t h e perception—becomes embodied in it and passes to the concrete al speech under th ese conditions may Lastly grammatic 3 and does promptly become an instinct ; i n other words is developed by intuition TO

C ompared

with the process of N ature our system will be found t o have attained the same aims by the same means Like the chil d we begin by t h e i ndicative and the form of the present Like him also we make this form the basis of tions by dwelling like him upon the third person al l our oper a S oon like him again from th is t hird person we shall make all t h e other part s of the verb which it contains in germ S pring successively forth ,

Finally the gramm ar of childhood is indeed a grammar of intuition but this intuition —let no one be deceived upon this point - is the result of a prodigious labour It is no more a gift than the ability of Henri M on d eux was a gift ; and m ethod d oes not in r eal i t y pr opose any less aim than to dis cover or rather to reveal the mysterious process which creates this intuitio n an d en d ows the human mind with its power Therefore if we wish to speak a l an gu age with the surety and ,

‘

INTUITI O N AND

G RAM MAR

the quicknes s of the child we must pass through the appr en There is therefore a process t i ce sh i p that he passes through to be followed there is something t O l e ar n something to be studie d We are therefore i n accord at le ast so far as regards the basis with those who maintain that a language cannot be lear nt without learn ing rules ,

the other hand we ha v e clearly demonstrated that there is only one road that leads to intuition that which goes fro m t h e abstract to the concrete from th e general to the particular from the imaginary to the real N ow whether we r ealise it or not all grammars and methods at present known lead on the contrary from the concrete to the abstract from the re al to the imaginary ; and consistent with th em selves profess a profound disdain for intuition denying its e i cacy deno uncing it and chasing it away like an evil spirit B ut is not this like seeking to make a river ﬂow by damming up its source ? I S not this trying to produce light by eliminating the sun ? We ﬁnd o ur selves therefore equally in accord with those who reprove the ordinary teaching o f grammar as useless if not “ actually h armful t o the practical study O f languages On

ﬂ

”

In itself the grammatic al teaching is necessary ; but such as is given in the schools of to d ay has proved useless nay even harmful for the ac q uisition and the practice of lan guages C onclusion : we must not abolish the teachin g of grammar ; we must reform it ,

S TU DY O F TH E

V E RB

C O N J U G A TI O N

S E C O ND (

E XE R C I SE S

A CTS PA S T P R E SE NT ND I CATI VE M OO D —

S i x t i m es

or si x p er i od s

WE E K)

A ND

UT U R E

—D eﬁ ni te t i m es and i nd eﬁ ni te ti mes

M om ents of p reci si on

W e have c onj ugat ed the verbs of our exercise or ra t h e r the exercise itself i n the present t ense We could have ,

G RAMMAR

2 12

co njugated it and we can conjugate it i n the same mann er and with the same facility in the past in the future and in other tenses if they exist This will be the task Of the second week Before doing S O i t will be necessary to give to the pupil a precise notion of the grammatical tenses We S hall say to O ur explanation w ill be short and simple ,

h im

The hu m an mind is capable of distinguishing or perc eivin g within time i n general various periods or durations of time sharply determined as regards their length and taken as units to wit the period O f a day the period of a week the period O f a month the period of a year the period of the life of a man lastly a period which comprises all the others TI M E properly S O called or E ternity These constitute the six periods of time which we shall take as the basis of our grammar We will repeat them z The period or duration of a day this is the first period The period or duration of a week I S a second peri od The period or durati on of a month I S a third period The period or duration of a year is a fourth period TI M E in general or eternity is a fifth period There i s also the period or duration of time not S O definitely fixe d measured by the life of a man —C harlemag n e N apol eon S hakespeare yourself myself or any other person : this is the sixth period ,

’

We must be careful not to omi t this last ; it is the key to some of the greatest difﬁculties of the conj ugations Without it a rational explanation of the forms of the verbs 1 s impossible It is the omission of due consideration of this per iod or dura tion which is the cause of the embarrassments and m i st r an sl a tions of the grammarians Why indeed should the duration of the life of the person who is speaking not take its place amo n tgst the epochs in which he mentall y places the facts about t i ch he 1s thinki n g ? We must not forget th at eve 1 y living individu al invol untarily and inevitably considers h i m self as the centre O f the world as th e substance of t h e universe and connects everything with himself There wil l be therefore at leas t S i x periods or durations Of time With reference to the three forms hithe 1 to regarded as the s ubstance itself or the incarnation o f time —t h e past the present and th e f uture —w e S hall p r esently state t h ei i prope 1 sig ni ﬁ cation in gi am m ar .

’

G RAMMAR

2 r4

or finished and grammar has rightly cons crated this term e ( ) thereto A day present (to -day ) is a period of time begun but not finished It is not in relation to the present moment limited at its latter point consequently it is indefinite ( unfinished ) G rammar has also consecrated this term What we have j ust said about the day appl ies to the week the month the year But eternity being by its nature always “ present can only be an indefinite ( or unfinished ) period of time In the same way the life of any person still living “ r you me this that man equally represents an indefinite o ( ) or unfinished period of time ( ) ,

What di ff erence is there between a past time and a defi nite time ? In ordinary language very often none at all Indeed all time that is past may be considered as fin ished and con se ” ‘ “ “ quently as definite The t w o terms past an d d efinite seem therefore perfectly identical Are they so in reality and o ught they to be so ? N o “ Definite ” is a u l i fi cat i “ of the period of time ast a v P e q is a q ual i fi cat i ve of the action that has t ake n place in T I M E in general It is th e confusion of these two terms wh i ch h as given ri se to so many grammatical enormities and so many mi st ranslations .

”

’

the before -mentioned periods of time becomes i m posed upon us as an indivisible w h ole N evertheless each of “ them has various moments which might be called moments ” of precision The year has its months the month its weeks the week its days the day its hours E ach

Last year I kil led a snake

And if I wish to be precise Last year in the month of January I killed a snake ,

O bserv e

that this addition does not here bring with it an y change in the form of the verb The definite ( or fi nished ) periods of time such as yesterday last month do not admit of other divisions The indefinite ( or un fi nished ) periods such as to day this week this year also contai n the natural moments and these it may be important to indicate precisely because with these .

THE NA TU RA L G RAM MAR

215

the form of the verb does vary Thus the period to day ” “ comprises ﬁve moments which we generally designate by the following terms .

to now this mor n p ( ing or rather that part of to day already gone ) J ust n ow U

heute M orgen

mati n

y a un instant tout l heure a ) ( a présent dans un instant tout l heure a) ( ce soir

so eben

’

‘

This evening to night ,

j etzt sogleich .

’

heute Abend

”

This week divides n aturally into two parts : that which is already ﬂed and that which has n o t yet passed The same division applies to this month this year to the individual life and to TI M E properly so called ,

N atnm l

associ ati on

—T

ti m es

t h e f or m s

th e ver bs wi th th e

t ense i ntui ti on

pupil now possesses a clear and precise notion and let us hope an exact and complete one —of the grammatical times and of their ki nds their d i ff erent states and their various appellations What us e will he make of this notion ? O r rather what use shall we make of it ourselves in order to teach him the conj ugations and especially those of the indi cative mood ? Nature has solved th e qu estion ever since man existed or at least ever since the time he began to talk ; the most ordinary common sense should therefore lead us be fore all else to study her processes O

And ﬁrst o f all let us lay it down as a principle that if there is a natural grammar it must be si m pl e e xt r e m e l y simple — from the fact that al l the worl d over it is understood and applied without ever having been studied If therefore “ we encounter i n it what may be termed simplicities w e must not be either astonished or regretful thereat O n e fact is cert ain that the most unlettered of men —let us say the most ignorant —never makes a m istake i n the time s i gni ﬁ ca ” “ “ — tion of his verb saying went for has gone however ,

ﬁ

”

G RAM MAR

2 16

quic k ly he may speak This proves t h at we hav e here one o f t h e most simple of operations one which has not the slight es t practical connection with the abstract and metaphysical views and rules of our grammarians If it were necessary in order to employ wh at is commonly t ermed the past indefinite to h ave present in the m ind t h e rule laid do w n by such o r such grammarian who happens still to be enthron ed in our schools we should most certainly be i n danger not only of putting a past definite where a past indefinite should be given an d m ee t er s a but often of not being able to speak at all the rule being far fro m apply m g to al l cases .

”

The employment of tenses I repeat should be and as a m atter of fact is an extremely simple Operation It is this —E very time we wish to state not an abstract idea but an actual fact Which takes or took place within a ce r tain time we a l ways begi n by m enti oni ng or by i nd i cati ng th i s ,

t i me

Arthur visited Arthur visited Arthur visited Arthur visited died i m prison

a a a a

frien d friend frien d friend

“yesterday

”

When pronouncing the word I infallibly r e present to myself the defi n ite ( or finished ) period of time which this word recalls and I choose naturally the verbal fo r m destined and consecrated to all defi n ite periods of t h e I visit ed thou visit e d s t he visit ed ,

I repeat and t h e attention of the reader is particularly directed t o this point n ever do we express a fact without previously designating by one of the preceding terms or by “ some analogous term in which of the si x periods of time the fact took place E very one can convince himself of this by observing what himself he says S uppress all indicatio n o f time in the phrase above given and it will run ,

”

Arthur visited a friend

S omething

essential is lacking to this sentence : it is n o t “ complete under this form 3 involuntarily you won d er When ,

G RAMMAR

2 18

Let us replace to day by to m orrow When pronouncin g to — morrow I represent to myself the future period of time “ evoked by this word (and of which yesterday i s the i m age ) and I employ natura l ly and spontaneously the verbal form habitually employed for this species of period I shall speak Thou wilt speak He will speak We ask i s there any operation o f the m ind more elemen t ary more easy to follow than this ? ~

In what exactl y does the intellectual operation carried out by the man who speaks in these different tenses really consist ? There is nothing I fancy more simple He speaks not accord ing to an abstract rule but according to his own conception He i m agines to himself the time he sees the time that is the day or the week or the year & c in which the act he wishes to express has take n place takes place or will take place ; an d according as this time is a definite ( or finished ) time an i n d efi nite ( or unfi n ished ) time or a future time he makes his choice of the first of the second o r of the third form above given The person speaking is therefore his own arbitrator ; his forms relate only to his fancy He is guided and ruled by ” “ “ hi m self alone in defining by a word such as yeste rday or to ” morrow the time in which the act happened or will happen Is not this the intuitive process p ar excel l ence ? If on e wished to explain what intuitive perception was could a much better exam ple be chosen ? “ This little word yesterday which the grammar d isdains o r hardly perceives —th i s worthless word is found to be the lum inous beacon which guides in his speech the m ost ignorant as well as the most learned and the most learned as much as the most ignorant without ever allowing them to be led astray ,

We may here open a paren thesis The di ff erence between the de ﬁnite periods of time and the indeﬁnite periods of time being thus clearly laid down we can e x plain in passing various grammatical facts u pon which l ight has never been clearly thrown until now For instance in E nglish when speaking to -day we m ay say o f a past act within the period of time and say with equal correctness To day I have opened the d oor To day at el e v e n o clock I Opened the door .

”

’

D EFINITE AND IND E FINITE

PE RI O D S

2 19

Why is t his ? In these two phrases has not the act tak en place in an indeﬁnite period of time the period o f time t oday ? ” “ and is not I opened the door a form e x clusively consecrated to the deﬁnite periods of time ? O ught the verbal form to be t h us in disaccord with the time ? Is there here what is termed an e x ception to the rule ? N o a true rule is susceptible of explanations 3 it cannot permit e x ceptions ,

In the second case of the e x ample here chosen the moment is ” “ more e xactly defined by the words at eleven o clock There is no reason why if we wish so to do we should not conceive our period of time to be shorter than a day — to be a forenoon an ho ur even a minute Whenever the ex act moment i s de fined i t will be found that the act is represented as taking place in a short period o f time separated from the present w hich is, therefore a definite ( or finished ) period of time an d “ the definite form I opened is used whenever it is important to indicate the exact moment Whereas if the act occurs simply in the period of today some time up to now —its exact point “ being of n o great importance the form I have opened clearly expresses the larger unit of t i me to day This phenomenon which does not occur in French might be said to result from ( ) the value accorded to time in E ngland —whether the period of ” “ — a n hour or of a minute the E nglish proverb Time i s money 1 thus appearing even in the conj ugation ,

’

”

W e will quote another example which will serve to confirm o ur e x planation S ome one ask s you l Have you read M oli ere Avez v ous ol 1 ere u M ( In this phrase the i n dication o f time seems to be lacking It is there n evertheless A mo n gst our periods of time is th at of the life of the individual who is or may be the author of the act expressed In the foresaid example the author of the ” “ “ act therein refer red to is you The word you gives the indication of the period of time Does not you imply the idea of your life or your duration of existence ? B ut your life is an indefinite or unfinished period of time The act takes place therefore in an indefinite period of time and ” “ hence the form Have you read ? ( Avez -v ous l u and not u Did you read L tes vous l (“ ) The exp1 es si on Did you read the P ensées of P ascal ? ,

Th i s pai agr aph , an d t h e i n se r t e d by t h e T r an sl at or s .

ot h e r

E ngl i sh

e xam

pl e s, pp

225, 23 3

— 4

ar e

G RAMMAR

2 20

t Lﬁ se vous (

les P ensées de P ascal would be incorrect stand ing alone or w ould inadequately render your idea For the sam e reason we can say with equal correctne ss “ Horace wrote an ode on this subject and Horace has written ” an ode on this subject The first ph rase places the fact in t h e life of Horace which represents a definite period of time The second phrase pl aces the fact in TI M E properly so called which represents an indefinite or unfinished period of time ,

”

In French a similar phenomenon but in the opposite direction to the E nglish takes place In French is sai d and can be said with the same accuracy ,

Hier j e fermai la porte Hier j ai ferm e la porte Hier (yesterday ) is a definite period of time and yet j ai fermé is a form consecrat ed to the i n de fi nite periods of time Here ag ain who is the author of the act expressed ? I t ” “ “ is th e I o r E go This I represents an i nd efi ni te or ” “ I am still living) of which u nfinished period of time ( for yesterday is merely a moment of precision The act takes place therefore at th e same time both within a definite period yesterday and in an inde fi nite period r epr e ” “ sented by th e I that is to say the duration of my life Thi s then simply is the reason why these two expression s are sometimes equally correct It should be added that the s econd the most irregular in appearance is in France an d G erm any more employed than t h e first w hich perhaps results from the predominance i n man of t h e perception of the E go E vidently these facts and these rules may be con si d er ed as so many witnesses in favour of our system of the “perio d s of time ,

’

”

— r o w s er t d a t o m or a d d o t m e t d o e i a Th e or i n ry p er i o , , , y y f (y — st, t r a e mm a s h e T h e a l s e r i o d o t i e o t h e r a a m r f p f p f g ( d g t h e p r esent, t h e f utur e) .

the words yesterday to day to morrow this morn i n g &c with the three terms by which the grammarians h ave thought ﬁt to replace them —the past the present the future Yesterday to d ay to morrow certainly represent somethin g t o us By them and in them time takes unto itself a body ; of th e abstract it m akes itsel f concrete —as concrete as i s C ompare .

G RAM M AR

2 22

proceeding on the systems at present taught by taking that which is concrete and tran sforming it into abstraction i n order to teach the child answer me have you been walki ng with N ature or ag ainst her ? Are you going to wards progress o r are you not rather r ushing into n othingness ? By

E r r oneous causes

r i ous ses i n th e gr am m ar s t e n V a t h e f “ d i sd a i n of o bser vati on , tr a d i ti on al err ors

n ot i ons o

th ese

l ogom ach y,

th e t ense a nd th e act, vai n sym m etr y

f f Nature carries on her work continually beneath our eyes and in full daylight and with a success that no one can contest How is it then we may ask that her work and her processes ha v e struck no one s attention and have r e mained so little understood by linguists ? There are we thi n k several causes of this con usi on o

’

We must d enounce as the ﬁrst cause a certain contrariety M an regards with disdain all that is o f the human m ind simple and all that is within his reach in everythi n g at the beginning he prefers the longest way round To discover the laws of lan guage it does not occur to h i m to study the child or the ordinary man who speaks under h i s very eyes as it did not occur t o the U niversity to study Henri M o n d e ux in order to learn the art of mental calculation The being who speaks before us produces the e ff ect upon us of a common and we l l known machine To observe him to study the secrets / of such an ordi nary operation wou l d appear derogatory to our dignity as a teacher Lord preserve the scientist fro m seeking the laws of language in so lowly a place 1 Will not absolute truth be found rather in the metaphysical regions of the brain ? It is here we must place ourselves they think to see It is here we must post ourselves to have t ruly and see far th e ri ght of dictating rules for the languages and of regu lating them with authority S o much the worse for those languages that will not ﬁ t into these rules It I S for them to lend the m selves to reason and not for reason to bow before them It is i ndeed unfortunately fro m these heights that the greater part of our grammars have descended to us We know not a si n gle one that is b ased upon the direct observ a tion of the h um an mind and of the child d ay by day crea t in g his l ang uage ,

ACT S

NO T

TE N S E S

2 23

s econd cause i s a deplorable confusion of words co u se — crated by usage and sanctified by time a confusion which grammarian bequeaths to grammarian as a tradition This is the confusion of the time with the act that takes place in this time In itself the time h as n ot h i n g in common and can h ave nothing in common with the e x pression of a fact i n the same way tha t the e x pression of a fact has nothing in commo n with the time O n e is th e container and th e other the contents —nothing m ore The act is no more the time than t h e milk is the jug which it fills The time can determine the for m of the expression as the j ug fixes the form of the liquid -but beware of identifying these t wo if you do y o u expose yourself to the error of attributing to the act that which belongs only to the time and to th e time that which belongs only to the act A

’

All the present grammars consider the tenses of in d icative mood as times ; they name them as such and they deal with them as such In ordinary grammar the past deﬁnite is a time the past indeﬁnite is another time ; the imperfect is also a time and the pluperfect is yet another time The past future ( a future which is passed the subj unctives —present past imperfect pluperfect ; the conditionals and so to the gerund the supine all the forms indistinctly bearing the names of tenses i e times From this confusion grievous errors have arisen ,

“ ! I love , or ” “ or he loves

“thou

we love or lovest or you ” “ love or they love is not a tense i e a time ” “ it is the expression of an act an act taki n g place i n a “ ” present t ime as n ow or ordinarily ” “ “ “ N o ! I have loved or we have loved or thou hast ” “ “ loved or you have loved or he has loved or they ” have loved is not a tense i e a time ; it is the E X P R E S S I O N O F A N A C T a past act which has taken place in an indeﬁnite period as to d ay this w eek m y life 85 0 ”

”

’

For goodness sake let us not couple together the two ad jec f ives past and indefinite What is past is fi nished and can not be indefinite or unfinished Above all let us not make t his monstrous abstraction the past indefinite O f w h at use can it be to set your pupils and from the ve ry commencement this enigmatical contract ion ? W hy dis courage ,

G RAMMAR

22 4

their p atience by giving them this G ordian knot to unravel whose e n ds you yourselves seem not able to find ? S eriously what is the real meaning of this expression past inde finite (past which is not finished ) Is it worthy of scie n ce is it worthy of a grammarian ? Are you really in earnest when you pronounce these two words which mutually contradict ” “ each o t h er — past inde fi nite ? And have you the right to b e astonished that children cannot comprehend you an d es pe c i al l y cannot apply what causes y o u so m uch trouble to explain to them ?

”

“ I !

“thou

”

No loved or we loved or lovedst or you ” “ “ loved or he loved or they loved is not a tense t e a time at all ; it is the e xpression o f an act a past act which took place in a definite period of time such as yesterday last week last month last yea r & c F O I the sake of science for the sake of the children let us not wed together these ” two adj ectives past an d definite It is clear that what is past is finished Above all do not make of these two ” syno n ymous adjectives a substantive the past de fi nite 1 as if it were wished to maintai n tha t two adj ectives are worth one abstract substantive S eriously once more do you think this play upo n words (past which is finish ed ) is worthy of a teacher ? C annot our language avoid this tautology ? Is it really necessary that each classical book should reproduce and propagate indefini tely this strange ter m si m ply because it has always appeared I n our grammars ? ,

”

And the imperfect tense and t h e pluperfect tense and the future an terior tense ! What nonsense i s not hidden by these words or these combinations of words ? C an you be astonished that t h e child has great trouble to underst and you and that he confuses together day after day and for t en year s together your imperfect with your past d eﬁnite your pluperfect w ith your p ast future you 1 subj unctive with your indicati ve or your conditional ? Is t here any wonder that he ca n d o no better than yourselves w ith these enigmatical contractions ? If he is right occasionally think not the honour is due to your de ﬁnitions ; he does it by intuition or by chance C onfusion o f the time in which the act t akes place with the act itself confusion of the act with its form an d its verbal expression h er e we have a second source of the grammatical errors pre sented by our schoolbooks And it is n ot the last ,

G RAM MAR

2 26

diff erent from a simple mood ? Hence again these forced assemblages of forms an d ideas in themselves radica l ly hetero ,

en eous

The ordinary gr ammar as we ha v e said being preoccupied solely with the forms of words remains perfectly content with counting the various case endings or verbal changes grouping them as best it may sorting them according to accidental analogies without regard for the intelle ctual faculties from whence moods and forms are derived thus becoming the possible guide or handbook that we know it t o be O n e may turn its pages over and over may worry it for twenty years without finally being able to thoroughly compre hend what the subj unctive really is without acquiring a really clear idea of the conditional without bei ng able t o di s tinguish rigorously the past definite fro m the past indefinite or from the imperfect tense As we have already said nothing is more diffi cult to conceive than relationships that do not exist It is much like the e ffect of looking into an unlighted peep show The spectator may imagine he sees something but it is perfectly certain he does not see very clearly ,

Another fruitful cause of grammatical errors is the lo v e and search for symmetry S ymmetry ! It is here indeed that grammatical pedantry is triumphant What is called an tense h as been placed in the indicative mood ; i mperfect ” “ symmetry requires that we also stick in an imperfect in the s ubj unctive A pluperfect ﬁgures i n this same indicative ; i n the name of symmetry a pluperfect is planted in the sub j unctive The particles will be dressed up always for sym metry in su rnames such as past present future and this it — and without questioning if a participle that is an r i o i r p adjective —can ever be past present or future and witho ut “ perceiving for instance that the pretended present parti ” is employed j ust as well for past an d future tenses as ci l e p for pr esent tenses Can one imagine h o w a mechanism so perfect arrangement s so well thought out combinations so ingenious and above all so natural have so little sovereignty over the mind of the pupil and seem to repel h i m rather than attract .

us leave sarcasm We have attempted to lay bare the proceedings of Nature we have equally attempted to lay bare the proceedings of the ordinary grammarians knowing hence Le t

P RA CTI CE O F TH E

INDI CATIV E M O O D

227

forth the ro ute that we ought to t ake and the breakers that we hav e t o a v oid we can bo ldly set sail with conﬁdence ,

O UR

P RA CTI CE

TH E

OR M S

—S i mp l

F i r st E xer ci se

O F TH E

ND I CA TI VE

m om entar y

e an d

The class is invited t o qu it the themselves in thought i nto the day lesson will therefore take a n ew form

“present of

acts

and t o transport “yesterday ” O ur ,

YE S TE RD A Y I

I I I I I I

went t o the door dr e w n ear t o the door came to the door stopped at the door s tretched out my arm took hold of the handle & c .

allai ala porte r och ai de la porte e m a pp j r r i vai a la porte a j e m arr et ai a la porte j al l on geai l o bras j e pri s la poig née & c j Ich ging z u der Th ii r ich n ah ert e mich der Th ur ich kam bei der Th ii r an ich blieb bei der Th ii r stehen ich streckte den Arm aus ich fasste den G ri ff an 85 0 J

’

Ad portam per r exi ad portam accessi ad portam per ven i ad portam s ub st i t i brachium per r exi portee ansam appr eh en d i & c .

A l tai , w i t h t h e sh or t

cl os e d s ound

(é )

a s al l é

( Trans )

G RAM MAR

2 28

Instead of practising the theme in the ﬁrst person we may practise it in the second or the third as already e xplain ed ,

YE S T E R D A Y Thou wentest towards the door thou drewest near the door thou & c Tu al las a la porte tu t appr och as ala p orte tu & c D u gin gest z u der Thur d a n ah er es t dich d er Thur

’

d u, & c

Ad portam per r exi s t i ad portam accessi st i ad portam & c The following remarks are suggested by this new e xercise The act is entirely distinct from the time and the e xercise “ may be entitled A past act in a definite period of tim e The time (yesterday) 1 s perceived as a concrete reality 2 I S not identification but sim ply alliance ag rega There g 3 tion association between the act and the period of time in that the act is placed by the mind —that is thought or per i n the period of time o f yesterday and not worked or cei ve d welded artificially to abstract terms such as past perfect definite & c In a word the translation of the act i n the time takes place directly wi th out any intermediary—that is ” “ i ntui t i on t o say by 4

”

When we consider the pupil to be su fficiently familiar ised with thi s form we S hall substitu t e the period of time to day ” instead of yesterday and what we have then to express will “ be A past act in an I ndeﬁnite period of time ,

U P To N e w not S peciﬁed some time ) ( I have gone towards t h e door I have drawn near to the door I have come to the door I have stopped at the door I hav e stretched out my arm & c

th e

Th e un i t

un i t o f t h e of

t h e wee

d ay i s t ak e n h ere i t m ay , o f cour se , e q ual l y w e ll be or y e ar t h at i s , t h i s week , t h i s y e ar , my l i f e ( T ran s )

—

G RAMMAR

23 0

This co m posite form presents a perfect harmony with t h e conception Indeed in the phras e to day (or thi s week thi s ” year) I hav e opened the door the mind distinguishes at once two facts t o wit I The act of Opening the door 2 The time in which this act took place Th e act i s pas t but the time to day th i s week th i s year belongs t o the present time and the words t o day (or this week or thi s year) indi cate that thi s peri od of time i s still be fore the mi nd s eye Th e au xiliary corresponds t o the time the participle corre spon d s to the act The ti m e i s present the au x ili ary therefore has the form of the present Th e act is past the participle therefore bears the form of the past The verbal exercise of the ancient language wi ll be the occasion of a remark in the contrary direction The Latin tongue has only on e form for the two periods of time a u Yesterday ort m i P a e r ( p ) To day some tim e up to n ow orta P m a r u i e p ( ) Th e ancients represented t o themselves the grammati cal time in a manner rath er di ff erent from o urs It is for the teacher to e xplain the why an d the wherefore ~

’

The grammatical work of our t w o ﬁ rst weeks , as above set forth represent s a well determ ined whole It will be useful t o write out the synthesis of what has now been done and to present it to the pupil as a m em eﬁ t o W e have put for ward the idea that the indicative i s n et as hitherto imagined a simple mood What then should be the character of the part or the chapter that we have been dealing with ? The verb varies its forms acc ording to the nature of the periods of time in which the act takes place It may wel l be that these forms vary also according to the conditions or the ways o f takin g place of this said act An act may in point of fact occur separately or in combination with some other it may act ; it may be momentary or it may be continuous be casual or it may be habitual If the i ndicative really does comprise div isions and sub divis ions no doubt they owe their origin to diff erences of this nature It is upon these di ff erences that grammar must at tempt t o base the subdivisions The acts to which expres sion is given in o ur linguistic less on are successi v e acts They .

“

MO M E NTARY AC TS

23 1

occur separately one by one and momentarily—that is to say they do not continue It is easy to draw from this a char act e r i s t i c distinction for our ﬁrst grammatical chapter Here is the synthesi s which we shall present to our pupils ,

I NDI C ATIV E A N D M O M E N TA R Y A C TS I opened the door .

S I MP L E

YE STE R D A Y To DA Y S ometime up speciﬁed J ust now N ow P resently Thi s eve n ing ToM ORROW

HI E R A UJO U R D H UI C e matin Tout al heure A pr esen t Tout l heure aC e soir D E M A IN

now

I have opened the door I I I I I I

have just O pened the door Open the door am going to open the door am goin g to open the door shall open the door shall Open the door

J ouvr is ’

la port e

’

G E S TE R N

H E U TE Heute morgen S o eben Jet z t S ogleich

Heute Abend M OR G E N ME

—W

’

J ai ouvert la porte ’ J e viens d ouvr i r la port e ’ J ouvr e la porte J9 v ais ou v rir la porte J e v ais ouvr ir la porte .

ouvrirai la port e

Ich

o ff n et e

die Thur

Ich Ich Ich Ich Ich Ich Ich Ich

habe die Thur geoffn et habe di e Th ii r ge off n et O ffne die Th ii r will die Th ii r off n e n werde die Thur O ﬁ n en wi l l die Th ii r O ffn en werde die Th ii r O ff n en werde die Th ur o ff n en

regard here the list of times as a simple gram “ m at 1cal indication ; for this reason we construe i ch off n et e ” ” “ I ch habe & c instead of O ff n et e ich hab e ich &c .

G RAM MAR .

stium

r ui e p

HE RI

HO D I E Hodie manie M odo N unc Jam j am HOdie v esperi

O stium O stium O stium O stium O stium

p aper ui aper i o a e r t ur us p a er i a m p

O stium

e r ui

s um .

er i am

This synthesis will not possess the disadvantage for which we have reproach ed the tables of the ordinary grammars As a matter of fact we do not begin by this synthesis—we end with it We do not bring forth from this table the knowledge of the verb and of the conjugation it is the table on the con t r ar y which is the fruit of this knowledge Abstract in itself this synthesis is concrete by reason of its object and can only carry us back to this object which is the harmony betwee n the forms of the verbs and o ur conception of the periods of time If the echo is not the v oice neither is it an abstraction of the voice In the portrait of a well known friend we do not behold an abstraction of this frien d but the image of this friend himself .

S econd E xer ci se

Conti nuous

and

h a bi tual

acts.

Instead of happening in a fugitive manner and casually the simple act may hav e a certain duration and may be per ce i ve d by the mind sometimes as continuous sometimes as ” “ habitual sometimes as frequentative In these various cases the act presents a constant character namely it persists “it keeps on E very language has a S pecial form to translate this char acter O n e e x presses it by leng t hening the ﬁnal syllable another by doublin g the initial syllable ; one by an aug ” ment the other by an added sy llable another by a special form or aux iliary In E nglish this character is e x pressed by the syllable I N G ” “ “ or by the locutions I u sed to and I would or by the tense “ which in most gram mars is termed the present indeﬁnite ,

G RAMMAR

23 4

in French (as in most of t h e C ontinental languages ) the form for the present continuous act is the same as that for the pr e sent momentary act : J étudie l o Latin ”

’

The act may be frequentative—that is a single short act but h appening often —i n which case in E nglish a di ff erent form is employed for the past act or acts i e in the ﬁnished or d eﬁ nite period 2

I used t o bathe (or I would bathe) before breakfast I have b athed before breakfast I bathe before break fast I S hall bathe before breakfast

Formerly

Hi therto ( up to now ) aN o wdays Henceforth

In French the form s for habitual acts are the same as for the continuous acts .

d i n ai s asix heures j’ din six heures a i e a j ne huit heures e i a d j d i n r ai a sept heures e e j e

This section of the indicative presents in French in G erman and in Latin only one original form The question arises How are we to apply this form to our lessons ? How can we exercise ourselves in its use ? To what artiﬁce must we have recourse to give rational opport pni t y for its practice ? We shall call it forth by puttin g a Si m pl e question the follow ing for instance E very day you have opened the door ; now what did you habitually d o to open it ? Habitually what would you always do to open the door or what were in the habit of doing to open the door To which in u o ? y E nglish the pupil w ill reply ( according to the form of the question ) ,

‘

”

Habitually I walked ( or I used to I would walk ) towards the door I drew near ( or I used to I would draw near) to t h e door I came (or I used to I would come) to the door I stopped ( or I u sed to I would stop ) at the door Then I stretched out ( or I used to I woul d stretch out ) my hand , & c .

HABI T UAL ACTS

23 5

In French he would an swer to either of these 1 vers la porte 2 J allais r och ai s de la porte a m e pp j r r i va i s ala porte a j m arr tais la p o rt e e a e j ll a on eai s l e bras & c j g I n G erman zu Ich schritt auf die Thur 3 ich n ah er t e mich der Th ii r ich kam bei der Th ii r an ich blieb bei der Th ii r stehen i ch st r eck t e den Arm au s & c In Latin it will b e 4 Ad portam per geb am ad portam acced eb am ad portam s ub si st eb am brachium por r i geb am & c We w i ll now cro w n this short e x ercise as i n o n e with a synthetical table ’

’

INDI CATIVE C O N TI N U O U S A N D HA B I TU A L I dined I used to dine Formerly I would dine I have dined I dine I shall dine .

ACTS at

S ix

’

o clock

at six o clock at eight o clock at seven o clock ’

’

a six heures a six heures a h ui t heures a sept heures

—

w T d E x er ci se o a cts occurr i ng wi th i n th e sam e p er i od T h i r 3 — — t s u i m i m l a n u t t e eo a c s of S I mp erf ect , anter i or , and p os P l up erf ect acts ter i or acts “ The phrase Yesterday my friend came in while I was eat .

—

”

ing my breakfast is the expression of two acts viz to come in and to eat These two acts are combined or connected by the ,

W i t h t h e l ong open (2 s oun d

G RAM MAR

23 6

“while

“yesterday

”

conj unction The word indicates t h e grammatical time in which these two actions took pl ace an d “ while establishes their order of succession in this time What name are we to give to the system represented by these two acts ? We might name t h em conj oint acts conjunctive acts acts coordinated within the same period of time We propose t o use as being most exact the latter e x pression “ ” 1 Two acts co ordinated within the same period of time .

‘

”

When two actions occur within the same period of time they may occupy therein in relation to each other four different positions Two actions may ﬁ rst of all occur together tha t is , they m ay be S I M U LTA NE O US and under this condition three distinct cases may present the mselves I Th e two acts may be both continuous and t h erefore develop parallel t o each other Yesterday w hil e I was dining he was working Hier tandis que j e d i n ai s i l travaillait This relation may be graphically represented by two parallel lines thus while I was di ning he w as working “ These two acts may be termed P arallel Acts 2 The two acts may be both momentary and therefore occur at the same moment Yesterday as I closed the door h e arrived Hier en m eme temps que j e fermais la porte i l arriva This relation may be represented by two points placed opposite each other thus as I closed the door he arrived and the two acts may then be termed C oinciding Acts ,

”

Th e passage fol l o w i n g, as f ar as page 2 40 , i s d e ve l ope d s om e wh at d iff e r en t l y i n t h e ori gi n al Upon car ef ul com par i son o f t h e t wo l an guages, h o w ever , t h e d e ve l opm en t gi ve n ab ove se em s t o b e t h e t rue o n e , t h e gre at e r d i ff er e n ce i n f orm b e t w e en ver b s e xpr es si ng l on g an d sh or t act s i n E n gl i s h h a vi n g s er ved t o S h ow m ore cl ear l y t h e psy ch o l ogi cal d i s t i n ct i on s l a t e n t i n t h e t e n s e fo r m s P ar al l e l S i m ul t an eous, C on T h e t e rm s s e cut i ve , P os t e r i or , I m pe r fe ct , A n t e r i or , an d C oi n ci d i n g A ct s h a ve b een Th e pr opose d a s i n d i cat i n g w i t h e xact i t ud e t h e t i m e r el at i on s expr e sse d t r an sl at i on of t h e au t h o r s e xact t e xt i s gi ve n f or com par i s on i n t h e A p pen d i x ( Th e Tr an sl at or s ) 1

—

’

G RAM MAR

23 8

AC TS

CC O RDINATE D A

IN THE S AME PE RI O D —PA RA LLE L ACTS ( both cont in uous) (To w ork an d t o d i n e )

TI ME

h e w as work i n g h e h as b een w o rk ing h e w il l b e wor i n g

W h il e I w as

wh il e

wh i l e

—CO N S E C U TI VE

A M om en t ar y I

d i n i ng I h ave b een d i ni n g I am d i ni n g

C on t i nu o us

act

b efore

a ct

arri ve

ﬁ ni t e

in 2

r e l at i on

per i o d

I h ad

I mp erf ect a ct I w as d i ni ng

nt er i or a ct

A n t er i or

I h ad b e e n d i nin g TO D A Y (I n d e

ﬁ ni t

ﬁ n i h ed He arr i v ed

e , o r un

per i o d

a ct

t h e d eer 2 .

cl o se d

t i m e)

t h e d oor

a ct

I h ad

cl o se d

a ct

Coi n ci d i ng

wh i l e

t i m e)

b efor e

I h ad b ee n d i n i ng

t o cl os e t h e d oor

P os t er i or

an o t h er act

To a M om ent ar y

ﬁ ni h ed H e arri v ed ,

ACTS

S I M U L TA N E O U S

A ND

t o d i ne

act

Y E S TE RDA Y (D e P osteri or

t h e d oor

t h e d oo r

P oster i or

a ct

P oster i or

I h ad b e en d in i n g

I mp erf ect wh i l e

bef or e

I h ad

a ct

cl os ed

Coi n ci d i ng act I cl os ed t h e d o or

a ct.

I w as d i ni n g A n t er i or

act.

I h ad b een d i n i ng

TO M O RR O

nt er i or act

af t er

I h ad

W ( F ut ur e peri od

t i m e)

cl osed

t h e d oor

He wi l l ar ri ve P oster i or

P ost eri or

act .

I h ave b een di

b ef o r e

I m perf ect wh il e

a ct

A n t er i or

ni n g

for e

Coi nci d i ng

cl o se

af t er

I h ave

a ct

t h e d o or

A n ter i or

I h av e b e e n d i n i n g

I h ave cl osed t h e d oor

d i n i ng

a ct

act

a ct

cl os e d

t h e d o or

F o r t h e t i m e N O W , t h e t w o act s b ei ng b o t h i n t h i s t i m e , i t i s n at ural t h at t h ey h ave n o spe ci al f or m r es ul t t h e y b o t h t a e t h e f or m o f t h e pr e s en t o r d i n at i o n—N O W , w h i l e I am d i n i n g, h e i s w o r i ng i ng f r o m t h e coF ur t h er , t h e t i m e N O W o n l y e n d ur i n g f or a m om en t , t wo con se cut i ve act s can n o t t a e T h e t i m e N O W , t h er e f o r e , d o es n o t appe ar i n t h e t a b l e pl ace w i t h i n i t 2 O n cer t ai n o ccasi o n s t h e s am e act , as al r e ad y po i n t e d o ut , m ay b e con s i d er e d e i t h er as c o n t i n uo us or as m o m e n t ar y , acc or d i n g t o t h e ci r cum s t an ces “ ” H e ar r i ve d b e o r e I h ad d i n e d , an d W e sh all t h us h ave f or m s s u ch as But i t i s n o t meces H e ar r i ve d w h i l e I w as cl osi ng t h e d oor vi ce ver sa s ar y t o r e pe a t t h e s e o r m s i n t h e t w o col um n s 3 I n E n gl i sh , t h e s e f or m s are t h e s am e as f or Y e st er d ay —t h e s t at em e n t be or e , w h i l e , o r a t er , at o n ce car r i es t h e t w o a c t s i n t o a d e ni t e pas t per i od o f t i m e , i n s pe ci f y i n g t h e exact m o m en t o f t o d ay 1

ﬁ

or TH E C O M PO

TABL E A C TE S

UN D INDI CATIV E

2 39

CO O RD O NN ES DAN S U N E ME M E PERI O D E DE TE M PS

—A

PA R A LLELE S ( tous d euce conti nus)

CTE S

r v

r et

T a a il l e (

d i ner

)

t an d i s q ue j e d i nai s t an d i s q ue j e d i nai s t an d i s q ue j e d i n er ai

U ne I

A vec un

act e

—AC

C O N S EC UTI P S

TE S

r ver

ar i

m om ent an é

d i ne

act e con t i nu :

e n r el at i on ave c um aut re act e

A vec un act e m om en t an é 1 a l por t e

S I M U L TA N ES

fe m e

HI E R (Tem ps d é ﬁn i ) A cte postér i eur j e d i uas se

A cte p osté r i eur j e f er m asse l a por t e

avan t

q ue

a an t

A cte i mpa/rf a i t pe n d an t q ue

en m em e t em ps

apr es

q ue

e us

d i ué

apr es

A cte p osté ri eur avan t

q ue

pe n d an t

q ue

apr es

q ue

rm é

l a por t e

avan t

q ue

A cte

coi n ci d a n t

e n m é m e t em ps q ue

pr es q ue

D E M A I N (Te m ps a ven i r )

’

f er m ai s l a po r t e

A cte a n t é r i eur

d i né

ai eu

i nd é ﬁ n i )

e us

A cte p ost er i eur j e f e r m ass e l a por t e

’

arr i vé

j e d i nai s

A ct e a nt é ri eur

e st

a n t é r i eur

’

di n asse

A cte i mp a rf a i t

q ue

( CE MA TI N ) ( Tem ps

A UJO U RD H UI ’

q u e j e f e r m ai s l a po r t e

A ct e

’

coi nci d an t

A ct e

d i n ai s

A ct e an ter i eur

q ue

ai e u f er m é

l a por t e

rri vera

Il a avan t

q ue

A ct e p ost er ir ur j e d i ne A cte i mp a rf a i t

pe n d an t q ue

avan t

q ue

A ct e

d i n e r ai

q ue

coi n ci d a n t

e n m é m e t e m ps q ue

A cte a n té r i eur j aur ai d i n e ’

f er m er ai l a por t e

’

A ct e a n ter i eur

apr es

A cte p osté r i eur j e f erm e 1a por t e

‘

apr es

q ue

’

aur ai

f er m é l a por t e

d b e n o t i ce d t h at i n t h i s t abl e t h e f o r m s o f t h e F r en ch ver b s ar e e v er y w h e r e t h e s a m e f o r t h e m o m e n t ary as f or t h e co n t i n uo us a ct s 2 A s i s s e e n , t h i s t ab l e i n cl ud e s ce r t ai n f or m s o f t h e co nj ugat i o n w h i ch t h e gi am m ar s usual l y pl ace i n t h e sub j un ct i ve m o od 1

sh o ul

G RAM MAR

2 40

The employment of the tense termed the pluperfect ( Fren ch P a t P l usu e r a i appears to us to be governed by the follow f g ) ing conception In the same way that the day now present which we term To day has been preceded by another day termed Yester ” “ day and will be followed by another day termed To morrow so also any day which has fled designated either D ecember gr d or in a general manner by the S pecially as “ e xpression a certain day has been preceded by a day “ termed the day before and followed by a day termed the nex t day the day after Hen ce we hav e the following table O n a certai n d ay ( 3 r d December 1 89 1 for instan ce) a sportsman kil led two hares he P R E V I O U S LY ( TH E DA Y B E F OR E two day s b efore t hat H A D KI LL E D six hares or the day aft er that ( two days after that Th e next da he ki l le two more hares Tel j our ( l e 3 décembre 1 8 9 1 par exemple) nu chasseur tua deux li evres il A VA I T TU E six AU PA R A VA N T ( LA V E I LLE l avantv eille li evr es i l tua deux autres h evr es l e lendemain ( l e sur lendemain S o in considering the act of dining upon any partic ul ar day O n a certain as having already been accomplished we s ay day at eight o clock already I h ad dined d ej a a vai s din e j ,

”

’

”

’

These tables a ff ord us the following new In E ngli sh I was dining I had been dining I had di ned I have been dining French we have six new forms J e us d i n e j ai eu d i n e u r ai d i n e a j d na sse que i e ( )j que dine e ( )j ai s din e v a j .

’

G RAM MAR .

“To morrow h o w

wil l you Open t h is

3 To the question door ? the pupil will reply .

”

To M ORRO W

I shall walk towards the door ; after I have walked shall have walked ) towards the door I shall stop at the door ; after I have stopped at the door I shall stretch out my arm & c ,

In French to the question cette porte he wil l reply ,

Demain comment ouvrirezv ous

D E M A I N j e marcherai vers la porte ; apr es que j aur ai march e vers la porte j e m ar r é t er ai ala porte apres que j e me serai arr ete a la porte j al l on ger ai l e bras apr es que j aur ai allong é l e bras j e prendrai & c ’

’

“Yesterday

To the question you opened the door but ” i r e v the pupil will reply ousl y what had you done to open it ? p employing the form of the v erb called the pluperfect 4

P RE V I O U S LY

Hier vous vous fait pour

I I I I

had had had had

o uvr i t es

’

walked towards the door stopped at the door stretched out my arm taken hold of the handle

cette port e :

m ais

auparavant

’

i u v a ez q

o uvr i r

A U PA R A VA N T

’

avai s

march vers la por e e t j tais arriv la porte e é a j avai s allong é l e bras j i a s pris la poign é e & c a v j

’

When the pupil has thoroughly assimilated these new forms by p ra c t ising them he w ill be presented w ith the foregoing synthetical table It is n ot n ecessary to repeat these examples in the oth e r languages It must be perfectly evident that the exercises can be practised in any and every language spoken The foregoing sections do not even yet exhaust al l the forms of the i n dicative but all may be equally presented accordin g t o the manner in which the facts or the elements of the facts are conceived by the m ind And it wil l be seen that this mood has not a sin gle form which might not be exercised ,

PE RMAN E NT C O

N J U G ATI O N

2 43

or conj ugated naturally and without abs t raction upon the lessons of the series N evertheless however e ff ective thes e e x ercises may appear our method does not remain conte nt with thi s ďŹ rst elaboration of the forms of the verbs It po ss ess es indeed the secret or the means of rendering the conjugations permanent This method consists in the continuous employment of the relative phrases or interlocutory sentences By the use of these sen t en ces both master and pupil will conj ugate constantly wit h out appear ing to do so Transposing as occasion may require their own thoughts in all the various grammatical times or t enses they wil l be able to vary indeďŹ nitely both re gularly and irregularly all the verbal forms of the e xpressions they employ Thirty thousand relative phras es represent thirty thousand Opport unities of practising the forms of the v erbs It is not too much to believe that whoever has accomplished this work will know how t o conj ugate ,

V E RB

S T U D Y O F TH E

E X E RCI SE S

TH E

C 1

C O NJU G A TI C N

OND I T I O NA L

A ND

TH E

—Th

F i r st E xer ci se

2 I RD WE E K T H ( ) f .

BJ U NCTI V E S

e cond i t i onal

To any first fact real or supposed the human mind has the faculty of associating a second If the expression of the first ” “ represent a condition the e xpression of a second represents “ a conditional fact The two togeth er form the obj ect or ” material of what is termed in grammar the conditional mood For the rea son that every man has the faculty of conj ecturing and o f associating one fact with any other fact every langu age “ possesses a con d itional mood The error would consequently be very great if any grammarian were to venture to d eny the existence of this mood to any language whatever This mood may lend its form to another mood or it may borrow them of thi s latter ; but in itself this m ood ex ists for the reason that it responds to an energy inherent in t h e human mind M oreo v e r this mood i s necessaril y complex ; it has to t r an sl at e 1 The supposed fact or co ndition 2 Th e f act which rests upon this or 1 3 made conditional Without pretending here to exhaust the question the above statement i s seen to be true from th e following forms of the conditional in E nglish YE STE RD A Y ( Finished period ) I should have played ( or been If it had been fine playi ng) TO D AY Unfinished period ( ) I S hou ld have played (or been If it had bee n fi n e ,

”

l a mg p y )

time ) If i t were ﬁne I sho ul d play TO M ORRO W ( Future period ) If it were to be ﬁne I S hould play NO W

P resent (

or be playing ( )

or (

play i ng )

G RAMMAR

2 46

Answer I should have walked towards the door I shoul d have drawn near to the door I S hould have got t o the door & c C e matin S i vous aviez voulu ouvrir la porte vous fait J aurai s march e vers la porte J e me serais approch é de la porte J e serais arrivé a la porte & c

u q

auriez

’

—

S econd E xer ci se Th e subj “ usually t erm ed subj unctive 2

W hat is

uncti ves

is a mood essentially complex A l l the grammarians on the contrary seem t o have determined up to t h e present to consider and treat the sub j unctive as if it were a simple mood Hence the inability of the grammar to formulate the law of the forms attributed to this mood and t o determ ine their usage This e xpression “I wish it may be fine e d é sire qu il fasse beau temps ) is (j co m posed o f two entirely distinct portions 1 To be fi n e weather 2 To wish ” “ To be fine weather represents an objective fact ; t o ” wish r epres ents a subjective fact It is the alliance of these two fact s w hi ch properly S peaking constit utes a s ubj un c ” tiv e This word subjun ctive ( joined beneath ) therefore e xpress e s only h alf of what it r eall y means Hence the error of the grammar ians w h o s ee t h e subj unctive exclusively ” i n the second part that it may be fine qu il a se bea f s u ( ) ( tem p s) of the w hole e x pression .

’

”

’

—

The reader will n ot have forgotte n o ur attempt to clear up the question of the subj ective language and in particul ar of ” the sentence term ed by us the enclitic Well what the grammarians designate by the word subjunctive is nothing more nor l ess than the obj ect or material of our enclitic phrase N ow of these two objective and subjective elements which think you i s it that com m ands and governs the other in the complete phrase ? E vi d ently the subj ective element But this element is as diverse as the faculties of the mind a re diverse Therefore that subj unctive which requires one enclitic m ay easily be quite di ff ere n t from that subjunctive We come therefore, t o which commands some other enclitic ,

—

TH E S U BJ UN C TIV E S

24 7

this conclusion that grammar contains not one subj unctive but several subjunctives ,

The first t hi ng to be done is to distin guish an d to count them We have previously said that the enclitic expressions could be and ought to be classified and distribu ted in cate i r As many categories as may be found for the enclitics o es g so many di ff erent kinds of subj unctives will there be We shall have for instance the S ubj unctive of the P ossible the S ubj unctive of D oubt the S ubj unctive of Desire and so forth This work of classification d oes not enter into the scope of the present work Th e reader will probably dispense with any deeper research into the theory of the conjugation Le t it s ufii ce firstly to count the various forms which th e grammars generally connect with the subj unctive mood ; and secondly to S how h o w they can be adapted to the lessons of our series .

The grammars accord the four following forms to the sub j unctive in E nglish That I open ( or may open ) That I should open ( or might open ) That I shall have opened ( or may have Opened ) That I S hould have opened (or might have opened ) [ 11 French Que j ouvr e Que j o uvr i sse Que j aie ouvert Que j e us se ouvert I If you put to the pupil the followi ng question Open this door what will it be necessary that you do ? wil l ans w er by the subj unctive present It will be necessary that I walk towards the door that I draw near that I arrive that I stop P our ouvrir cette porte que vous faudrait i l faire ? I l faudrait que j e marche ver s la porte u e m a r o ch e de la porte e q j pp que j ar r i ve a la porte que j e m arr ete ala porte & c .

’

G RAM MAR

24 8

“Yesterday ,

you put the following question : to open ” th is door what would it ha v e been necessary for you to do ? he will answer i n what is termed the im perfect of the s ub j unctive It would have been necessary that I should walk towards the door that I should dra w near that I should stop Hier pour ouvrir cette porte que v ous aurait -i ] f aire I l aurait fallu que j e marchasse v ers la porte que j e m appr och asse que j ar r i vas se & c 2

’

“B efore openin g the door what , ” done ? and he will reply in the

P ut

this third question 3 will it be necess ar y to have perfect o f the subj unctive I t w ill be necessary that I shall have walked that I shal l have drawn near that I shall have arrived & c .

’

ouvr i r

Avant d I l fa udrait

la port e que v ous ,

faudrait i l av oir

que j aie marché ver S la porte que j e me sois approché de la porte que j e sois a rr i ve a la porte & c

fait ?

’

T o 4 ” d one ? .

the question What would it be necessary to have he would reply by the pluperfect of the subj unctive ,

It would be necessary that I should have walked that I should h a v e drawn near 11 faudrait que j e uss e m arché vers la porte que j e me fusse approché 85 0 .

’

S till

less perhaps than with the indicative does our method remain content with these elementary ex e rcises for t h e S ub ,

G RA M MAR

2 50

S TU DY on TH E S E NT E N C E E L E M E N TS

S 1

V ar i ous

PO KE N

TH E

S E NTE N CE ,

III

NA L YS I S

O F

uncti ons o

THE I

2 9 04

R F

TI C N S

7 5

TH E

th e t er m s

NTE N C E

—Th

a sentence

’

e pup i l s

i ni ti ati on i nto th i s knowl ed ge

S yntax ,

now understood has for its obj ect the study of the laws or r ules of the sentence In any sentence there are two things to be considered and determined The functions of the constituent elements of this sentence I 2 The arrangement of these elements —o r d i n ari l y t e rmed the construction of the sentence ” is therefore hardly a correct term as it only S ynt ax e xpresses the half of what it really means How ought we to study the ﬁrst part and how do we study it ? as

“O

Let us return once more to our theme of pening the ” — Door for what good purpose will it serve to change the ex ample if the method of t each i ﬁ g remains from the ﬁrst e xercise to the las t, always identical ? ,

marche vers la porte

When the teacher gives the lesson this sentence is detached as we have seen fro m the rest of the theme ; then i t is con marche then it cen t r at ed for on e mom e nt in the v erb blossoms out fi nally by unfolding or evolvin g from itself, first the subj ect and then the complement of the verb But is this manner of presenting the phrase really anything else than an analysis —an analysis at the same time both gram m at i cal and logical ? W il l it be necessary think you to unmake and remake many such sentences before the student learn s to distinguish the subj ect from the verb the verb from its complements Where is the child who at the first hour at the firs t lesson at the first phrase will not comprehend t h is spoken analysis ,

S PO

K E N A NALY S I S

O F TH E S E NTE N CE

25 1

The second sentence wil l then be d ecomposed and afterwards recomposed l i ke the ﬁrst and so wi th others I repeat the develop m ent of our theme by reason of this mode of giving the lesson is nothing el se than a practical model of logical and grammatical analysis The f unctions of each element of the sentences wi ll themselves be studied as to their real S i gn i ﬁ cat i on as soon as the time for it arrives which will be when ever the pupil manifests the need of kn owing them an d of investigating the obstacles which he will not fail t o encounter To explain this more fully ,

In the ﬁrst phrase for instance he will h ear ,

marche

ver s

la porte

In the second he wil l hear Jc m

’

r och e

la porte

I n one

cas e he will hear vers la porte and in another de ” “ la po rte In G erman he will hear die Th ii r and another “ time der Th ii r in Latin he will hear in the same way ” “ “ sometimes ad portam and sometimes simply port ae or ” porta You may be quite sure that the child will be mis taken at ﬁr st in the use of these term s which will i m m ed i ately lead him to ask the teacher the reas on of their diversity An d if by reason of an indolence happily uncommon the pupil neglects t o put this question it will be the province of the teacher to provoke it ,

”

important proble m is therefore put forward by the pupil and the teacher will be led to explai n t o h i m that am ongst the v erbs some are complet e in themselves and ” others are in complete I sleep for example is a complete v erb because th i s expression is explained by itself and with out recourse to another word ; it translates in itself alone a ” “ “ complete S ituation a complete state of being I go I ” draw near on the other hand are in complete verbs owing to the fact t hat their expression has not a ﬁnished sense and “ requires to be completed by another word indicating where “ I go to and to what I draw near An

The class are thus prepared to receive t h e notion of comple ments direct and indirect The three fundamental comple m ents are then brought forward corresponding to the question s ,

G RAMMAR

25 2

“what

”

“t o

“by what ,

what put after the v erb and t o each of these a numerical order is assigned What ? First complement To what ? S econd complement By what ? Third complement Then adding t o this lis t the complements of place the com l i m m n t s f time the complements of a the complements f e o o e p means or o f manner and the others if there ar e any we obtain a general framework which enables us t o re duce to one page only and to embrace in one glance the ﬁfteen or twenty chapters o f the ordinary s yntax M ore than this th ese cate i o r es being psychologically established our framework will be g capab l e o f bein g adapted t o any and every lan guage so that here again we S hall hav e constructed a chapter o f general or rather of universal grammar The cause or the origin of “c ases and of inﬂections in those languages which have varied terminations is thus found to be quite naturally ex plained There remains the qu estion o f teaching them ,

”

s tar t i ng p oi nt and a

d i r ecti on

We shal l ask the reader s permission to open th i s chapter by a seri es of exceedingly elementary questions ’

n ew

Did the nurse o f Horace learn off and repeat over to her little charge all the declension s of the Latin grammarians ? Apparently not Did Horace nevertheless manage to learn Latin ? It certainly appears so Did he speak it better and more ﬂuently at four to seven years of age and before having read the grammars and books of his time than the cleverest of our classicists of th ir ty to forty years of age who may have read the whole collection of Latin authors ? M any will dare t o maintain the afﬁ rmative Another example .

Do the mothers of modern G reece begin teaching their babies with the G reek declensions ? They would be e xtremely embarr assed if they had to do this Do they al ways make a correct use of the cases ? P robably not al ways In spite of this do the litt l e G reeks learn to speak G reek as well and as E ? uickly as the little nglish children lear to S peak nglish n E q We have proof that they do D o these G reek children speak better and more ﬂuentl y at four to seven years of age and .

G RAM MAR

25 4

them sel v es without any intermediary that is intui tivel y and he e xpresses them as he conceives them intuitively That i s how the chil d assimilates the cases and how he familiari s es h i mself with the various inflections of nouns and adjecti v es Here occurs a phenomenon e xactly S imilar to that which we have described with reference to the periods of ti me and the form s of the verbs in the conj ugations only ainstead o f halfdozen periods of time the mind can grasp a score or so of these interrelations The child does this in playin g without being aware of it and without apparent e ff ort We have in this therefore as for the application of the forms of the verbs an operation essentially simple and ha ving in it nothing which puts us in mind for instance of those painful eff orts n ecessary to overcome the di ffi culties of the first lessons in Lat i n at the grammar school ,

, .

The wr i tten declension is the product of a subtle Operatio n To constitute this declension it is necessary ﬁrst to abstract the S ign o f each relation — that is t o detach it from the t erm to which it is welded ; secondly to consider and study this sign in itself ; then to compare it with the S igns of all th e other relations ; and lastly to set in order and organise this general review Nat ur e knows absolutely nothing of this operation —that is of the art of declining With the child and th e uncultured man the min d goes directly from the perception of the rela tion to the S ign of this relation and from the S ig n directly to the relation He soon becomes very quick at th i s work and very s hort ly S ign and relation appear to him inseparable—as inseparable in fact as two h alves of one and the same whole In the o n e he sees the other .

By reason of this direct interchange between these relations and these S igns the mind actually acquires a new sense —the sense of interrelat ions hips We might even say the i nt el l e c tual substance comes forth fr om i t s native limits spreads itself towards the ext ernal objects reaches them penetrates them takes up a position between them and connects them logically together Hen ce the child s prodigious rapidity in ﬁnding without apparent e ff ort the e xact expression of each relation hence thi s surety and this volubility of S peech whic h we know not how t o admire too much , and which it is absolutely nec os sary S hou l d be explained hence lastly this spontan eity at ,

’

I N TE RRE LA TI O N S HI PS

AND

THE I R S I G NS

which the linguist who declines — that is who never goes directly fro m the relation t o the S ign that is ne v er attains the S ign e xcept in pas sing by the intermediary of the abstract table of a written declension —never does and n ever can arrive ,

We have now revealed the process o f N ature in its essen it remains t o determine the degree of perfection t i al s with which Nature carries out her work Let us ﬁrst and rapidly S ketch out the history of the i nterrelations and their ,

S I gn s

In itself a relation between objects is a pure abstraction and has no existence outside the term s which it u nites At first therefore the S ign of the relationship was not separate d from the terms of this relationship but was fastened welded to on e of these te rms usually the first It thus becomes placed between the two a na tur al enough position for an e xpression acting as a connecting link P ort a c cardo here the S ign of relationship connecting p or t a to as is and this sign is seen attached to the first term car d o ,

It m ight be said that the mind con cei vm g with difficulty a relation apart from objective realities could not resolve to grant it the right of being represented by a separate and independent S ign and consequently retained it captive and enchained t o one of the two terms which it has a mission to uni te At this period the language would be under the dominion of the case or the inﬂection pure an d S imple I t al i am venit Lavin ia venit l i tt or a ,

it develops the human m i nd experiences the need of a more severe e x actitude and precision The caseendings as S igns gradually become too vag ue t oo imperfect too i n con ” “ ve n i e n t in a word the cases are found to be insu fﬁcient The relation between objects commences to play an important part in the sentence it claims the ri ght of being represente d by a special S ign and N ature at last abandons to it those fr agments of word s an d syllables that we are acquainted with —d e a a b e ex ad sub & c The relationship then found itself enfranchised and the pre po sition in some measure dethroned the caseending The ancient inflection was however maintained alongside this n e w ,

G RAMMAR

2 56

if for witness of the ﬁrst condition of the relationship “ an d to recall its true character abstraction ad port am per go ad po r ta m subsisto in pute um se i m m i si t hircus The relationship between objects then became posses sed of two sig n s instead of one It is to this era of lang uage that the Lati n language amongst others belongs S

ign

S till l at ei ,

one of the two S i gns was deemed superﬂuous and as such condemned to be suppressed The languages cast their useless baggage to the winds ; the caseending dis appeared and the preposition received the e x cl u sive privilege of representi ng the relationship I go towards I draw near to I arrive at vers J e v ai s de J 9 m a ppr och e a J arr ive Ich gehe nach Ich komme bei '

’

The languages of the first age have c eased to exist at least upon the continent of E urope an d t hose of th e third age r e fuse to recogni se declensions It i s; therefore to the languages representing th e second age that what we have already said and what remains for us to say upon the subject of declens ions applies If our historic idea is well founded the case is a thing essen t i al l y decayed and variable —one therefore paying little respect to rules This lo gical presumption finds itself amply confirmed by experience ,

When speaking of the conj ugation we have put forward as an incontrovertible fact as a matter of common observation that neither the child nor t h e ignorant man makes mistakes in their mother tongue as regards periods Cf time —that is to say never confounds them one with another We have equally demonstrated that the confusion of the forms of the verbs which are attached to these periods of time is also impossible Is it t h e s am e when we come to the cases ? ,

G RAMMAR

2 58

”

terminations termed the declension Here again Nature remai n s faithful to her eternal process she works only on the concrete and real and bears witness once again that she has as great a horr or of abstraction as she was supposed t o have of a vacuum ,

”

N ature practis es the cases ; sh e does not decline 5 she takes no notice of any grouping m ade from the point of view ” “ of a declension I repeat sh e practis es the cases and this practice is constant and permanent This e x ercise is n ot abandoned at the end of a month or at the end of two months to make place for another It is continuous ; it endures as long as the use of the language itself endures And t hi s ex ercise gives birth to a sense the sense which we might call the sense of interrelationships 2

ne v er commen ces by the raw e x pression of a 3 relation between obj ects 3 she attaches it ﬁrst to the concrete part of the word to its positive element S h e never amuses herself as does the school by determining the e x pression of a relationship before being put into possession of the two terms In por toe for example 08 is the sign o f this relationship P or ta is one of the terms of this rela o f a relationship This j uggling wit h t i on sh i p but where is the other term ? case endings pure and simple is utterly foreign to N ature .

N ature

In itself the form of the inflection is transitory Nature feels this and t reats this inflecti on as a thing merely accessory Hence her negligence and cons equently her clumsiness in t h e use of the cases Hen ce her indi ff erence with reference to the solecism and I would say her disdain for the grammatical thunderbolts it e v okes Hence this mobility this instability of the case-ending which bec omes modified from one dialect to bank to another riverbank from another dialect from one river— one hamlet t o another hamlet which becomes changed from o n e generation to another generation 4

It may be said that Nature roughs out the cas es and leav es t o the school the trouble of perfecting the syste m and of regulating their usage A n d if indeed the case has become anything at all it is to th e school rather than to N ature that this is due The latter on the one hand points out to us the defect in her breastplate and thereby possibly the means of vanquishing h e r on the other hand she teaches us to dis t i n gu i s h the essential from the accessory to see in the play ,

D E C LE N S I O N S IN

TH E

T HE C LAS S I CAL PRO C E S S

2 59

of the case endings not an end b ut a means and thus puts us on the alert against the attractions and the per ﬁ d i ous advances of abstraction Let us now develop side by side in parallel and so t o — speak contradictorily the two rival artiﬁcial processes that of the classical school and o ur own ,

Th e em f

d ecl i ni ng

at sch ool

f I do not thin k there can possibly be anything l n itself more abstract than an inﬂection a cas e ending a CB am 08 41m m 2

i s, i ,

um , o, u,

as,

i bus, & c

Ros a Ro s ae Ros am Ros ae Ros a

Ros Ros Ros Ros Ros

‘

arum as is is For myself I cannot f orget that I spent more than three months in trying to guess what it was that was wanted of me when I was told t o study these figures under the form of letters M y teacher l ong despai red of his pupil I confess my stupidity to a great e xtent gave him this right in spite of the ardour of my zeal and a desire to do well which nothing co ul d discourage Without havi ng any comparison whatever i n view we mi ght recall that the celebrated A lexander von Humboldt used to amuse himself by recounting h o w up to his ” “ fifteenth year his grammatical fooleries earned him the ” qualification of du nce .

In reality I fancy this is the history of all children con d em n ed to pass through the wearisome phase of the cl assical declensions and con j u at1ons At coll ege no pupil i s despaired of but he is usually riveted in the name of e xperience to be acqui red ﬁfteen or twenty months together (in the earlier forms ) upon the interestin g table of regular and irregular declen sions of nouns and adj ectives C oming from this the pupil ﬁnds himself sometimes capable of making a substantive and an adj ective agree in gender number and case and this brilliant result usually calls forth alike the joy of the t eacher and his praise ,

Let us speak the truth Howev er captivating for a man the right study of lan guages m ay become let us frankly confess that the study of the declensions never had and n ever can .

G RAM M AR

2 60

have the slightest attract ion for any one Le t us say further than this that however the length and comple xity of their table may be reduced this work never becomes any thing but ” “ a torture It is therefore by a tort ur e—for this labour extends over two years at least—b y an absolute tor t ure that the classical school commences the study of lan guages —M al a ,

d ul ci s o wi d om am / O f a surety , it needs

al l

the suppleness of the ﬁbre of child hood to withstand such strains Try yourself - you a grown man or woman —to take your seat on the child s form and to study there by his side whichever language you please by subjecting yourself once more to t h e m et h od which is imposed upon h i m in order t o learn Latin or G erman Try I say , and let us see how far yo ur perseverance wi ll take you .

’

To obtain this astonishing resignatio n fro m the child there i s but one way to render him un co ns ciously an accomplice in the outrage thus directed against himself This is the part that the school has lear nt t o play The declension i n point of fact forms as it were a portal N ow pupil professor to the classical grammatical ediﬁce and grammarian all alike work too long at this portal for the idea ever to co m e into their mi nds to put for one single moment a question as to its high value or its absolute n eces If sometimes the shadow of a doubt comes si t t o disquiet y their faith in this respect i t i s dis m issed immediately as a suggestion of the S pirit of error or rather it is respond ed t o — by this proud and disdainful saying W e have learnt thus ! O ur fathers have always so lear n t ! O ur children shall learn in the same way Which is as much as to say No one can learn otherwise ,

‘

You are right if your ch i ldren are only required to know languages as you kno w them yourselves then your resolution is wise and the way is ex cellent ; you may be assured that they will not outstrip you And if it be dete rmined more over that i t is absolutely necessary for them t o learn the declensions by the process gone through by yoursel v es we should be the ﬁrst to counsel y o u in no wise to change the established order For if you do not devote the whole of their childhood and the whole of their early zeal to this study you may be assured that i n later l ife they will seldom have the courage to undertake it According to our personal conviction it requires more than ,

G RAM MAR

26 2

The pupil knows all the case-endings by h aving heard and practised them Therefore the C ase for him is not an unknown thing n or an abstraction Instea d of borrowing the d ecl en sion from such or such a book it will be created pi ece by piece ; and as all that the teacher does is simply to aid or direct it will be the class themselves who carry out this work E ach pupil will hen ceforward comprehend and know to its very roots a table which is of his own construction This table will be in no way an abstraction ; it will respond in fact to a reality it will represent knowledge previously acquired The table once arranged must next be used The teacher will be the ﬁrst to make use of it : he will refer to it when e l aborating before his class each of the se ntences each of the exercises in the series which he is giving After wards t h e pupil will himself take up these themes and reproduce them by making use of the same table rectifying his phrases by means of it in the same way as did the teacher .

An entire series is thus elaborated two series twenty series the whole ordinary obj ective language This is not all B e yond the ordinary series there are the S cientiﬁc S eries and the Literary S eries We have stated and shall shortly demon strate that the conceptions of the classical authors may be arranged in series and transcribed sentence by sentence on the model of our li nguistic lessons N ow over this creation at secondhand which we undertake with each work this same table should preside N ot a sentence not a phrase which is not rectiﬁed according to this table not an ex pression which is n ot subject to its co n trol Is not this enou gh ? S hall we have worked upon the de cl en si on s as long and as thoroughly as the ordinary school teachi ng ? Do you think that our pupils will kn ow them and be able to handle them as well as theirs ? ,

Let us now say a few words upon the manner in which a table of declensions may be conceived and constructed and we will apply our ideas to Latin It must be borne well in mind that this question of the cases h as been raised by the class themsel ves and that the teacher is bound to joi n with his pupils in the search for the best possible solution This process presents two advantages : in the ﬁrst place the pupil will t ake more interest in the subject ; and in t h e secon d place the solution arrived at will be graven upon his mind with all the characteristics of a personal discovery ,

CO N S TRU C TIO N

TABL E

DE C L E N S IO N S

26 3

The pupil has been led to distinguish t w o sorts of inﬂections —those of the terms which complete the verbs and those of the terms which complete the nouns He cer tainly will have the idea of separ ating these two kinds of complements This distinction might be made by means o f a bar and we shall then obtain the ﬁrst table in the fol lowin g form ,

port—a

B elow

the bar are placed the three endings that p oi t a may take when it acts as co m plement to a verb or to a pi eposi tion ; above the bar the form which p or ta may take when it acts as complement to a nou n p ort ce— car d o and on the ﬁrst line the form which p or t a presents when actin g the par t of subj ect in a sentence We shall next indicate the function of each case -en ding and our table will become 0

subj ect complement .

am as

noun

complement of verb 2 n d complement of verb r d complement of verb 3

1 st

“O f

The complement of a noun answers to the question what ( or whose ) asked after the noun The complement ( I ) of a v erb answers to the question What ? asked after the verb The complement ( 2 ) answers to the question To what ? The complement ( 3 ) answers to the question B y what ? We can again make these four questions ﬁg ure in our table which then takes the deﬁn ite form a Wh at ort subject p ae complement of noun O f what whose ? .

”

complement of verb e n d complement of verb r d complement of verb g I st

G RAMMAR

26 4

The plural will be constructed i n the same way and the whole of the ﬁrst declension will be contained in the following synthetical table ,

TAB L E

FI RS T D E C LE NS I O N

TH E

arum

Thi s form is the one that would be adopted after two or three days of practice The four other declensions w i ll be collected into analogous tables s o that the ﬁve together might ” “ be held as the s aying is in the hollow of one s hand .

’

What advantages has this table over those of the ordi nary grammar ? In the ﬁrst place that of simplicity and o f brevity The pupil can and does embrace it in one glan ce A second advantage is its precision and its clearness The b ar that divides it in two reminds the pupil constantly that there are two ki nds of complemen t s and therefore two ki nds of case end ings The grammarians seem never to hav e i n vented any method t o enable the chil d to distinguish the belonging to a complement of the noun from the exi on exi on s belongin g to the complements of the verb Whole weeks of e x planation are therefore necessary t o enable him ” “ to grasp the rule of the genitive case liber P etri ( P eter s book ) ,

ﬂ

’

A third advantage is the natural order of the cases I have often wondered and I still wonder why it is that i n the ordinary grammars the ending destined for the ﬁr st comple ment comes after that used for the secon d complement .

ros as 2 n d complement of verb ros am 1 st complement of v erb r d complement of verb ros a 3 I confess I see no reason whatever for this inv ersion P os s i bl indeed there is none An insigniﬁcant detail it will y be said a slight imperfection such as w ill happen anywhere ,

G RAM MAR

26 6

can be seen that this work of syntax i s perpetual in our language lessons It commences with the ﬁrst sentence of the ﬁrst lesson and it ends only with the last sentence of the last series W h o then can accuse us of not teach ing gram mar ? C an the school h e named which at any t ime worked and practised the syntax to the extent that does our own it

P ar al l el

th e two p r ocesses

There are t h ei efor e t wo manners of teaching the d ecl en sions Which i s the best ? To j udge we must comp are them l school puts the child to the study of the deelen Th e classica sions before he knows what may be the object of this study and for what it may afterwards be of service to him It 1s imposed upon him s i x month s before he has need of it two years before he puts it seriously into practice With us it is the pupil who solicits the ex planation of the cases The study of the declensions i s therefore always premature in the classic school It is not so with us because with us the practice b egins from the v ery ﬁrst day ,

Ad portam per go port ae appropinquo ad portam perv e n i o & c

ich gehe nach der Thur ich n ab ere mich der Thur ich komme bei der Th ii r an

85 0

The pupil should know why it is that we ﬁnd in one place p or t am in another po r tce farther al ong p or t a ,

At the classical school the pupil declines for the sake of declining He learns or t h i n k s h e learns the declension for itself he studies it therefore in a state of abstraction W ith us it is in order to a pply it immediately that he asks for it it is in order to join it to something concrete to realise it in the e xpression of an actual fact There the declen sion 1s an end ; here it is a means There it is the form that exclusively pre occu pies both teacher an d pupil here the essential goes be fore the accessory ; the foundation goes before the form as it does in Nature .

There for term after term the students dwell upon empty declensions The child will decline and conjugate without Lact i ve truce or pity substantives adj ectives pronouns verbs— passive neuter —and the rest occupied solely with the t ermi nation that is to say with the accessory With us the ,

PARALL E L O F TH E TW O PRO CE S S E S

explanation of the declension barely requires one hour There abstract tables confused badly arrange d are taken from the o fﬁcial grammars and impo sed upon the pupil like so many dogmas W ith us it is the pupil himself who organises them and the table r epres ents in his eyes a synthesis —ne v er an abstraction ,

At the classical school th e declension is an intermediary whi ch continually interposes between the perception and the expression of a relation between obj ects Th e pupil never goes directly to this e x pression he n ever reaches it save thro ugh the table of declensions With us he goes directly to the expr es si on of the relation applies it intuitively to the relationship which gives rise to it then verifies it or r ect i fi es it if need be by means of the table The latter method finishes exactly where the former commences With one t h e student first speaks hi s thought and then corrects t h e form of its expression with the other he fi rst of al l manufactures a termination then adapts it t o his thought Th e firs t operates intuitively the second mechanically Which of the two processes approaches most closely to that of N ature who absolutely ignorant of the art of declin ing goes directly as we have said from the relationship to the sign and from the sign to the relat ionship—always practising always worki ng upon the real and the concrete ? ,

There is one objection which a good man y persons formulate against our system ; this is the proper moment to answer it “You do away they say to us with all the d i fﬁculties and you leave nothing to the child s individual e ff orts Afterwards let but the smallest obstacle occur and he will dash against it and bruise himself The mi nd must be hardened as well as the body We think so too ; but we lay one condition thereto that the mind in the end should o v ercome the difﬁculties and not succumb to them for otherwise the best teacher would be he who was most incapable Can we believe that defeat is the best school for victory .

”

’

”

We make the study of Latin too easy What an obj ection ! O ur method makes the study of languages too easy ! This is the old complaint of the st agecoach against the rail way S team also has done away with many obstacles h as smoothed many rough roads has even eliminated mount ains Is there ’

G RAM MAR

26 8

lack of obstacles to day ? Has human energy become weakened from that day forth We make study too easy Too fruitful you mean Is this a defect to cast in the teeth of a m ethod ? D o you qualify as bad a machine that will thresh a hundred sheaves of wheat an hour more than the ordi nary threshing machines ? B y t h e aid of the railway you can now accomplish in an hour what hitherto you could not do m a d ay If with our m ethods you ﬁnd you can learn m an hour what at present you cannot learn in a day you would begi n t o think your faculties inj ured ! You would think your means diminished your forces decreased ! You would regret the obstacles agai nst which you used t o e xhaust yourselves in vain .

If during the time you are wear ily mumbling over o n e book we can assimilate this author entire would you o f V irgil declare your work greater than our own and more fruitful ? For ten obstacles which your pupils have encountered on the way and which have been for them the occasion of nine defeats ours have encountered a hundred whi ch have been for them the occasion of ninety v ictories Can you not decide which have taken the better way ? We make the study of languages too easy ! D oes the lever destroy the power of man because it doubles the e ffect of each of his e ff ort s ? Hitherto youth has exhausted itself in the study of one language ; henceforth it may e xhaust itself in the study of ten l anguages P rogress does not destroy the obstacle ; it transforms it or shifts its position However swift a scientiﬁc met hod m ay be life will always be too short to disco v er all that is true to see all that is beautiful to learn all that i s good ,

’

duty is to gain knowledge by the shor t est and eas iest route s and not to wander about after the fashion of the pil grim who imagines he is increasing his merits by wearing thorns in his shoes O

TH E

P RE P O S I TI O N

We have hitherto considered and dealt with the cases in them selves apart from the prepositions which are continually found joined thereto and which in appea r ance at least govern ,

G RAMMAR

27 0

If the verb occupies the ﬁrst rank in our series we m ay say that the preposition occupies the second ra nk It has a right to this rank by the very considerable function it ﬁlls in the language as a determinative O ur method therefore accords it a place fully adequate to its importance ,

How does the assimi lation of the preposition take place ? This problem is the immediate corollary of that which we have j ust solved in relati on to the cases or the inﬂecti ons of nouns We shall not draw up as do the o rdinary gram m ars an abstract list of these prepositions and of the cases they govern N o this is an abstract work a barren task We shall take them we shall grasp these prepositions living ; as living as the idea of which they are the e m b od i ment as living as the action of which they translate a phase ; as living as the obj ect upon which they rest as living i n ﬁne as the organism of the phrases of which they form part The preposition will be learn t in the phrase and by the phrase '

”

Will this assimilation be swift and will it be easy ? Will it be swift ? At the end of the tenth lesson the pupil Wil l kn ow them al l At the end of the twentieth he will make use of them with the same ease and the same surety as a pro He will know them not in their d efi n i fe ss i onal philolog i st — — ion this i s impossible but in their sense or inner value t almost as one knows one s own pe rsonality without being able to define it Will this assimilation be easy ? It will be as easy —I will — say as instant aneous as the conception itself of the relation ships they express and if these relationships are stamped on the mind this assimilation will be equally stamped upon the mind and will operate automatically This will be found d i i cul t y o u think ? P ossibly for those who treat the preposition as a pure sign an abstract sign a sign deprived of its idea In this condition I believe it to be not only difficult but impossible C ount indeed the move ments of the lips and tongue required from your pupil to learn these fifteen or twenty unfortunate syllables ; and by the caricatures w hi ch usually grin at you from th is wretched page of the school gram mar you may judge both of t h e weariness of the pupil and of the uselessness of the labours always to be recommen ced because always fruitless —with which he must periodically toil i n this ungrateful field “

’

ﬂ

INTUITIV E

U S E O F T H E P RE PO S ITI O

27 1

Will it be easy ? y o u ask We answer After the ﬁrst week the preposition will b e part of the very thought of our pupil and it will be at the tip of his tongue as certainly as it is in his mind It needs the heavy bandages of prej udice to prevent the reading of this conclusion in the mere state ment of the premisses .

ﬂ

In those languages which have no declension the preposi tion exercises no inﬂuence on the form of its complement O n the other hand in the languages which have preserved the in e ction it compels its complemen t to take a pa rticular and determinate caseending We have previously given the explanation of t his doubl e representation of the relationships Whether this fact be d ue to the cause indicated or whether it be the consequence of a real relationship of subordination the result in practice is the same ; we may say that the pre position go v erns the case in a similar manner to the verb ,

”

We have spoken of the relationships that the verb sustains with its complem ents we have mentioned how the mind goes from the one to the other conceives the o n e in and by the other Th e same theory entirely applies to the case before us It applies to it even more directly than to the ﬁrst case In point of fact the relationship contained withi n the ordinary verb is found therein in a latent state ; it is enveloped therein and is div i ned rather than seen —P or ter appr op i nq uo O n the other hand this relationship becomes so to speak visible and tangible in the body of the preposition which is it its own particular expression —A d p or t am p er S pecial sign The play or the action of the preposition on its com veni o plement is learnt therefore li ke the rest by force of practice a practice direct and constant from which in good time springs ” “ forth Intuition The rule is the eggshell destined to disappear as soon as the life shall have emerged ,

TH E

PR E FI X

There yet remains for us to speak of one term which by its form and its nature must be considered as closely related to the preposition perhaps it is e v en nothing else than this ,

G RAM MAR

27 2

preposition momentarily disguised We refer to the preﬁx In t h e greater number of the E uropean languages the preﬁ x plays but a very minor p art G erman alone puts it par t i cu l ar l y forward and accords it a S peci al and independent position in the sentence It is therefore i n this language that it is best studied .

The prefix is the S ign of a S ign it is the instigator or if you will the prelude to another S ign It calls for it provokes either a f or te of the voice or a gesture of the hand com mon ly both which begin the si gn i fication of the verb or which finish i t Ich will die Thur auf machen Ich mache die Th ii r auf ,

In these two sentences the hand and the v oice aid on e may say the word auf the on e by the spontaneous movement the other by a special accent the two dictated by instinct or rather commanded by the idea This prefi x is there fore really the S ign of a S ign As s uch it i s in the true sense of “ the word i n d efi n abl e It is a something that a b ook wi l l always be powerless to explain The more the subj ect is ex pounded the less you are likely to comprehend A n a uf ver zer are S igns so essentially abstract so general that they no longer have any appreciable limits There e xist no other terms more general that are capable of circum scribing them that is of defining them They are verily i n d efi n abl e There is nothing but a gesture or a modulation of the voice that can render them They do not represent a word but the fragment of a word and of that the most intimate the most subj ective the most personal part of the word namely ” ” “ “ the ac cent and in the accent the intonation There are therefore only two m ean s of m anifesting the inner S i gni fi ca tion of the pr efi x—the tone of the v oice and the gesture of the hand ,

, ,

Which is the method that has recour se to these two means and which recommends them ? Is it that which is based upon the principle that a language can be learnt without a m aster or which condemns you to pick out this lan guage piecemeal from a dictionary where it i s not cannot be and never wi ll be ? Try it and see The G erman language possesses about a dozen of t hese terms Well these twel v e syllables alone constitute an ,

G RA M MAR

27 4

orrectly ex press and under stand the l as t thousand B ut o n the other hand e xperience has ab undantly sho w n us that he who has gone through the first two thousan d of our themes in G reek or G erm an is then perfectly able to e xpre ss and understand the other two thousand It i s a remarkable fact that the pupil s who have studied with us i n G reek even the fi r st eighty themes of our S eri es of the S hepherd find themselves all at on ce able t o unde r s tand the G reek authors at fir st sight while a pe rson who has gone through the same themes in French is yet unable to d eci pher thoroughly even the easiest of the French w riters To what is thi s due ? E vidently to the d i ff eren ce in the constitution of the two l anguages could

The constitution of a l an guage d epends in g reat measur e upon the p ar t t o be played therein by the prefix O ur eighty themes r epresent a total of two thou sand phrases N ow these two thousand phras es inasmuch as they express th e most elementary situations movements and acts of l i fe must con tai n or v ery nearly so all t h e roots of the lan gu age They contai n b esides and neces sarily all the pre fi xe s—the prefixes w edded to the roots and forming with them the greater part of the all ian ces and co mbinations o f which they are ca pable Let the art of teaching make of t h i s r aw material the sa me us e that Nature kn ows h ow to make and the phenomenon which we have just stated wi ll ex plai n itself In fact i n the course of thes e eighty themes the pupil cer t ai nl y h as t h e oppor t un i t y of fa m ili aris i ng hims e l f with the two essential and cons tituent elements of the language ; he very s oon finds h imself able t o work upon this mate ri al by himself and from it form new combination s capable of express i n g the res t of his o wn individuality S o much sai d how are we b es t t o teach the use of the pr efix ? .

‘

The pre ﬁ x let us r emembe r is a S ign whi ch provokes either a raisi ng of the tone o f v oice or a ge sture of the hand both of them for the purpose of eith er commencing the signiﬁcation o f the v erb or of completing it Ich drehe d en G riff um Ich wil l die Th ii r auf machen as in E n g li sh I tur n the handle r ound I will pull the d oor to ,

NQU E S T

O F TH E PRE FIX

27 5

thus the prefix like the preposition is part and verb As such it will partake with the verb in the ruling position accorded by us t o the verb in the sen tence B ut it is n ot onl y in our written system that the verb occupies a privileged place ; i t is a bove all m the oral e x pres sion of the lesson and of its sentences The prefix marchi n g always S ide by side with the v erb wil l S hare the same ad van tages it will be given forth proclaimed separately al ong with the verb or as part of the verb and we shall take pains t o define it separately with a gesture o f the hand or an emphasis of the v oice That is our manner of te aching or of translating th e prefix O ur elementary S eries of the S hepherd as we have said contains two thousand sentences ; this alone therefore o ff ers us two thousand opportun ities of producing this translation of the prefix by accent or gesture Worked upon in this manner does the prefix require many weeks to be assimilated by the mind ? Will its v irt ue and its inner sense long escape the intuitive perception of the scholar ? C onsidered parce l of the

Ha v e you n ever wondered how it is that the G erman child manages t o solve the twelve formidable enigmas set to him continually and in rivalry with each other by the twelve S phin x es which reign as autocrats over his mother ton gue ? O bserve him attentively and you will see that accent and gesture are the only interpreters to which he h as recourse “ ” gesture which points or figures the actio n ; and accent which imprints upon it a definite charact er The constitution of our series the form of our lessons our mode o f teaching all permit us not only to practise th e prefix as N ature prac t ises it, but t o practise it even better than N ature can do ,

G RA M MAR

27 6

S TU DY O F TH E S E N T E N C O N S TR U CTI O N

TW O

ORTS

1 7 4 ,

O N STR U CTI O N—NA T U RA L OR D E R OR D E R

L O G I CA L

A ND

The material s are now all before us properly trimmed into Two S hape ; we ha v e nothing furt her to do but construct styles o ff er themsel ves t o us the antique style and the modern style Will our met hod adapt itsel f better to one than to the other of them or will it accommodate itself equal ly well to both Let us see ﬁrst in what each of these two constructi ons consists ,

In the very ancient languages every term employed to com l w e t e another ter m a s placed before this other Instead of p “ “ saying for instance upon the table they said the table upon The modern languages still present certain vestiges “ of this archaic construction In E nglis h we h ave thereon ” thereby therein & c and in Frenc h th e words l a dessus l abas l adedans & c ar e comp osed according to this rule It is this ideal which t o a considerable e xt ent governs the Latin sentence The Roman said Ad port am per go To the door I go and not I go to the door F ergo ad portam Here then we ha v e the antique order : I call it the ” natur al order It is in fact more natura l than the other It begins by the determinate to ﬁnish by the indeterminate C onsequently the e xpression remains concrete from t h e b e ginning to the end G reek according t o this rule is not as ancient in its method of construction as Latin Its con st r uc tion is almost that of modern lan guages If the verb is loaded with several complements the order to be followed in the distribution of these complements is that presented by our general table of declensions Write down .

”

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G RAM MAR

27 s

as G erman ( and to a minor extent E nglish ) S hould possess and in fact do possess a construction of thei r o wn G erman presents four species of e x pressio n I Those in which the v erb h as either n o prefix at all or in which it is welded thereto as an inseparable prefi x Ich offne die Th ii r E r zerbricht Holz In this case the sentence is constructed according t o t h e logica o rder 2 The ph rases in which the v erb carries a separable prefix Ich mache die Thur auf ,

In this case the two parts are separated and enclose be t ween them as in a frame all the complements of the v erb Regarded closely it i s the logical order which presides o v er this con ” stru ction In reality auf is nothing else than a deter; “ “ mache as in E nglish I pull the drawer m i n at i ve of ” “ I lift the jug up out l The phrases which are commanded by an enc itic verb 3 ,

Ich will —die Th

Versuchen

r auf — machen z udie Th ii r aufmachen

Sie

There are in this case two verbs in the phrase and all the complements are enclosed or enfra m ed between them This form is a compromise between the antique construction and the modern constru ction The enclitic is in the place which it S hould o ccupy in a modern sentence but the second verb ” “ auf machen is preceded by its complement die Th ii r The phrases which occur introduced by a conj unction 4 ,

“

”

Wenn ich die Thur aufmache Wenn ich die Th ii r auf machen wi ll .

These constructions partake more o f the antique than o f the modern form In the above phrase will is preceded ” “ “ by its complement auf machen and aufmachen is pre “ ceded by its complement die Thur The entire phrase is enframed between the conj unction wenn and that of the two verbs which has a personal form Ich will .

”

These are the four types of con st r uct l on which a G erman sentence can present If we add to these four that in which some complement usurps the place of the subj ect or in which .

C O N S T RU CTI O

BY THE C L AS S I CA L PRO CE S S

279

this subject leaps by way of the verb to r eestabli sh the balance as Die Th ii r will ich auf machen we S hall have e xhausted all that we have here to say upon the construction of G erman ,

III

P R A CTI CA L

UD Y O F TH E C O NSTR U C TI O N I N M O D E RN F OR E I G N L A N G U A G E

AN A

N C I E NT OR

We have j ust seen that the Latin phrase 1s constructed in a d iff erent form to the French or E ngli sh phras e and the G erman phras e diff erently to either of these two types The man therefore who has never S poken any other language than say E nglis h or French is incapable of constructing pro perly a single phras e in either Latin or G erm an even if he is in possession o f al l the elements of those languages Con sequently if he wishes to learn one of those languages what is required of h i m is that h e S hould study the construction of the phrase in this language itself S o far as regards our m other tongue each of us has learnt the construction directly while learning to think and we apply it intui tively O ur own lan guage is not therefore the place to study it at least with th e v i ew of i t s pra ctical application Hence the problem ln question may be formulated as follows — A pupil 1 s accustomed to think “ and to spe ak according to the logical order to what exer cise m ust he submit himself in order to learn to think and to speak with the same facility in a foreign language i n which ” “ the phrase is constructed according to the natural order ? The classical school possesses or believ es it possesses a solu tion to this problem ; our method pro poses a new solution Let us compare them ,

Constr ucti on by t h e

or d i nar y

o ss ce r p

We will suppose that the lesson to be gi v en in class i s of the E cl ogues of Virgil Ti t y r e tu pat ul ae r ecub an s sub tegmine fagi S i l vest r e m tenui musam m edi t ar i s aven a N os patri ae ﬁnes et dulcia l i n q ui m us arva N os pat r i am f ugi m us tu Ti t y r e l en t us in umbr a For m os am r eson ar e doces A m ar yl l id a silvas ,

G RAM MAR

2 80

The classical school brutally uproots the sentence from its surroundings to submit it to a species of anatomical dissection It breaks it up wi t hout pity or at least pulls it to pieces like a child its toy ; then , replacing its elements in the logical order makes therefro m a modern phrase Th i s is W hat is called construction .

Ti t y r e, tu r e cuban s sub tegmine fagi pat ul ae, M ed i t ar i s musam S il ve st r em avena tenui, N os li n q ui m us ﬁnes patri ae et arva dulcia ; Nos f ugi m us pat r i am tu, Ti t y r e, l en t us in umbra, D oces silves r e s on ar e A m ar yl l i d a for m o sam .

To teach the a ntique construction the school destroys it makes it disappear and substitutes in its place the modern construction I ask if this is really the means t o familiarise the mind with the Latin construction ? I ask how many years are needed to be able by this strange proceeding to follo w intui t ively the natural order -to apply intuitively the antique form of construction ? Instead of bringing the logical order back into the nat ural order you force the natural order into the form of the logical order Were ever means and end more contradictory ? A s we l l might one as some one some wher e has said practise bala n cing a chair on the tip of one s nose in order t o strengthen the arms ,

’

In thus reading Latin the wrong way round in speak ing it in writing it the wr ong way round I do nothing but weave the web of P enelope It is quite evident that by so doing I shall never be able to thoroughly learn this language which is nevertheless one of the easiest of all languages e v er spoken N ay further the more I read it o n the face of the earth the more I speak it the more I write it in this way the less shall I know of it For observe between my thought and the antique form of this thought you again place an intermediary I am obliged to reach the antique construction by way of the modern construction You condemn me to construct the natural order out of the logica l order which is as much as to say to manufacture light out of darkness Instead of clear ing away all obstacles which might hinder my thought from going straight to its expression you vastly increase them N o ! ne v er—however much I work I S hould never kno w Latin ; this language would never become for me a natural ,

G RAM MAR

2 82

of it ; and it is thence as from a focus that the P romethean S park sprin gs forth to animate its various members an d com l m nt s e With us the phrase never appears in the s ate of a e t p corpse and a corpse moreover cut up into pieces as in the word for word or i nterli near translations of the classical school ,

‘

And nevertheless all is distinct in our sentence It is a team in which the various guiding reins never get mixed We owe this advantage t o the ele vated and ﬁrm seat in which ” we have been a ble t o place our char iotee r the verb The ﬁrst part we think all will confess is gained : the master has made his class th ink in Latin ; he has initiated them into t h e secret of the antique construction ; he has familiarised them with what we have termed the natural order of the words M ore than this the scholar has without know ing it deserted the logical ord er—the form to which his thoughts are habituated —to follow the natural order a form contrary to his habits of thought A few more exercises and the pupil will no more be able to construct hi s sente nces otherwise than could the ancients themselves He will not seek for the a ntique construction ; he will apply it by instinct .

“

’

From t h e first series you will lead h i m to the second from the second you will conduct h i m t o the third and when all the c omplements possible have found O pportunity to manifest themselves and to play their part aro und the verb when the pupil possesses that basis of t h3e lan guage of whi ch we have so oft en spoken —then open V 1r gi l and go i ng from sentence to sentence sow the v erbs ( or their substitutes) first From this seed will ripen the b r illiant harvest so highly prized Your schol ars shall gather it sheaf by sheaf and this book Virgil will no S hall be for th em no mor e a barren field ” longer be for them what he was for us a dead body Ti t yr e tu pat ul ae r ecub an s sub tegmin e fagi r ecuban s S il vest r e m tenui musam m e d i t ar i s aven a m ed i t ari s Nos patri ae fines et dulcia l i n q ui m us arv a l i nq ui m us nos f ugim us pat r i am fugi m us r e l en t us in umbra Tu T i t l n t u s) e y ( for m os am r es on ar e doces A m ar yl l id a silvas r e s onat e ,

The classic issues absolutely intact from this Operation It is neither mutilated nor violated by the book in a horrible word forword transla tion nor is it disorganised nor massacred by a wordines s without shame and a knowledge without taste .

RE ADIN G O F THE C LASS I CS

T HE

2 83

The smallest blemis h the slightest scratch of the sacred text is S pared The length of the typographical line is the sole thing we do not consider ourselves bound to respect It cannot be here a question of v erse When the pupil h as heard the text he wil l be able to Open the or d in ary edition and therein scan the syll abl es a t will W e would however point out that even the V er si ﬁ cat i on is only deranged typo graphically I t must of course be thoroughly understood that the read ing of the classics only comes af ter the study of the series proper O n e is the necess ary con di tion O f the other ; it pre pares for it as the expression of the facts of ordinary life prepares the chil d for the immediate and ﬂuent reading of the boo ks of h i s mothertongue He wh o passes from the grammar direct t o the literary maste rpiece is forced to have recourse to the anatomical dissection commonly known as “construing or w ord for word translation ,

”

The solution o f t h e problem whi ch we have presented is the natural product of the general mechanism O f our system—a product indeed S O natural that one would hardly even suspect that there is here a formidable di ffi culty vanquished Th i s solution is as it were the resultant of all the principles which lie at the root of the system It follows from the central idea of the series from their inner construction from their written and spoken form It is the immediate corollary O f the axiom which has raised the verb t o the ﬁr st rank in the phrase This verb which allows the sentence to fold itself up to gather itself together to contract itself to force itself into one single term afterwards to e xpand itself to make all the various complements that it encloses S pring forth —the verb plays in the sentence a part that is not without analogy with that O f the heart in the human body It is this double movement of contraction and expansion which our method O f teaching can enable the sentence to make that explains the easy triumphs o f our method as it e xplains elsewhere the miracles of life N O matter what lan guage we take or under what form a ph r ase occurs if there i s a verb in this phrase and if there are complements these complements must come either before or after the verb We hav e S hown that our process accommodates itself as wel l It is therefore applicable t o all t o the one as to the other l anguages ,

, .

G RAMMAR

2 84

TH E M O

DAL X IV

C A S S I F I CA T I

P H RA S E S .

A ND

D eﬁ n i ti on of th e m od al p h r ase Th ei r

P R A C TI C E

—I t

s co sti tuent el em ents

r el at i ons

ﬂ

When in our schooldays we dealt with phrases such as the following ,

I think you are crying I think that he is reading I think that he has read

C redo te er e , Credo il l um leger e, C redo i l l um l e gi sse ,

crois q ue vous pleurez , crois qu il l i t e j e crois qu il a l u j “ we dealt with modal phrases When we re cited th e rules of S uad eo tibi ut — legas f Timeo n e r oece t o r ve n i at p p C ave n o cadas D i gn us est qui i m per et ’

’

—

we were still elaboratin g modal phrases Various writers have special names for these syntactical forms The modern grammars usually content themselves by attempting a rule or a d e ﬁn i t i O n of what is u n derstood by the ” “ word subj unctive and refer for particular cases to the dic A treatise therefore remains to be written which t i on ar i es S hould comprise the Complete series of the locu t ions analogous to those j ust given and which would classify them according to a rational principle .

The modal phrase is always composed of two d istinct parts each part with its own verb but one of them subordinate to the other The part which governs the other usually

G RAMMAR

2 86

but a vain symmetry We have already stated what con fusion may be en gen d ere d by a conception so narro w a startingpoint S O badly chosen as this The ordinary grammar draws up at once and a p r i or i ” “ the system of conjugations of subordin ate m oods ; then a “ hundred pages or so later it will treat of modal or sub j unctive phrases These phrases are di vided into some ten groups and each group is based upon one of the forms of the pre established conj ugation The modal phrase is thus subor d i n at ed to a form of conj ugation ; the cause is subordinated to the e ff ect resulting in a wandering round and round with the fullest conﬁdence in the most perfect of vicious circles Hence these perpetual contraventions of rules and these inter minable lists of exceptions .

‘

”

‘

process will be the exact reverse of that adopted by the classic school Where ind eed does the ﬁrst cause of the subordinate moods resid e ? Is it not in the idea e x pressed by the modal phrase ? Is it not the modal phrase which “governs ” in one place the subjunctive i n another place the conditional els ewhere the imperative or the supine ? We S hall commence then not by arranging the inﬂections in paragraphs but by classifying the modal phrases We shall then determine the mood to which each o f our established classes corresponds It may very well be that a single form serves t w o di ff erent moods If so we shall state the fact we shall explain it if we can but we shall guard Ourselves from distort ing it by any attempt to reduce two into one It may equally happen that our moods thus deduced do not agree either as to their n umber or as to their form with those of the usual grammars We S h all not attempt to reconcile the two systems ; the starting point being chan ged the destina tion will also be changed ur

;

‘

”

O r d i nar y pr acti ce of th e m od al p h r ases m ood s— O ar p r ocess

and

th e

The moods once established and organised it remains for us to e x erci se them to practise them How does the classical school acquit itself o f th i s task ? It places before the pupil eight or nine types of modal e xpressions ; then dictating to “ Y ou are t o make hi m a set of detached phrases says to him e ach O f these phrases into one of the types consecrated in ,

E RRO RS O F TH E O RDINARY P RACTI C E

2 87

your grammar and you will do this in such a way t hat your phras e shall agr ee e xactly with its model Al ways the same process and always the sa me faul t s 1 This work 1 s wr i tt en in stead of being oral 2 An intermediary is placed be tween the idea and its ,

â&#x20AC;?

expr e ss mn

The intellectual operat ion is mechanical instead of be ing intuitive The multifold criticisms of which this process has been the o bject in previous chapters will absol v e us fro m insisting here upon the fundamental vice which condemns it t o utter barr en ness A s t o our own process we have set it forth at length in the chapter upon enclitic phras es To this chapter we refer the reader 3

AN N E X E S

RO LLA RI E S O F TH E S Y S TE M

A N D CO

TH E

LLA RI E S

C O RO

ANN E X E S AN D

288

O RTH O G RA P H Y

S PE L L I N G

rthography has for i t s object the written representation of the terms of a language The greater portion of these terms are formed of two distinct parts namely an invariable ele ment named the radicle and a variabl e element term ed the “inﬂection or termination The radicle can only be learnt by the eye To read and read to write and write over and over again that is to look at or retrace by the eye the r epr e se n t at i o n of speech these are the sole means of learning the S pelling of this ﬁrst part of the words The termination is a more or less conventional thing A S such it is susceptible of rules an d comes under the scope of the grammar .

”

the knowle d ge of orthography in its t wo elements be < acquired directly by the pr act i ce e f our method ? This pro perty of the system is too evident to all for there to be any need for us to stop to again demonstrate it The method embracing each lan guage in the totality o f its term s and its expressions both the eye and the hand will have the opportunity of becoming familiarised with the radicle of all the terms which form part of it ; and this taking posses sion of the roots wil l be as swift as it is easy For e xample ” “ when the theme Open the door has been fully elaborated in the manner we have explained it is absolutely impossible ” that the spelling of th e word door should not thereafter be engraved for ever on the pupil s memory or that the fancy should take him to write this radicle otherwise than as so Often encountered in the course O f the lesson Al l the ad van tages which the method can o ffer for the study O f languages it also o er s for the learning of the spelling either O f a foreign language or O f the mothertongue C an

ﬂ

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“

ANN E X E S AND

2 90

CO RO

L LARI E S

All these things w ritten down will have for him the attraction o f a revelation Is it not ind eed the progressive revelatio n o f his individuality ? He sees his mother or his nurse light the fire draw water from the S pring , sweep up wash dust the room : let him read the story of the pump or the well and that of the washing tub He sees or S hould see his father or s ome of the m en on the farm chopping wood haymaki ng reaping gar d ening d 1 iving ; let him read the story of the w oodman the haymaker the reape r the gardener the dray man 840 He sees or shou l d see living around him a cat a flock of sheep some horses fowls in the farmyard birds b ees ing beetles butterflies flowers trees all sorts of things ; y open before h i m the history of the rodents the quadrupeds the birds the insects the plants and there will be no lack of B ut what i n t e 1 es t S O much for the material of the b O Ok form S hall we adopt ? .

ﬂ

First of all each reading lesson must have a determined len gt h a length calculated u pon the e ff ort that can be sus t ai n ed by a frail intelligence w ithout fatigue ce E xperien has demonst rated to us that a lesson of twenty to thirty sen t en ce s is the ordinary measure of t h e e o r t of the little child N ext w hat typographic form are we to give to t his lesson ? We could write the sentences one after the other j ust as they e ome without troubling ou r s el ves eith er about their beginning O r their end so that if the S i z e of page were large enough the w hole might be given o n a single line O r we may write down these sentences one beneath the othe1 upon sep arate lines so that the eye not only distinguishes them withou t e ffort bu t can embrace them in one look and grasp them at a glance We have to choose between these two types To which O f the two will ped agogy give the preference ? I imagine to th a t which promise s to smooth and thereby to S horte n the path of the scholar For this reason it is the second of these we shal l The book sought is therefore found to be ide ntic al wit h t ake that of our elementary series identical both as regards mate rial and form O ur method therefore really carries hidden w i t hin it a meth o d of teaching readi n g —a method as simple an d easy as i s its me t hod O f teaching fo reig n lan guages and ractised in e x actly the same way p ,

‘

if i nstead of the usual A B C books —books as abstract — o b as they are arbitrary an d the mechanical alpha ets of t day A nd

T HE S E RI E S RE A D I N G LE S S O N S ;

were substitu t ed a truly rational alphabet an alphabet in which e ach letter speaks and itself tells i t s origin name and virtue and this alphabet is possible because we ourselves use it ( then the great task of teaching reading will be the work of a ther ( with a phone t ic spelli n g) a game of a f e w weeks or r a few d ay s B etter even than this the ch ild will not l ear n to r ead he will read as he speaks by instinct spontaneously And this is as it should be i ntuitively D oubtless the ey e will not be a ble to dispense with a cert ai n apprenticeship YV h en the child ﬁrst walks alone he gropes prudently to feel the ground under h i s feet When he reads for the ﬁrst time the eye will att ack each word slowly with circumspection but he will not spell the words—h e wil l read he will not syllabify—h e will read direct ; he will not gather part of an idea by gathering part of a word —h e will gather the entire idea by grasping the entire word Do we ever see our scholars when learni n g G reek amusing ” ‘ -themselves by spelling or a b abbi n g the word s ? Whe n shall w e rid Schoolwork entirely of this absurd this i d iotic habit of putting the child everyw h ere and gratuitously t o pu zz le his little brain over abstractions ? For regarded care fully spelling and dividing words into syllables are operation s really as abstract as the calculation of the binomial theorem or the discussion of an analytic formula ,

{

’

Y es with our S eries reading becomes like the rest a m ere game so much so indeed that the children know how to read without ever having learnt The child s ﬁrst lesson of reading is then always a lan guage— lesson He reads that which he has j ust heard that which he perceives directly that which he has j ust spoken himself ; h e reads the speech h e has j ust as simi lated the words which are still vibrating in his ear He does not guess he does n o t decipher upon each line one or several l ogogriphs puzzles i n words 5 he r ecogni ses quite naturally the expression of his thought This was the method of the G reeks who all knew how to read even the S laves It is in certain parts of G ermany (and of E ngland ) the present m ethod The scholar in G ermany does not spell does not syllabify —h e reads To morrow if we would all our school -children could do the same S imply let th e school do away w it h i t s al ph ab et i cal abstractions ,

’

Th e q u est i o n

w o1 k s

the

al ph ab et

w i l l b e m or e

full y

expl ai n e d

ot h er

ANN E XES AN D

29 2

CO RO

III

DR W A

— I TS N

R E LA TI O N

LLARI E S

L A N G UA G E — TH E S E RI E S

L U ST RA TE D

Let us

shake for the last time the tree of our ling ui s tic system perhaps there may fal l from it yet another forgott en fruit E ach o f our themes forms a thoroughly determinate whole its totality presents what is termed a picture and may if desired be rep r oduced otherwise than by writing If we think of it it is a subj ect ready prep ar ed for drawin g N o object 1 s forgotten 1 n our series and the gene ral situations o f animals or o f things are found therein faithfully retraced Why could we not attempt i n a s eries of S ketc hes to reveal to the child the fundamental generating s ubstantial l ines of al l beings or obj ects mentioned therein as they a n se upon the scene in the lessons of the series ? The art of teaching drawing appears to us to be at exactly t h e same point as the art of teaching language There exis t s as yet no m e thod of teaching drawing which doe s n ot repro d uce the same err0 1 s as those o f the p1 es en t gr am m ai s E very on e o f the m b e gins by abstr ction To commence by lines squares geomet r ical ﬁg ures is to commence by a bstra e “ spell the form ; it is to excl ude intuition t o t ion ; i t is to prevent inspiration .

”

To commence by the nose the eyes t h e e ar s is aga i n to begin by abstraction If it i s not spelling the form o f the ” “ object it is syllabifying it B eginning by the head is a supe rior process to the two p receding The pupil no longer works altogether u pon the abstract ; and the teacher i f h e is clever can provoke intuition can awaken inspiration B ut whatever he may do this head is par t only of a whole —i t is not a true whole “ To read isolated words is not really to read and to “ draw parts of objects or isola t ed obj ects is not really to draw Tha t a thing may b e rightly drawn it must bear th e shade of the obj ects t hat s ur 1 oun d i t ; i t must be li mited deﬁned by these objects We only l eally re ad when we enounce a complete phrase we can only really draw when we reproduce that which corresponds to the phrase namely “a group ‘

”

ANN E X E S AND

TH E

M E N E C E S SA RY

CO RO LLARI E S

LE A RN

L A N G UA G E

The arena is prepared its limits defined the obstacles are al l numbered the difficulties estimated What time w ill be required by a runner of average force t o reach or pass th e goal ? In other words how many months are necessary to learn a language by m eans of our method ? To learn a lan guage is as we have said to translate one s o wn individuality into this language O ur complete series represents the expression of a strong human individuality of about fifteen years of age E very calculation taken we have found that our o wn may be written within a book of 4 0 0 0 pages divided into fifty or sixty chapters each presenting th e development of a general series consisting of from fifty to eighty separate themes o r e x ercises E ach of these themes fi ve sentences contains on an average twenty The complete expression of our individuality will therefore be represented by 2 5 times 4 0 0 0 or sentences O n an average our pupils as similate five themes in an ho ur ; 4 0 0 0 divided by 5 gives the quotient 8 0 0 It is therefore 8 0 0 hours that is required for the co m plete study of a language Le t us say 9 0 0 to have s omething i n hand and t o allow for the unforeseen ,

’

hundred hours spread over the entire year or 3 6 0 days reduces itself to two hours an d a half a day or an hour and a quarter in the morning and an hour and a quarter in the afternoon The complete study of a language within the year is therefore an easy task N i n e hundred hours spread over si x months that is over 1 8 0 days is equal t o five hours a d ay say 2 5 hours in the morning and the same in the after Whoever therefore can and will give up fi v e hours n oon a day to the study of a language will with certainty have a ssimilated the la n gu age at t h e end of si x months An objection will here be made t o us : let us at once deal I S it possible to assimilate Five times 5 are 2 5 w ith it twentyfi ve pages of a foreign langu age per day ? I S it even possible for them to be given as lessons ? N ine

In the chapter upon The C onstruction of t h e S ystem we endeavoured to bring into light a property of our series which is a direct and emphatic reply to t h e obj ection quoted We .

THE

TI M E N E CE S S ARY

29 5

will recapitulate it A single series —t h at of the quadruped for example —gives us possession of the first basis o f a language ” “ that which m ay be ter m ed its substance The second series rests upon the first and borrows therefrom twothirds of its expressions The third is fed in the same proportion at th e expens e of the two first and so on for the others The same t erms are repeated a gain and again i ndefinitely from one S entence to another sentence f r om one ai m to another aim f r om one theme to another theme from one series to another s er 1es ,

At t h e end of the first ser1 es the pupil therefore , finds him self i n p os sessi on of a crowd of expressions which he has onl y to apply in t h e second the study of the second will facilitate yet more that of the third and of the following ones At the end of the first month our pupils are generally able to receive and assi mi late up to twelve exercises i n the hour; From the second month for ward the p upil therefore can finish his daily task in t w o hours As regards t h e teacher it 1S q u1t e evident that he requires no more time to give t han the pupil needs to learn the lessons V e must not forget moreover that the successive ac q uisition ‘ of the lessons d ay by day facilitates the t eacher s task and abridges it But the writing ? Where will the pupil find time to write out the twenty -fi ve p ages a day ? ,

“

’

The speech of man we h ave said is continuous O ur entire life has therefore been spoken by us B ut who of us h as written it out in all its details ? To know our native language ; t h e foreigner is no more bound than we are ourselves to write out the hundred thousand sentences which express our i n d i vi dual ity He w ill write as many o f them as he can —the more the better The essential part however is that he should speak the m al l Here we may parenthetically remark that of our 4 0 0 0 themes 2 0 0 0 or more will appertain to science properly so called Have we not deﬁned our system as the sciences by the lan guages and the languages by the sciences ? C onsequently w ith our system and by reason of it and it alone the time given to languages is not stolen from the sciences It is as m uch given to t h em indeed as to the langu ages themselve s B y our system pupils le arn the sciences and obtain the lan gu ages into the bargain ,

”

2 96

C O RO LLARI E S

ANN E XE S AN D ‘

N in e hundred hours ! This i s the time nece ssar y to assi m il at e the entire series that is to say the objective language But th is language d oes not constitute the whole of language Alo n gside or above t h e series there is the subj ective lan guage there al so is t h e ﬁ gurative language an d there is the grammar W i ll it b e necessary to devote special and supple mentary hours to the study of these three parts We w ill refer t h e reader to the chapte r s in which they hav e been tr eated in full We have shown how far the ﬁ gurativ e language is attached t o and han gs so to S peak upon the t heme s of the series ; h ow the relative ph rase enclitic or o ther is taught with an d by t h e sam e themes l astly how th e grammar is exercised upon them and is applied to them without oppos ing or hinde r ing their development ,

’

‘

T he

ﬁgurative l anguage slips int o the in t erval be tween t h e s eries ; the relative phrase ﬁlls up the interval between t h e S entences ; t h e grammar co m mands and guides the w h ole The obj ectivee l an guage under the form of t h e series repl e sents a penetrab l e body having the pi oper t y of aggregating others to itself w ithout 1n cr easi ng its volume N ine hun ch ed hours ! I r epeat th e study of a lan guage requires 9 0 0 hours W h et h er a person h ave or not what is c alled t h e gift for langu age s ( and each o f us receives it o n b ei n g b or n ) there is the tot al amount o f time which it is necessary to de vote t o it T h ere we have the price t h e exact price of a langu age He w i l l r appear an d will be reputed to be the most clever and t h e most gifted who is able the soones t t o invest the capital required .

“

”

‘

Fro m t h e defensive we will pass to the off ensive In t h e first place what m ust we think of those teachers of languages wh o engage to include an entire language in ninety pages to teach it to you by opening t heir mouths ninety times to make you assimilate it by honouring you w ith forty five visits or to deliver it to you complete on 1 ecei pt of the fiftieth ticket ? J ustice con d e mns for cheating O ur judgment will be brief persons less qualified for it th an these He who sells a piece of goods that h e knows h e can not d eliver is not an honest m an A langu age is a whole worl d to conquer N ow no one can conquer a worl d by e x ecuting haphazard a dozen m arches and a couple of do z en countermarch es .

N ext

l et

us j u d ge the o fﬁ cial schol astic programmes fro m

AN NE X E S

29 8

A N D CO

RO LL ARI E S

There can only h appen t o your schol ar what happe n ed t o ourselves H e will falsify his pronunciatio n pervert his accent fabricate vicious expressions and co n fi d i n g to the eye what should be confided to the ear he will perceive syllables but will alway s forget the thought in the lan guage he is studying and therefore try as long as he may he will n eve r prope rly assimilate i t We know besides; that th e virtue of fi rst impressions is that they are never eradi cated Thi s i s the point to which as regards langu ages personal work such a s i s inculcated by the ordinary sch ool at present leads .

”

‘

We shall be t ol d again : But we give up nine or ten years to c ontinue complete an d perfect our linguistic teaching Ten times 8 0 ar e exactly 8 0 0 hours Is n ot this your amount ? N o it i s not our amoun t In point of fact who ever doe s not within the space o f the four seasons o f one year m anage to learn practically all there is t o be learnt O f the basis of a lan guage will never learn it We have many of us studied Latin and G reek for ten y ears Who a m on g us is there who can be said to thoroughly know Latin and G reek ? N o ; it is not t h e amoun t we require } In ten years t h e public school should give us ten languages In this same time a child s nurse who should chan ge her situa tion each year would teach the bulk of her lang uage t en separate times ,

’

The e v olution of th e la n guagem ay be made to and ought fi— to follow that of the seasons While the year performs one revolutio n the child e xpresses all the phenomena which it unfolds successivel y before h i m And if from one d ay to t h e n ext he applies that is repeats while modifying and extending it ceaselessly the langu age which expresses his individuality of one d ay so also fro m on e year to the next he will r ecapi tul ate the lan guage t hat expresses his individuality o f a year That which the young child performs so e asily cannot be impossible to the adult ; and if as we ourselves did at B erlin at first he finds himself aft er a year s e ff ort less advanced th an the little child there can be little d oubt it is because h e is on t h e wrong road and what is not less certain is t h at if h e does not see fit to cha n ge his route he will not attain his a i m any m ore t h e second t h ear than h e did first In the e y second year t h e learner can recapitulate after the m anner of the ch il d a n d can enter into possession of his acqui sitions It is impo ss ibl e for him to recommence his campaign ,

‘

’

W O ME N T E ACHE RS

2 99

L ast and supreme objection : M an has n o t to learn lan u ges only the time given up to the study of language s a a n d g is lost for that of the sciences ,

In th e ord i nary system this is true but not with ours O n the contrary by the languages we teach the sciences an d by the sciences we teach the languages Who does not see in this syste m an immense simpliﬁcation of methods of teach ing ? In itself the thing is logi c al W e sh all try t o S how shortly that it is re alisable .

TH E T EA C H I

LA N G U A G E S B R O U G HT W I TH I N TH E R E A C H 4 L I N G U I S TI C A P TI T U D E S O F W O M E N A L L— O F

In the hands o f -a c l ever w orkm an even a bad tool som e times accomplishes wonders It has been remarked that the authors of m ethods otherwise defective e m ploy t hem always themselves with success It is right therefore, t o inquire whether our system which may be fruitful when practised by its author acts equally well when some other person attempts to apply it We have exposed in its entirety the secret of our process of teaching It is for the reader to j u d ge whether our directions are or are not easy to carry out .

And if we ar e further pressed to give o ur o w n Opi nion in this respect and to base it upon certain facts this is what our reply would be : In t h e first place it is o f course fully 11n d er st ood that th e composition the writing the arrangement o f the book itself remains entirely as given by the author I f in order to apply our system each teacher had to construct it for him or herself its application m ight as well be renounced at once W e have S poken Of the inherent di ffi culties of this kind of work ; no one knows them better than he who has spent a large p art of his life in overcoming them To impose a S imilar task u pon every teach er would be to d eclare the scheme impracticable at the very outset We s t art therefore with the assump t io n that this system is definitely constructe d and that the i n structor has onl y to apply it ,

We believe that we have d emonstrated that the pupil wh o has thoro ughl y assimilated one of o ur themes is i n a state t o .

ANN E X E S AND

3 00

C O RO

LLARIE S

able t o tea ch it i n his turn al mos t as well as oursel ves Remember once more th at they were little children w h o aided 11 s to translate our individuality in G erman a s afterwards i n E nglish an d in o t her tongues an d that we o w e the develop ment of our series to the simple workmen who ﬁgure as actors therein It was a plo ughman who told 11s the S eries of Tillin g the G round it was a shepherd who gave us the S eries of the S hepherd and a woodman who gave us t h at of the VV O O d m an “ W hos oever O ur reply theref ore to the question put is : knows how to speak a lan guage is capable o f teaching in thi s l anguage our E lementary S eries those which reproduce the ” basis of the l anguage be

‘

If this be so our meth od is likely t o open up a n ew care er: for the activity O f women It gives in fact into the hands o f women the whole elementary teaching of foreign languages Women have indeed a far greater aptitud e than men for this kind of teachi n g A woman s t o n gue is more subtle and m ore supple than that of man ; her ear more delicate her accent m ore pleasing and more pe n etrating ; and for children her d evotion 18 only eq11 al l e d by her patience In our own public and private cl ass es w e have always found that the girls assimilate a language (ancient or m odern ) m ucl r more quickly and much mor e correctly than the boys In the count ries where languages are most cul tivated it is al way s the woman who S peaks them best an d who k nows them most thoro ughly If she has n ot al ready outst ripped man in the teaching of languages th is is because O f the imperfection of t h e methods which are imp osed upon her Th e abstract is O ur method by combating and t h e b ugbear of childhood suppressing it every wh ere places ( or so at lea st it seems t o u s) t h e teaching of foreign languages wel l withi n the reach o f woman ‘

’

‘

’

”

’

‘

If our sy st em w h en practised by man is worth anything we ar e convinced that it wil l double its value o n the day th at t h e and the a pplication of it is u ndertake n by women teachers language of our new generation cannot but gain in purity in nobleness in elegance an d I might add in decency I f i t were permitted to us to chose for our method an I nterprete r and an apostle we should certainly chose a woman The practice of our system i s there fore wel l within t h e reach of every on e ‘

“

ANN E X E S AND

3 02

C O RO

LLARIE S

You have here everything that is n eeded for carving any statue you please You will now set to wo r k and carve from this block the statue of the E mperor of C hina whom y ou do not know and it must be a good likeness There you have exactly the task imposed u pon the Latinist w h o begins i n the studio of the classical school ; the grammar is the hammer chisel and square ; the dictionary is the block o f marble and the statue of the unknown E mperor of th e C elesti al E mpire represents the language to be construc t ed O n e need not feel astonished if the apprentice toils ten years ﬁfteen years twenty years al l his life without ever being able to bring about th e desired resemblance The pupil is co n ” “ d em n ed to recognise a thing which he has never seen to discover a language he has never heard What is required O f h im is to draw the language forth from his brain where it is not and never has been or from a book the dictionary where it may be found in much the same state as the M adonna of bo x W ill your disciple afte r Raphael in t h e ar t i s t s coloursuch a training ho wever long it may be have even learnt h o w to learn ? .

”

’

‘

To conclude Work which is solitary and purely personal will never produce an e ﬁi ci en t knowledge of a language We b ase this thesis upon a xioms or principles already thoroughly establi shed The receptive organ of lan guage is not the eye —i t is the ear But in order that the ear may receive speech m ust be produced ; therefore t o study a language it is necessary to have a master—that is a perso n who S peaks before the pupil E ach language has a pronunciation proper to itself ; eac h s en t e n ce h as its note eac h word its accent t hese three thin gs have their eff ect not upon the eye but upon the ear ; there fore to study a language a master is needed a person who pro n o un ce s and accentuates before the pupil The forms of things are presented to the intelligence by the eye but it is the ear to which is conﬁded the duty of trans m itting to the intelligence the sounds the words together w ith the ideas O f which they form the body ; therefore to — study a language we require a master that is a person whose mouth articulates the syllables and utters the sounds The written language that which is transmitted to the memory by th e organ of sight is grave n thereon with di th culty and the impression of it is ephemeral ; the S poken lan guage that communicated to the mind by the ear is graven .

A T E ACHE R

N E C E SS ARY

thereon instantaneously and the impression of it is almost i n e ďŹ aceab l e Th erefore once more to study a language w e require a masterâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;that is to say living speech whose vibratio n sh all set in motion the organ of though t itself ,

He who boasts of having assimilated a language without recourse to the S peech o f others either does not kno w this langu age or deceives himself Language is the connection of m ind to mind In order that it shall be something more than a mere abstraction lacking co nsistence it must be the direct and re al product of the intercourse of t wo or more minds ,

AUXILIARY

0 3 4

S E RI ES

P A RT F 0 U R TH TH E

TH E

S E RI E S

A U X ILIA RY

creations o f literature the sciences the trades the arts may become the material for fresh series We designate these by the general name of Au xiliary S eries They are useful but not indispensable for the k n owledge of a language They do not give the ﬁrs t basis of a language they presuppose i t They nourish it m aintain it ampl ify it complete i t —t h ey do not create it They are to the ordinary se ries what the heat of the sun is to the ﬁeld of corn ; they do not supply it but they ripen i t ,

S TUD Y O F TH E C LAS S I C S

3 06

Therefore e v ery literary work is capable of being d eco m pos ed into themes of a de t ermin ed length each one representing the development of a particular conception From this i t follows that every literary work can be transcribed under t h e form of one of our Linguistic S eries Therefore ﬁnally it m ay be treated e xactly as one of our series themselves is treated The scholar will as simil ate a book o f Virgil a bo ok of Homer a chapter of Herodotus a chapter of Tacitus exactly as he assimilates the S eri es o f the P loughman the S eries o f the P lant the S eries of the Insect ‘

But may i t not be said that to assimilate a literary work thus con ception by con ception sentence by sentence i s to d o over again the wo rk Of the author himself ? If o ur metho d renders this work possible it is really what we have cl aimed for i t —a veritable method for reading and thoroughly assimilat i ng the classical masterpieces And if a long with this it delivers in to the hands of the master the secret of rendering this assi milation as rapid as the e x position as instantaneous as speech I main ta i n o f the l esson itself that this meth od comes very ne ar to realising the ideal t o Which the teaching world aspires Its success will depend upon two things The mode o f transcription O f the classical work I The elaboration of the exercises f urnished by this tran 2 ,

scI

i pt i o n

We will describe or repeat how this double carried out

W 01 k

should be

Tr an s cr ip t i on

a cl ass i cal

work i nto l i ter at ure l essons

G iven

a classic al work to be studied 1 W e d ra w up ﬁrst of all a list of the d i ver se an d suc ce s s i ve c oncept ons of the author ; then dissecting detach i ng i these conceptio n s one fro m anothe r we form therefrom a ser1es of scenes or pictures that is of distinct lessons E ach of t hese themes is divided in i ts turn into its 2 se parate sentences and each s entence is placed on a lin e by i tself E ach sentence has a centre around which r t a i a v i t e ts 3 g v arious elements w hich is as it were its S O U L The soul is “ the verb or the term which takes the place of the verb Nve detach this verb from the sentence and place it in full .

‘

’

”

L ITE RATU RE L E S S O N S

O RG AN IS ATI O N O F

in a

y ie w

a e p

col u m n

arr an ged

‘

to the right -hand

0 3 7

ide of the

conception is capa ble of being stil l further sub divided ; it presents usually two or three distinct groups of ” “ sentences which form the va rious moments of this con “ We term these divisions steps paragraphs and ce t i o n ( ) p B et ween two we mark these stoppingplaces by the S ign consecutive steps of our t ex t we also leave a rather large r space than between two lines of the same group E ach

”

As is seen the arrangement O f our lite rary themes or lesson s is in every way similar to that of the ordinary series W e h a V e transcribed and lithographed under this form the greate r part of th e classical authors A bo ok of Virgil for in stance , “ gives us an average of a series O f seventy t h em es each having twentytwo to thirty sentences A book O f Homer furnishes “ thirty ﬁ ve to forty les sons The Ars P oetic a of Horace 1 yields thirty six -W e may point out that the G reek and Latin prose writers are already divided in the current editions i nto small chapters which us uall y correspond to our ow n d ivisions "

”

e In the same way that there is for the develo m nt of p 5 the v arious conceptions of the mind an average length so also there is an average length for the separate sentences and it is this that decides the si z e of page o f our t ranscription If this size be well chosen the greater number o f the sentences wil l go upon one line It is w ell to avoid double lines for two reasons In the ﬁrst place irregularity is always painful to the eye ; in the ne xt the uni t y of the thought seems to call for the unity of the line Th e i ntelligence takes it i n more easily in this state 6 When ever a phrase is composed of two portions an enclitic and a subordinate sentence we usually write these parts upon two separate lines connecting them together by P laced at the end of an enclitic the conventional sign e xpression t his S ign serves both to bring this expressio n into r elief and to draw the pupil s attention mo r e forcibly t o it .

’

“

’

The organisation of our literature lessons is dominated by a fact which we have already pointed out and of whi ch it is ,

P r i n t e d pr i vat el y b y t h e aut h or f or t h e us e o f h i s F r ench Th ey w il l for m part O f t h e pr act i cal cour se ( Tran s .

ud e nt s

“

’

S TUD Y O F TH E C LAS S I CS

3 08

important here once more to remind our readers This i s that our transcriptions reproduce the exact text of the aut h o i w ithout ever either altering t h e terms or the construction The length of the typographic line alone is not respected N eed we hesitate t o s acriﬁce the arbi t rary t o the logical ? W hen questions o f methods of tea ching are before us there I s o n e inter e st which S hould guide the orders of the publisher o r the printi ng fore man and this I s the pe dagogic interest ,

‘

Speci mens

t r anscr ip ti ons

To make still more cl ear t h e process which we have j ust descri bed it appears t o us that it would be well to off er sundry short examples of the transcriptions o f authors W e will take o n e of the fables of La Fontaine a fable of P h aedrus “ one of G rimm s fairy tal es and a scene from Romeo an d ch as a book o f Virgil would doubt A longer work s u Juliet less be a more striking e xample but th e length already con s id er ab l e of the pres ent work will not allow us to occupy so much additional S pace M oreover the lesso n s which follow will ampl y su fﬁce for a ﬁr st trial He who thinks w ell of the self of the collection of our s ystem will be abl e to avail h i m tran scriptions of the classical auth ors ,

’

‘

3 16

S TU D Y O F THE C LAS S I C S

THE LI O N AND THE GNA T

Tr i um ph

—The

and

Rui n

invisible foe triumphs and laughs to s ee that there is not a tooth nor a claw of irritated beast but does duty in bringi ng blood The unh appy beast tears his o wn ﬂesh lashes his t ail against his ﬂanks vainly beats the ai r and his extreme fury wearies him overthrows him He is utterly defeated ,

—The

insect retires from the combat with as he sounded the charge glory [ so he sounds the v ictory goes here and there to an n ounce i t, bush of a a n d meets on his way the a m he there likewise meets his death [spider ,

What things may we be taught from may be t aught h t i s l can see I can see two [ o f which the ﬁrst is that 18 Amongst our enemies the smallest are are t o b e f ear e d often the most to be feared ; the other that is Through perils gr eat o n e may have passe d may h ave passed To perish from the slightest thing at last per i sh '

LI TE RARY

S PE CI M E N

CA NIS ET LUPUS

S E RI E S

P H E (

Per e o f am e

D RU S

)

Quam dulcis sit libertas br evi t er pr ol o q uar

C ani pe r past o

macie forte occurrit S al ut an t es dein i n vi cem

con e ct us

l upu s

ut r es t i t e r un t

Unde sic q uaeso nites ! Aut q uo ci bo fe ci st i tantum corporis ? E go qui sum longe fortior r eo fa m e ego e ( )p ’

Ca ni s

ﬂ

simpliciter E adem est conditio tibi ra est a r e domino si par o i ci um potes p Q uod (ofﬁ ci um ) i n q ui t il le C ust os ut sis l i m i n i s ,

f ur i b us t uear i s

E go

e t n o ct u

d o m um

sum paratus nunc pat i or n ives i m br e sq ue in silvas asper am vitam trab ens qua nto est faci l i u s mihi sub te cto vivere e t o t i o sum largo satiari cibo I Ve ni ergo mecum ~

ve r o

d i xi t e st ead em

pr aest ar e q uo d e s t

c ust os

ut si s

ut t uear i s sum

parat us

pat i or

t rab ens e st

f acil i us

v er e sati ar i vi

veni

)

(

S TUD Y O F THE C LASS I CS

u ‘

CA NIS ET LUPUS

Regnar e

n ol o l i b er ut non S i m

mih i

— Dum p

r o ce d un t

‘

pr oced unt

d et r i t u m

i i c t p

ad s

lupus a catena collum cani Unde hoc amice ? N ibil est Dic q uaeso t am en ,

Quia al l i

an t

luce

vi d e or

acer

i nt e r d i u,

u i m esc a , q

e t vi i l e m g '

nox

um ve n er i t u q

C r epuscul o

solutus qua visum est vagor A ff e rt ur ul t r o panis de mensa sua d at ossa dom i nus frusta j act at familia e t quod f ast i d i t quisque u l m n t r i um a e p S i c sine labore venter i m pl et ur meus ,

Age quo abire est animus est l i cen t i a ? N on plane est i n q ui t F r ue r e qu ae laudes canis ; regna re nolo liber ut non S i m mihi ,

age

abi re est

l i cent i a

n on es t '

f ruer e r

e gnar e

non S i m

li ber

S TUD Y or THE CLAS S I CS

ﬂ

Q i e brei gpi n ner i mt eit

ﬂ

{

5 3rd

S te

utter 1 ar 6 11011

SDie ﬁ bmgm

’

1111 111

baa s

ae é fammern

Rbni gin

bei bet

gergen gerne 311f1i ebe11 '

wam mit

f11f) r 11nd) bem © cbl ofi gurficf ; e r o al e fie i n é © c i o m e n e i m m a n fi g b fixbrte fie es binauf 311 brei Rammern e ac bi e Iagenb on 1111te11 bis eben b ol l b om fei nfien m h

1111b

’

@pi 1111

’

111i r

bi efeu El a

{brad} bie Rbni gin u11b 1b e1111 bu es ferti g bringfi fo {cl iff bu 11 311111 (S meinen di tefien 6 00 i emabi baben ; bi fi bu gi eid) arm {0 acht id) ni ciyt barauf bei n unb erbrofseuer fi i ei fi i fi Ql uefiattutig gemtg ,

’

—

mi d get

53 116 fi dbcfien erfihraf i 1111erl i ci) be1111 eé fonnt ’

unb

fonnte

iHacbé ni cbt fpinnen brei bunbert 3 amal t geworben, ben

11m 6

x e i m n p f

mare geworben

eu e e e t e e e b b a s a i t b e r n i w e u b $ 1 1 Q n o n e b ﬁ ll b ﬁ f g 9 g b j .

e e e u e d t t ﬁ b gf

L IT E RARY

S PE CI ME N

S E RI E S

pi e brei gpi uueri uueu

S i c ﬁll er31b ei ﬁu11g .

Ql l é uuu baa Ti abd uu al lei n 1111 1, 311

weiueu ﬁeug es

ant

faﬁ | o brei S age

me bie {Jaub 3a rut t en

21111 britten S age l am bie Ré ui gi u 1111b

? al e

ﬁ f

baﬁ

e al) ,

—

fam

fab

geipouneu mar

efponueu war, g b l) b erwuuberte ﬁe ﬁc

l) ui c té noe

’

b ermuuberte

’ il

ber baa 5111111111111 entfcbul bi gte ﬁcl) bamit, bag

es, b or

bui ﬁ groﬁer ib etru

l; ui clyt noe

e e f u u a t t e a n u a n n ﬁ f g b

— E Da6 l i ﬁ ﬁcl; bi e

Ré ui gi u gefal len,

fagte abet beim QBeggebeu, morgen muﬁl bu mi r

an angen

e 1 a t e 1 r b n 3

Ql l é baa wabcbeu 1b i eber allei n war,

muﬁte es

— 7

ﬁcl; ui cbt mebr unb 311 hel feu .

ﬁhul bigte li d)

eut

”Bl

ﬁber bie (Entfernung aue feiuer élJi utter

a e 1 1 t n r 3

au e,

ﬁci)

“

S TU D Y O F TH E C LAS S I C S

Di e

br ei

gpi uuer i un en

‘

i ﬁl tlame ‘

QBci ber

S 11 feiner S el rii bui ﬁ ”

frat bae §lli abcl) e11 1101? baé

? a al) cc

brei QBeiber

53e11ﬁer ’

erfb mmeu

rfic ci 11e11 brei teu iBl atfc u battc bie e f b fi bi e 310eite b atte m e {0 grofic nutcrl i bpc; bagfie fiber baa fi i uu beruuter bing

baron

,‘

uub bie br tte batte ei ueu bre ten S aua eu

S i c bl i eben b br bem Seuﬁer c

bl ieben

ﬁb

e eu,

fibauteu biuauf 1111b fragten bae l a bcbeu was i btu febl te S G e fl agte i baca fei ne Stol l) ; ba trugen fie i l) 11i i bre ©i1l fe an e 1111b fprac u b QBi l lfi bu uué 3111 fiocb3ci t eiul abeu bi cl) 1111fe1t ui cbt fcbameu uub uns beiuc S afeu bei ficu i) fegeu aud) au b ei ueu S i l e “ 1i 1111e11 r e e 1 b e s v 0 0 i i b u u 1 1 r l 0 1 0 1 l (H b { gfi ,

’

‘

1 1 e ﬁb

i chaui en l) l 11a11f fragten fid gi ﬁ frugeu a11

fpracbeu ei 11l abc11

fcbameu bciﬁeu

1111b t ab i n fu1 3a S el l S

011

©er3eu gem,

“

a11t1001l ete ea

t berei u, l 01111ut uu

1111b angt

1uegﬁ1i u11e11

t u u (b )

”

fet3e11

t 1 a u e b i e 9 l e i c l i b g b

”

S TU D Y O E THE CL AS S I C S

3 1s

Q i e b r e i g pi u ue r i u u eu

S cene uub S aul barfeit

921111 nabmeu bie brei SBeiber {’l bﬁbi eb, uub fagteu 3u1u 931110111111

ergi

ﬁ ui cbt

bu uue berfprocbcu baﬁ

10115

es 1b it b bei u (551116

feiu

”

fil l s bae S i abcbeu bet fi bui gi u bie l eeren Rammcru uub beu gt ofien ‘ Zpaufcu (Si am 3eigtc, c t u é t e c e 0 i a i 1 l t c b ric © fi )3 b .

SBrauti gam freute ﬁcl) , baﬁ

er eiue 0

c t u u b i c l fb

e g c

ﬁei ﬁige St an befame ,

uub l obte ﬁe ge10al tig .

“ S CI) babe brei S afeu l a s r ac b b i l abcbeu, fp b ,

Si ateé crlvi e eu 11 011 ( i fi f 3 13 e r u l e i e t c n e 1 i 0 l l 0 0 fi bg { t i a meinem (Si l li cf b ergefieu

uub ba

c mir b el

(Erl aubt bod) , baﬁ

i d; fie 311 ber ®0cb3ci t ei ul abe, ” uub bafi fie mi t a11 bem S i fib figeu .

S i c ﬁ bui gi uuub ber S rauti gam gaben i bre (Si ulvi ll iguug .

S PE CI M E N

LITERARY

S E RI E S

Di e bt ei gwpi uuet i uueu

Qi l e 111111 baa S eﬁ aubub,

i S ungfrauem

t rateu bi e bre

i n 10u11bet l i cbet S t ad ﬁ bet eiu,

uub bi e S

mut int act) S eib wi l lfotumeu, Ii ebe S afeu ” 91d}! fagte bet SBt aui igam .

mic fommfi bu 3u bet gat fii geu S t euubfibafi

f gi eng et 3a bet eiueu bet 111i t betu brei ten E BIatfcbfuﬁ uub ft agtc : QBob ou babt S tr ei ueu fol cbcu brei ten “ $ 0111 S t eteu autwot tei c ﬁe S

at au

S t cteu

110111

“

S t auti gam 31i r 31vei te11,

i e n e t b g g

fpt acb : m babi S bt 933 m

uub

230111 100111

S "

bi e bet uutet baugeube 8 i1111c “ Secfeu, a11t1001 tete ﬁe,

S ecfeu

bi e bri tte

en S a111ue11 ? e r t t b u e i b S b b ” Sabeubreben antwortete ﬁe,

3 3 01 011 2

‘

abt

110111

S abeu breben

fb uub ﬁpt ac b: 6 0 loll mit S

”

a t agtc et

0111

11111

”

a ct c t al

bet ﬁ buigefobu,

111111

uub ui tumet mebt

meine fcbbue S

S pi uut ab aut u bt cu ’ S ami t 10111 ﬁe baa bbfc ifl acbé fpi uueu l es ei u

t aui

) .

ST UD Y or TH E C LAS S I CS

3 2s

S HAKE S PEA RE“

Ro m e o

A CT

an d

III

J ul i e t

S CE NE 5

Wilt t h O u -be gone ? It I S not yet near day it was the n ightingale and not the lark that pi er c d t h e fearful hollow of thine ear nightly she sings o n yon pomegranate tree Believe me love it was the nightingale Jul

’

pi er c d ’

Rom It was the lark the heral d of the ,

morn no nightingale Look love what envious streaks do lace the s evering C louds in yonder eas t Night s candles are burnt out and j oc und day st ands tiptoe O n the isty mountain tops

i b el i eve s ngs

w as ni gh t i ng al e

was t h e l ark

’

I m U St

burnt out st an d s t i pt oe

be gone and live nd die or stay a

b e gone

‘

J ul

Y on

light is not daylight

I know it I ; it is some meteor that t h e to be to thee this night a torch bearer a n d light thee o n the way t o M an t ua therefore stay yet ; thou n eed st not to be gone ,

“

’

i s not d ay l i gh t k n ow i s m ete or exh al es b e t or ch b ear er ’

S T UD Y O F THE CLAS S I CS

3 22

KESPEARE

SHA

Ro mee an d J ul i et

A CT I I I

It i s it i s ; hie hence be gone , away i It is t h e l ark that sings so out o f tune, straining harsh d i scords sharps Jul

S CENE 5

unpl eas ing

S ome Sa y

say

mak es d i vi s i

the lark makes sweet di vi sion this doth not so for she divideth us

d ot h nbt

ﬂ

S ome

say the lark and loathed toad change eyes 0 now I would they had ch an gd voices too 1 since arm from ar m that voice doth us a r ay up to the hunting thee h ence with hunt sday ,

’

say

ch ange

woul d (t h at )

’

now be gone ; more light and light it grows Rom M ore light and light ; more dark and dark our woes

ed d ot h a ffr a y h unti ng h ad

ch ang

S PE CI ME N

LITE RARY

Home ?)

A CT

3 23

J ul i e t

an d

III

S E RI E S

S C E NE 5

N urse M ad am .

J ul

N urse ?

lady m other s comi ng t o yOur the day is broke chamber [ be wary look about Jul Then wi n dow l et day in , and let li fe out Rom Farewel l , farewell ! o n e kiss and I ll d esce nd N ur se Y our

’

‘

’

gone so ? Love lord ! ay , husb an d friend ! I must hear fro m thee e v ery day in the hour for in a mi nute there are many days 0 by this cotm t I shal l be m uch i n years ere I agai n beh old my Ro m eo Rom Far ewel l I will omit n o opport unity ‘ that m ay coﬁ t ey m y greet i ng s, lo v e t o th ee J ul

A rt t ho u

l et l i f e out far ew el l v e i g ( )

one

k i ss

Wi ll d escend

my l ove

’

l et d ay i n

art gone

b e w ary

m ust h ear ar e

many d ay s

sh al l

be i n y ear s

beh ol d

far ewell

S TUD Y O F THE CLAS S I CS

3 24

SHA KE SPEA RE

Ro m e o

A CT

Jul

an d

III

J ul i et

S CEN E 5

0, t h i nk s t

thou we shall e v er meet again ? Rom I doubt it n ot and all these woes shall serv e for s weet courses in our time t o come

’

dis

t h i nk st sh al l meet d oubt not sh all s er ve

Jul

0 G od !

have

an ill di v ining soul

I methinks I see thee now thou art belo w as on e dead bottom of a tomb either my eyesight fails or thou l ook s t pale Rom And trust me lov e in my eye so do you dry sorrow drin k s our blood Adieu ! adieu ! ,

G od ! h ave i l l d i vi ni ng m et h i nk s s ee t h ee as d e ad ( ) art b el ow

’

l ook

’

pal e

t rust so

d o y ou (l ook )

fortune fortune ! al l men cal l thee fickle if thou art fickle what dost thou with h i m that is r en own d for faith ? Be fickle fortune ; for then I hope thou wilt not keep h i m long b ut send h im back Jul

’

ad i eu !

f ort une ! cal l fi ck l e art fi ckl e wh at d o st t h ou ’ i s r enown d b e fi ck l e I h ope wi l t not k e ep send back .

S TUD Y or THE C LAS S I CS

3 2s

At this moment the disciple has become equal to the m aster he is ready t o pass t o th e second conceptio n The second s t ep is then ta ught and assimilated as was the ﬁrst and the third as the t w o others .

After the conquest the entering into possession S ilence wil l be called for and while the teacher goes away to teach a sim il ar lesson I n an adjacent clas s each pupil will write out , either f rom memory alone or by the aid of the verbs pre vi ousl y set down the ﬁrst part of La Fontaine s little master piece O n the teach er s return the least ad vanc ed pupil will be asked to read out his second han d creatio n He will gi ve ﬁ t senten ce by sentence the others calling atten tion by correct ing them t o the slight imperfections t hat may have escaped him After this , the second part of the fable will be elaborated in the sam e way , and the ai m proposed will be attained vi z “The pupil will have done over again the work of the author he is studying ,

’

As regards the manner in which the teacher constructs each phrase before his class this will vary with the teacher and will depend on his capacity and his aptitude It seems to us impossible to represent one of our lessons by writing or to give our own personal process f or an e xample W e may however formulate a precept which will stan d as a deﬁnition of this process “The te acher S hould strive not merely t o read the phrase of the author but t o create it to cause it to be born laboriously and with pains as the author himself must have done ; s ubst i tuti n g successively one term for another in the manner of an algebraist who transforms indeﬁni tely the formula before him into another and simpler on e This pedagogic precept evidently implies the thorough and ex haustive discussion of each term of the classic studied ,

”

In every literary lesson of this ki nd t here are two sorts of express ions particularly important and particularly difficult to appropriate these are the metaphors on the one han d and “ on the other what we have te rmed the relative phrases The pupil wi l l be required to glean these t wo species of ex pressi ons and to write them out in a list apart at the end of t h e t e xt B y means of the collection o f the ﬁrst species of ,

CLAS S I CAL ME TA PHO RS

3 27

expressions he will appropriate t o himself the imaginative ideas Cf each W i i t er and this work will very quickly form his literary taste and j udgment The collection of the relative phrases will deliver into his hands the secret of expressing the most delicate and finest relationships of ideas and of things ; and this exercise by S harpening his mind day after day will endow it finally and in a S hort time with that precious quality ” “ which is termed tact or refinement ,

be gathered Here for e xample are the metaphors t hat may G from the fable The Lion and the nat ,

ﬁ

to ﬁn ish a word to take time rage r ises f ury wearies fury o v erthr o w s fury defeats

declare war sound the charge sound the victory announce the victory meet h i s end pass through peril .

After an author or at least a work has been entirely gone through all the metaphors w ill be bro ught t ogether and gro uped into order according to some system that shall enable them to be embraced at one glan ce and consequently to be looked th rough often We have already explained in the chapter upon the ﬁgurative language h ow a metaphorical theme 1s constru cted E vidently it i s to this process that we should have recourse to set in order the metaphors of the authors we are studying ,

The pupil will therefore glean as we have e xpressed it all the metaphors of the authors read by hi m he will attempt “ to d educe therefrom the v arious symbols which they r e veal and upon these symbols h e will construct his meta h r i cal themes o Thus will gradually be elaborated for him , p and by him a sort of systematic dictionary of the ﬁgurat ive language of each writer — a precious spring always pure and always wholesome from whi ch he may draw boldly and exten si vel If in deed there is one S pecies of riches which i s y common and should remain common to all the members of the same race of mankind it is the symbolism of their language that which characteris es e x presses and deﬁnes their race ,

After the metaphors we sho ul d at t ack the relative phrases The following are those which will b e noted by the pupil I n .

STU D Y O F THE CLAS S I C S

2 8 3

abo v e fable cover

th e

h im

which the teacher will aid

dis

triumph to rise t o the utmost t o laugh to see that t o do one s duty in t o be defeate d t o retire with glo r y t o sound the vi ctory to

be aff righted to be disquieted t o be powerful t o lead anything whither one s fan cy pleases to keep one s distance to take one s time &c it is the work of The following proverbs ar e al so found I A m ongst our enemies t h e smallest are often the most to be feared 2 Throu gh peri ls great on e may hav e passed t o perish from the smallest thing at last are enclitics The e x pressions followed by the S ign ) to

’

—

It is not su fﬁcient however m erely to copy out the se abstract formul ae ; it i s not enough merely to draw up a list o f these fragments of thoughts To become fruitful of result they w ill ha v e to be gr afted upon something solid Tr ans “ ferred amalgamated wedded to what we have termed t h e ” motives o f the relati v e phrases these formul ae wi l l give place t o concrete expressions t o interlocutory sentences such as the following 1 l I think that 00nt know what fo lows o u y P al l D o n ot think that — t h ou canst lea r n without taking pains Take p Thinkest thou that a language can be learnt without pains ? And let nothing aﬁ r igh t you The construction of such a simple phrase n eed not aff right you I can see you are not aff righted If you make a mi stak e l e t not that disquiet you Your memory is becoming more powerful day by day ,

—

’

Cont P a tt V gal B 9 ch .

C on t i n ue, go o n P ay at t ent i on V ery good Be o f good ch eer

S peak bol d l y W el l d on e A tt ent i on A tt Tak e p Tak e pai ns

Sp 6 W dn

S TUDY O F TH E CLAS S I CS

330

This we aﬁi r m from experience we have already obt a ined N ow let us enumerate the advantages presented by this mode o f teachi ng .

The pupil produces not a composition open to criticism but a masterpiece This creation is not the privilege of those only who are clever it is the work of the less gifted of the class as well as the more gifted The p r ogress of those that are weak imposes no hindrance upon those th at are strong Art thus re establishes the equality of intellects by r e establishing the equality of wills—that I S of attentive forces ,

The art of reading well has for its first cond ition the need o f a good accentuation But to acce ntuate a phrase w ell the reader requires to know upon what word or upon what syllable the stress of the voice is to fall an d in order to know this word or sy l lable it is necessary to have first definitely deter mined the various parts that the terms which compose the phrase have to play and to know exactly what each of these terms is intended to reveal The work of e x egesis which we have just described thus repres ent s as useful a lesson of speak i n g o r reading as it does of literature The pupil who has composed over again with u s the fable of La Fontain e will assuredly be able to S peak it and to read it .

The whole class knows the fable t o its v ery roots I defy time itself to e fface it from t h e memory of any one of our pupils Yet he has n ot learnt it by heart — h e has created it with his j udgment He has not conﬁded its terms merely to his lips as we so often force little children to do —h e has kne aded it into his own substan ce he h as moulded it with his “ thought ; i n other words he has made it his own by con it in his mind The work before him is really h i s cei v i n g own work he would almost have the right to S ign it with h i s name And because it is his own work he has n ot the power to forget it .

(

‘

”

How much time have we S pent upon the creation of this masterpiece ? O n an average we need a quarter o f an hour f to elaborate a theme o about twenty ﬁ ve sentences When a problem was read out to Henri M on d eux the last word had h ardly been pronou n ced when the shepherd b oy gave back the answer After a certa i n nu m ber of exerci ses carried out under conditions s uch as we have described the memory of .

or TH E M E TH O D

VAL U E

331

th e child absorbs it almost as quickly as it can be spoken M ak e a tri al of the process your s elves and you will soon see what is the capabili ty of the memory or rather the geni us o f the chil d when he is placed under the domini on of logic and o f mental representatio n .

The scholar gathers from success in the earliest days a knowledge of his personal power and this confidence in him self has im mediately the e ffect of redoubli ng his energies Instead of requiring a S pur he will ne ed a brake A school conducted upon methods having this e ffect may well produce — l men of genius E very man yet created oves his work above al l when this work is constantly successful ; and the love of the work don e applies also to the labour which produces it O ur process is therefore a preventive t o idleness which is far better than its punishment It creates the taste for wor k it even gives rise to a passion for labour and study From the very fir st day it lights the sacred fire E ach scholar feeli ng himself a creator every one is atten tive —e v ery one is entirely occupied with his own e ffort his “ own creation Therefore the words imposition and discipline will sound like barbarisms in the ears of our children B ut for the words to remain always barbarisms we must not forget that the human strengt h has cert ain very precise limits and that if a sermon or a lecture thr eequarters of an hour long exhausts a grown man it will certainly a f ort i or i e xh aus t the child M any of o ur pedagogues have not yet understood th is a x iom It I s for this reason that i n the eyes of children the m aster is not a master but an enemy He is this i ndeed because in the person of the child he does violence to an d cruelly wounds human nature itself He is more than an enemy—h e is a tyrant ,

”

The correction of exercisebooks is no longer needed ; all the exercisebooks are perfect In and by our process composition and correction are synonymous and represent one and the same operation The recitation of les sons also i s n o longer called for E very one knows his lesson thoroughly At the C ollege o f C aen as I dare say elsewhere this recitation of the lessons used to take an hour It was always our despair and it ought to become so for every consc i entious professor Th e children were enervated or rather e x hausted before the I e al work of the class had even commenced N o more dictation lessons This d eplorable e x ercise is .

, .

S TUD Y O F TH E C LAS S I CS

33 2

severely interdicted in many of the G erman schools The G erman pedagogues stigmatise it by the name of the a buse o f conﬁdence and they are right It would be better simpl y to copy the pupil at least would not make mistakes and to copy he does not need a master D uring the time that he scribbles and blots one page under dictation he might ass i m i late i t and read it over twenty times Therefore we hav e no more corr ection s no m ore recitation of lessons n o more dictation How much time hav e we thus gained ! What wearin ess h ave we spared our pupils How many impositions hav e we avoided How much good feeling draw n to the master ! The child will no longer see i n the man set to form his mind and morals an enemy and a tyrant He will love h i m he wil l be drawn to him as the m os t worthy and the most estimable of his friend s We shall see the child runn i ng to school with the same ardour as t o the village fair .

”

By substituting e v erywhere lectures for silent study our process suppress es in those scho ols which adopt it the un gr at e ful duty of moni t or It raises this personage to the position of assistant master or o f preceptor to beginners with all the title and authority of an educator It is upon him that falls the duty of teaching the elementary part of the langua ges We have demonstrated that ou r method puts this te aching within the reach of e v ery one The teaching of the sciences will be for the learned professor A n honest and devoted nurse sometimes occupi es a larger place in the child s heart than e v en i t s own mother The despised elementary language teacher wil l have under the method that we propose the ﬁrst fruit s of the scholar s aff ec tion M ore than this the prestige which the knowledge of languages gives will perhaps make of h i m a personage more regarded than the learned science master himself ,

’

To all these ad vantages let us not forget to add that trans For three l ated by the formula often evoked in this book ” classes one m aster While the scholar is writing out his lesson that is is giving a tangible form to his conception the m aster could be training a second class then a third deli ver ing to each of these the germ or the raw material of a creation similar to that already given O n e harvest is ripeni n g wh ile ” two others are being sown ! .

S TUD Y or T H E C LAS S I CS

3 34

THE

DE A T H o r

P RI A M

Nuné m or ere l '

fatas senior, t el um q ue imbelle sine i ot a con j eci t rauco quod pr ot i n us aere repulsa m , et summo clypei n eq ui cq uam umbone nd it e e p p C ui P yrrhus referes ergo h aec e t nuntius ibis P el i d a e gen i t orl illi mea tristia facta d egen er em q ue N eopt ol em um narrare me narrar e mento N unc morere m or r e e [ '

Sic

Hoc

d i cen s,

al t ar i a ad

ipsa t r em ent em t raxi t et in m u lto l apsan t em sanguine nati i m pl i cui t q ue comam l aev a

d ext r ﬁq ue

co ru s cum ext ul

ac lateri capul o tenus

(

nsem )

ab di di t en sem

H aec ﬁ n i s P riami fat or um hic e x itus i l l um sorte tulit g a ma [ Tr oj am incensam et pr ol apsa vid en t em P e r tot quondam popul i s t er r i s q ue superbu m reg n at o r e m Asi a s Jacet i n gen s littore truncus avul sum q ue humeris ca put e t sine nomine corpus ,

ﬁ ni s f ui t ,

t uli t vi d ent em t ul r egnat or em

j acet avul sum si ne n omi ne

T RAN S CRI PTI O N S

O F TH E C LAS S I CS

335

remark with reference t o the transcription of t h is exer cise Ho w i s it that amongst t h e number of pr ofessors who have undertaken t h e literal line for line translations no one h as had the idea in the ﬁ rst p l ace of numberi ng the various distinct conceptions of the classic authors and o f constitutin g wi t h each of them a separate ex ercise anal ogous t o our o wn ; and i n the next pl ace of separating the sentences instead o f dealing wi t h single words and las tly of arranging these sen t en ces for the student in the o r der in whi c h they are presente d by our t r aii scri pt i on s The explanation of thi s fact is very simpl e The Literary istic S eries To S eries is the immediate d o rol lary of our Ling u concei v e the On e it is necessary t o have ﬁrst conceived the other The high value of the verb in the language its pre ponde r ance in t h e s entence the ampl itude of the in te llectual e ff ort of mankind t h e measure of each one of our c onceptions the average length of the sentence the part to be assigned to the ear with t h e pr i ii ci pl es or precepts which d e v olve there from and which Constitute in very tr uth the art of teaching lan guages—t li ese are th e d ata which it was necessary to h ave posse ssed to be able ev en to form ulate the problem It will be reme m bered by what mere chance it was that we ourselves were e nabl ed to unite them If beside s t h is we keep in mind the blindness in which the S pirit of routine under the form of a wordforword translat ion , has kept our humanists until the present ti m e one need not be astonished that they have stood so long close al ongside our idea without ever even having caught a glimpse o f it S o much having been said let us show how the lesson of Virgil is given O ne .

‘

’

‘

The end t o be attained is : To enabl e the work of the author to be reprodu ced by the pupil The master first gives a free translation in his own words of t h e conception or the scene of Virgi l then beginning the fi rst sentence of the first step he gives it i n E nglish Thus spake the old man He strikes once more the term spake alone and from “ this throws forth the Latin v erb f at us est whi ch he says — a n d i a e s again aga n ( fat s t fat us est ) ; and on t h is v erb he bui l ds Up t h e phrase S i c fat us est s enior ”

”

S TUD Y or TH E C L AS S I CS

336

The pupil writes down on the margi n of his e xerciseboo k the verb fat us est and then the master enounces the next sentence And without force b e cast an impot ent ja v elin ” “ “ He repeats cast and then substitutes con j eci t ; estab lishes thi s verb solidly an d upon it as foundation raise s the sentence Tel um q ue imbelle sine i ct u con j eci t evoking the subject evokin g the complements e v oking t h e grammar and the genius proper to Latin constr ucting always according to this geni us i a placing that which completes before that which is completed M eanwhile each pupil i n ” “ scribes con j eci t beneath the fat us est After the second phrase the third is e xpounded ; after the third the fourth and so on until the whole o f the ﬁrst step i s ﬁnished at which point a halt i s made ,

N ow

the teacher and pupil exchange parts The teacher has j ust given what we term the theme of the fi rst st ep ; the pupil by listening and interpreting mentally each Latin phrase has made the translation of it N ext in his t urn the pupil gives the Latin of th i s mental tran slation The master fat us est and if need be the E ngli sh gives him the verb phrase corresponding thereto and the pupil s houl d be able t o find the sentence S i c fat a s est S enior The master then challenges h i m afresh with the v erb co n ” The pupil takes up the gauntlet and respon s by the e ci t d j phrase Tel um q ue imbelle sine i ct u con j eci t The master gives h i m the third ver b and the pupil returns the third sentence and so on to the end of the paragraph The second step is attacked and carried like the first and the third li ke the t w o others A second pupil will wish to go through the whole of the theme with the sole aid of the v erbs written on the margin of his e x ercise book ; another may solicit the favour of being allowed to reproduce the whole from memory .

”

The class have thought with Virgil have spoken his words have penetrated to the height of his genius ha v e ass imilated a fragment of his art Without reading V irgil directly wi th ,

S TUD Y or T H E C L AS S I CS

3 38

si ce l masterpieces but these masterpieces the m selves in their entirety The study of authors by means of our transcriptions i s therefore as rapid as it is easy and it is not the less fruitful M ight not the language we shall be asked be learnt by the reading o f the authors alone M ight we not do without the ordi nary series ? The present work is a continual demonstra tion of the negative N o the reading of the classics however long persevering and obstinat e it may be will never lead y en to the true and thorough knowledge of the language If I were to desire to maintain the contrar y hypothesis S hould I not be opposed with the contradiction of the sorrow f ul experience achie v ed after so many years by all the schools and colleges of the world ? A l l of these make their students read the La tin authors Which of them I ask has discovered the true secret of teaching Latin ? To learn a language let us recollect for the hundredth time is not to translate a book it is to translate our o wn individuality into this language We have pointed o ut how this human indi viduality is constituted N ow there i s no cl ass ical work which contains this indi vi d ual i t y o r rather it can only be found therein as Homer in the dictionary ,

You have gathered toge t her we will suppo se al l the mat e rials for a house The to tality of these materials cannot be called a house and will not really be a house until the day on which these ma t erials are grouped together and set into a certain definite order In the s ame w ay , let us admit that all the elements that form par t of your individuality can be found in the literature of a lan guage F or th es e elements to r epr e sent your individuality they must be first un ited then grouped then set into order in a certain manner—that is t o say brought together into what we have called the O rdinary S eries M oreo ver these are the only means to assure Latin being And if G reek is usually S poken and used in ordi n ary life less well known than Latin it is S imply be cause it is l es s spoken I used to read r eread and ha v e read to me during more than twenty years the G reek and Latin classical works and this exercise did not give me po ssessio n of ei ther G reek or Latin A desperate and continued readi ng of the G erm an cl assics did not prove of greater benefit to me I finally applied to these languages the system of t h e series —that is to say I ,

C LAS S IFI CATI O

O F T H E C L AS S I C S

translated m y individuality into these languages S ince then but only since then have I felt that these languages have b ecome my own Language is an ediﬁce which has its summit its crowning po int in its literature This summit is always something qui t e othe r than the foundation It presupposes this foundation but it never can take its place ,

Th e process of which we have j ust given a description m ay be brought to bear upon a literature lesson in G erman in Frenc h or in Ar abic as well as Lat i n We hav e chosen the latter in order to put t o rout once more the absurd prej udice which proclai m s the n ecessity for two methods of teaching languages —the one for ancient languages and the other for modern Whoever the man who thinks and who write s may be he does it by linking conception to conception sentence to sen tence The work will be read well by that man w h o knows how to discover these links and t o accommodate h is march and his length of step to the m arch and the step of the author .

Two more observations and the e xposition of our method will be o f translating reading and assimilating the classics complete The class have reproduced each o f the foregoing themes in two m anners ﬁrst orall y, and then by wr iting It is perhaps hardly necessary to state that this second exer cise is not contin ual O n e may undertake to read the principal masterpieces of the literature of a language but not of writing out the whole of them by hand The written theme h as spe ci al l y in view the art of composition Th i s art may be quite well taught to the student in making him reproduce not all the models but a certain number of them only ,

”

The student must not be made to read for t h e mere sake of reading but in order to understand an d t o learn The book must therefore be one adapted t o the age and the knowledge of the reader —that is to say the readin g must h e graduated O ur system itself supplies us with a rule or a principle for establ i shing this graduation The works will be classified according to their relation t o the obj ective language such as we have defined it The tale for instance being the r epr od uc tion of the facts of every day l ife is the kind that appro aches most nearly to our elementary series The first exercise of reading in a foreign language will be given therefore by ,

3 40

S TUD Y O F T H E C LAS S I CS

means of a collection of tales written in this language Is not this also the ﬁrst book understood sought for and assimilated by the child in his own language ? After the tale wi ll succeed the epic poem ; to the epic will succeed the history ; to the history the other k inds of literature — all called forward in an order corresponding t o the degree of their a fﬁnity with the E lementary S eries or t h e obj ective language .

S TUD Y O F TH E S CI E N CES

3 42

This is because as a matter of fact the duty of the school is t o add to an d ne v er to take away from human knowledge Th e school is at one and the same time the ﬁrst representative and the ﬁrst instrument of progress Its mission i s t o give light and still more light and never to hide the candle under ” “ the bushel Re duce your subj ects does not mean S uppress ” “ science ; it means Reform your methods It is not science it is routine that must be S uppressed i t is n ot knowledge which must be decrease d out the time which m ust be lengthened ; it is not the load we ich must be dimi n i sh e d but the power that must be dou b l ed ; it is not the comparatively feeble horse but the steam u n gi n e which must be called upon to draw the train which carri es the modern fortune ,

science bo rrows its e xpression fro m language To teach a science is t o S peak this science t o learn a s cience is again to speak thi s S cience The knowledge of it is usually ” nothin g el s e than speech speech set in order Why is i t that this speech par excel l ence co uld not be utili sed for the study of language properly so called ? Why cannot the mate r ial of this science be used as a linguistic theme ? There is in school on e ogre who devours not the ﬂesh but the time o f children w h o consumes their force an d their life This ogre i s the study of lan guage For one hour given to the study of sciences the scholar spends four upon that of language under the form of gr ammar S pelling dictation of Wh ence is this dis G reek of Lati n o f French or G erman proportion ? Why would not the lesson on zoology or botany serve as the theme for the lesson of S pelling ? Why should not the lesson on ph y sics or on history be employed as the theme of a lesson in G erman or French E very h uman

Yes between science properly so called and that of language there e xists a profound solidarity of w hich linguistic science S hould have been able long ago t o make wonderful use While studying languages we might study the sciences and i n study ing the sciences we can study the languages This is the point the true point upon which the attempts of reformers of the curr iculum should be brought to bear Let the pedagogic science ﬁnd the secret of making a sci en ce les son out of a language lesson and a language les son out of a sciencelesson an d it will have trebled or q uadrupled the time ,

RE FO RM O F HI S T O RY T E ACHIN G

3 43

and the force of both m ast e r and pupil Then the studies will be harmonious and the work properly ba lan ced Then t h e M ore ; they may even be l is t of subj ects will be foun d light trebled and yet be found light .

How i s it that th is r eform yet remain s t o be carried out ? It is because it can onl y be ac complished upon the b asis of a method which equ all y suits either the revelation o f scientiﬁc truths and the translation of the form s of language Where is th i s method ? U ntil the present moment h as the problem e v en been formulat ed ? P erhaps we may be permitted t o apply in passing an d brieﬂy the principles of our linguistic method t o the study for instance of the natural sciences t o t h at of the exact sciences and t o that of hi story in order t o see if o ur humble essay might not prove t o be the preface o f that system for which pedagogic science h as been w ai ting so long We will com mence by the end —that is t o say by history .

TH E

LA NG UA G E S B Y I

N ecessi ty

H I ST

OR Y

a r e or m

H I ST

A ND

OR Y B Y

i n th e teach i ng

TH E

LA N G U A G E S

h i stor y

The teaching pr ofession should renounce resolutely all those manuals or abridgments which present history to t h e minds mutilated form It o f childhood in an altered , chopped up should seek to replace all these bad books by complete tr eatises i n w hich the life o f the people and the instructi v e play of causes and e ff ects develop wi th all the richness o f truth History i s the grand school in which the future should gain its instruction—a schoo l o f politics and morals Until n o w what have ﬁ gured almost exclusively on the walls of this school are certain names and dates i n which are enshrined a few more or less i m portant facts P edagogic science ought t o pass the sponge over these insipid abstractions and repl ace them by livi n g pictures It should resuscitate the past with its S plendours and its miser ies with i t s heroisms and its d eﬁciencies with its pas sions noble or cri minal ; it should reproduce with all its inci dents the great drama of liberty struggling against desp otism ,

S TUD Y O F THE S CI E N CE S

3 44

This is the kind of history I should wish to teach t o my chil dren but where is the book that realises this ideal and that I can put into their hands ? ,

Al l

the histories are composed and written for minds which meditate analyse and synthetise—for men of forty years old and upwards B ut where i s the history that is composed and written to be assimilated by children and youths ? It i s i n vain that we ask them of pedagogic science D o not be deceived called historical works pre A l l the s o” pared for the use of children are perfectly inaccessible to th e child and even to many grown up persons Between these books and all the others I see absolutely no di fference other ” than the title For the use o f children and this title is a misnomer E xam i ne them yourselves Are the chapters in these books thought out shaped or distributed diff erently to those in other books ? Are the occurrences more detailed and placed in better sequence ? I S the synthesis more logi cally connected ? Has the sty le less of metaphor less of rounded periods less of pomposity ? All these histories I repeat have nothing S pecia l in them ; the most celebrated so far as I have yet seen have nothing truly pedagogic either in their basic idea or in their form ,

And in this there is nothin v ery astonishing The pro ble m of a reform in the teac i ng of history has hardly as yet been put If languages are badly taught in the great school s what must we s ay to their teaching of history ? History real history is too often not taught at all O pen the books and see if history is to be fo und therein you who know what history is S ee i f the child can draw therefrom lessons and principles which may serve h i m and direct him when he becomes a citi zen and has to e x ercise his rights W h y are there throughout the country so many divisions and so many political parties It is in great part because we do not kno w our country s history or because each man has a history of hi s own , and not the impersonal history of a healthy pedagogic science because the little that we d o know of it has not been learnt at school where it is practically proh i bited but from newspapers ; because we have ofttimes t h e passion o f it but not the reason —the error of it but not the truth .

’

History real history practically taught practically written here is the sacred book the bible of the future But this ,

S TUD Y O F THE SCIE N CES

6 4 3

be resol v ed ; we shall draw up a catalogue of these end s or aims not according to an alphabetical list but accordi ng t o their chronological succession Then seeking the means by which these various ends have been attained as time passed on an d e x pressing them in the same order in which they succeeded or should hav e succeeded each other we shall arrange them upon the model of our Linguistic S eries P ut ting the Life o f the P eople into series —th i s is at one and the same time both the foundation an d the plan of an historical method we w ill indicate here brieﬂy the work of detail and the form of the ediﬁce ,

The general h i story of events will be found di vid ed into a considerable number of particular stories which form so many pictures or scenes E ac h scene will con t ain on e simple and unique fact strongly brought into reli ef by the style an d the movement of the phrase This scene will occupy a special page and will bear a title as simple as itself of which the te xt of the page is the development O n this page the order of succession in time will be rigorously followed—an order of which far t oo little acco unt is taken even in the most elemen tary text books of history and which nevertheless is certainly the secret of precision and of clearness as it is the condition For indeed wh at i s m em or y of prompt and easy assimilation if i t i s not th e l ogi cal cl assiﬁ cat i on of f acts i n th e m i nd ? If therefore the facts are already classiﬁed the mind will gr asp the m and will retain them so much the more rapidly and the less able pupils will be able t o remember them as well as the most gift ed ,

We shall hav e none of these reﬂections and progn ostications such as ﬁ ll up our present te x tbooks and dishearten the chil d for the reason that he is not able t o understand them and i s sti ll less able to distinguish them from the real history — facts The facts nothing but the facts the facts with of the dramatic mo v ement of causes and of e ff ects—the facts which spe ak for themselves and cause the rea der to think the facts interpreted solely by the accent of the professor these are what we require And in the e xpression of them we must have none of those gross and empty metaphors that the child understands not which mislead rather than guide h i m and which cause him to take vain shado w s for living realities C onceived on these lines history may be written i n quite a ,

TH E

HI S T O RI CAL

S E RI E S

3 47

di fferent fashion t o that we now know We shal l write it in simple an d short phrases whi ch course after one another having all the rapidity of the mo v ement with which the life of the people is unfolded .

fact

phrase will only e xpress

E ach

on e

idea

on e

sim ple

E ach phrase

will be distinct fro m that which precedes and from that which follow s it both on the paper as well as i n the mind i a each sentence wi ll be placed lin e by line as in our Linguistic M ethod We have shown the j ustiďŹ cation for the use of th is form of the printed page when S peaking of the themes of our series the same reasons j usti fy the use of it for our historical themes 2

The method is sketched out let us suppose that it is con structe d how are we to apply it ? This question is on e that is not l ess grav e than that of the m ethod of teaching our Linguistic S eries In order t o ďŹ x ideas and t o facilitate our ex planation we reproduce on the fo l lowing page an historical theme taken al most at haza rd from on e of o ur lithographed transcriptions This scene has no other pretension than that 1 of showing the typographic form of our Historical S eries An isolated theme can with d ifďŹ cul ty be made to give any e x act idea of our historical treatises : it would be necessary at least to devote an entire chapter to the subj ect .

Th i s S peci men hi st ory l esson h as b een al s o gi ven i n t h e F r en ch , as i t t h en eq u al l y i l l ust rat es t h e pr opert y o f t h e sy st e m of form i n g a d van ce d l an guage l esson s fr om t h e h i s t ory of t h e count ry w h ose l anguage is b ei n g st udi ed ( Tr an s 1

S TUD Y O F THE S CI E N CE S

B A TT L E

RO S S B A C H

O F

N C V E M BE R 5 ,

75 7

the morning of the st h S oubise com m an d e d the attack The army deployed in a long line wi th the idea of turning the P russians and enclosin g them in a circle of ﬁre [tent Frederick remain ed perfectly still within his tranquilly following the mo v ements of the enemy At noon he sat down to table as usual The French continued to advance drums were beating bands were sounding triumphal marches nothing stirred in the Prussian camp The French attributed this calm to fear and could not comprehend such apathy O

comm and

s at

d ow n

ad vance

w er e b eat i ng w er e s oundi ng s ti r re d att r ibute d com pr e h e nd

’

It was t wo o clock in the afternoon Frederick came quickly out of his tent and gave the order To arms M arch In the twinkling of an eye the tents are struck folded orders cross in the air and the battalions hasten to the place as signed “Forward ” cried Frederick a second time and the army thre w themselves on the foe ,

cr o s

h ast e n c ri e d th

r ew

sel ves

A rain of fire and bullets fell upon the French P rince Henry took their infantry in flank S eidlitz attacked them in the rear with his cavalry This violent and unforeseen movement of the P russians acted as a surprise the amazed Imperialists took to flight The French maintained their position until disputing the ground foot by foot dusk [ .

act

S TUD Y O F T H E S CI E N C E S

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Th e t each i ng

t h e h i stor y l essons

A history lesson is a play in two acts ; we have the work of e xposition by the master and then the work o f assimilation by the pupil Let us deal ﬁrst with that of the master In be ginning the l esson t h e master does n ot read he improvises N othing cools the ardour of a class of children more than reading ; the book acts as a screen and bot h p aral ys es the feelings of the teacher himself and hinders his thoughts from radiating t o t h e minds of hi s hearers A picture a chart such as woul d be illustrative of the facts he wishes to enforce should be the o n ly auxiliaries of a good teacher of history To the eyes o f the pupil the professor should be a living history He needs not only to know history but t o appear permeated therewi th He m ust not therefore have his hi storical lesson s written o ut exactly as he is t o gi v e them ; their titles at mos t may act the part of programme as memoranda or notes He will abandon himself to the inspiration o f t h e mome nt to his own conception an d will expose the facts as if he saw the m or kne w them wit h order with clearness with precision and with war mth giving emphasis to those that deserv e emphasis and this in language half conversational half academic and with an occasional humorous turn which will serve t o place the fact l n relief I n the memory ,

The block of marble is drawn from the qu arry trimmed roughed out the inspiration is commun icated We nex t end ea vour to perfect the statue After h aving m ade the facts speak for themselves the teacher wil l make the book speak N ow he reads ; but thi s exercise i s not an ordi nary readi ng ; it i s a translation the translation of a scene already well known to all and in which shortly befo r e the whole class were vividly interested This exercise presents itself as the solu t ion of a fresh problem of which the following is the statement “To ﬁ n d the best e x ression possible of the histori cal drama p ” to which the class hav e j ust been giving their atte ntion From this point of view the reading h as a gr eat interest Rest ass ure d that here we h ave di s co vere d a meth od for k eep ing each pupil atte ntive The teach e r reads comments upon criticis es each phras e —carri es out in fact a work analogous t o that which we h ave described when speaking of t h e reading ,

O F TH E

TE ACHIN G

THE

HI S T O RY LE S S O N S

351

n ow

’

the classical authors S o much for the teacher s part let us in v estigate that of the pupil

In th e fir st place he knows to its roots the h i story he h as before him What he lacks is the expression of it How can he conquer this ? N othing is more simple We may point out at once that our historical lessons are all as exactly and d efi organised as The theory that we n i t el o ur lin guistic lessons y have developed when dealing with these e qually applies in its entirety t o t h ehi st ory lessons — e z C o v ering This stipul at d the pupil will proceed as follows u p the text he will read aloud the verb s one after the other and on each v erb he will build up the corresponding phrase He wi ll elaborate in thi s way piece by piece the first para graph or step and going through it a second time he will thoro ughly as simi late it He will d o the same with the second and with t h e third step It will require we ha v e found five t o seven minutes for a pupil to learn in this manner a history lesson such as that given This result is rich in consequences : we will refer to them farther on ,

The teacher now asks the dullest in the class t o repe at the lesson He ascertains that this child k n ows the page and will conclude from this that all kn ow it To what ex ercise will he now pas s ? This will depend upon the age and the ability of th e chil dren before him If he is dealing with beginners who do not yet know how to write correctly he will S imply give them the lesson to copy out or perhaps he will dictate it care fully pronouncing each word separately or possibly will have i t dictated by one of the scholars This ex ercise will advantageously repl ace that o f the usual dictation exercise and the writing lesson and will moreover be a diversion and an opportunity for the pupils to digest the lesson If the class are already well drilled in spelling if serious mistakes need be no longer feared the hi story les son will be come the material for a literature lesson in composition In such a case these are the conditions under which the work would be carried out bo ok the series of E ach pupil will copy into his e x ercise verbs fro m the history lesson then closing the printed book he will reproduce in writing the phrases corre spondin g t o the verbs The correction of these exercises will be as sh ort as they are eas y It will be su fﬁ cient for the te acher t o have .

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one copy read out aloud E ach pupil wi l l correct his phrase according to that which is judged perfect If the cl ass is still further advanced the history lesson will be reproduced as a true narrative after a S ingle reading or a S ingle hearing an d without other he l p than the logic of the facts .

There remains yet one other category of pupilâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;those who trained by these various e x ercises have le arnt to think for themselves that i s to seize the true relations of th i ngs and who along with solid principles have acquired the forms where with to e x press all their conceptions These wi ll treat the history lesson from a higher point of vie w they will trace the portraits and sound the praises of the great men whose actions are before them they will paint the battles ; they will judge the revolutions w ill give their appreciations of the legislation will give over again the S peeches of the great politicians attempting to revive in these Compositions the ideas and the passions which have agitated bygone times seeking by these means to epitomise each epoch to characterise each historic moment ,

â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

S tudied

in this way history will inevitably enter at each lesson deep into the mind and the heart of the child and will early make a man of him O ur aim can n ow be seen history is considered by us ďŹ rst of all as a sci en ce an d is treated as such ; afterwards it is used as a l iteratur e lesson marvellousl y suitable for forming the language and the style of the pupil Prepared as we have just indicated history is a collection of narratives in which we set down successively the forms and turns of expression most habitual and most im portant in lite rary composition B y means of these narratives the literary education of a class wi l l be carried on day by day The prin ci al advant ages of this method of proceeding are these p ,

history lesson forms on e complete narrative of a length suitable to beginners The facts are analysed and de v eloped in this lesson 2 methodically m rder and movement are given to the O 3 The pupil will quickly learn to control his thought by 4 means of these S hort and rapid phrases which are used to translate the facts of the narrative ach p r h ase being a whole in itself the pupi l is forced E 5 to give equal care to every phrase 1

E ach

S TUD Y O F THE S CI E N CE S

3 54

it \V e need not again refer to the verb w hich announces the idea as the dawn announces the day U p to the present time no really practical book it seem s to us has ever b een w r i t t en fo r the use of those who wish to perfect themselves in t h e stud y of a language or to keep up t heir knowledge of it while a t the same time gi vi n g us ef ul and n interesting informatio History treated in the manner w e b have h er e indicated appears to us t o be able fully t o satisfy this need .

Amongst the advantages of this method there is one wh ich we certainly ought to indicate in concluding as it answers at the same time an obj ectio n which cannot fail t o be levelle d at -us Would it be believed ? this process which enables uS —nay which forces u s to descend into the very sm allest d etails i n order to really make the actions and the men live over again actually has the advantage of brevity ove r all the others We have put into series on this system the French historian certainly farthest beyond rival in this respect Voltaire we have n arrated and written out the reign of Louis X I V in 25 0 themes or less o ns without omitting a single one of the fac ts co ntained i n the wo rk of this great writer And the book by Voltaire in the edition of a similar S ize of page has 6 00 pages ! o ver 3 00 of which m u st there fore be explanatio ns remarks or other matter not absolutely necessary to the progress of the story There remains the d i fﬁ cul t y o f execu t ion We w h o are engaged u pon the work know better than any one else can possibly do h o w much labour m ay be S pent i n arr anging a treatise of history in this way but when one feels oneself to be at last on the right track th e work becomes easy Two things su fﬁce to succeed : faith and courage ,

We are now i n a position to calculate the l ength of time that a h i st or y cour s e carried out un d er these conditions will require E ac h whole lesson given by the teacher will usually embrace one well determined episode decomposed into at least ﬁve or six di ff erent movements which g i ve rise to as many separate page exercises These exercises are to the whole lesson what the paragraph s of a book are t o the chap t ers “ At the end of our treatise P roj ect for C ounty High ’ h t roj e d co es anton le an episode of E l C e P t S chools a s , ) ( .

G E O G RA PHI CAL S E RI E S

355

war is given, forming the material of on e or din ary l e sson To this treatise the reader who desires to know more B asi n g our calcula t ions o f our history lesson s is referred upon this lesson we are able to estimate the amount of his tory work accomplished every d ay An episode properly prepared is given easily within halfhour and five themes can be learnt an in thirtyr therefore will fi ve minutes O n an average one ho u be su fficient for the elaboration of fi v e historical themes com prised in one episode F r on di s t .

It is always better that a complete episode S hould be give n at each lesson E xperience has demonstrated to us that the longest of these episodes seldo m exceeds ten pages —that is ten e xercises Wh en such a case presents itself the whole hour is d evoted to t h e study of this episode and the next day the w hole hour is gi ven to the l i t er ar y w o r k of the lesson The result is ex actly the same —ten exercises in two hou r s At t h e end of the 3 0 0 days of the scholastic year the pupil will thus have been able to assimilate a volume of 1 5 0 0 pages C o m pared to what is now obtained e v en in the best schools this result must appear prodigious and represen t s at least the work of three years A d d e d t e this these 1 5 0 0 exercises have been conscientiously elaborated an d conquered by al l the pupils I repeat by all With regard to the wr i tten work this must be put to the credit of the literary t asks What we have already said upon this point should be remembered ; each theme should be ela borated orally bu t not all of them need be written out on paper O n e such series may be given in E nglish another in French this on e will be given in G erman and that in Italian ; by history the languages w ill be studied and by the languages the history wil l be studied .

’

G eogr ap h i cal S er i es

The teaching of history is involuntarily associa t ed in t h e mind with that of geography If the teachi n g of geography is capable of reform this reform must be based upon a reform in the m aps It is in this d i r e c t ion that we have attempted to solve the probl em In our P rojet d E col eS C antonales Ré forme d es M éthodes p 3 7 we have set forth our process at le n gth We there state how .

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S T UD Y O F TH E S CI E N C E S

356

we h ave been able to reproduce by drawing the true con ﬁ gur a tion of a given region ; how the apparent relief of the surface i n cr eas es b eco m es more precise as our maps are withdrawn further f r o m the eye how the m ap by this means by rendering pos sible the collective teaching of geography becomes a thoroughly pedagogic instrument ; how each continent is subdi vided into regions natural or c l imatic how e ach region is itself put in t o series - that is decomposed into its v arious countries and how each theme of this n ew series is taught an d S ubdivisions elaborate d ; and las t ly how the geographical them e may be con v erted into a lin gui stic theme ,

LAN G UA G E S

TH E

‘

NA TU RA L

S CI E

NC E S

A ND

V I C E V E R SA

To d et er m 1 n e first the di verse ends o f each being or of each force then to reveal the means still m ore diverse by whic h these ends become realities is not this in point of fact the true obj ect of the teaching o f all science physi cal or natural ? If this definition is correct the principles o f o ur method should adapt themselves admirably to the material of physical or natural science b ot h for defining the Conquests of scientist s as well as for popularising them We repeat w herever there are mean s and ends the r e is th e possibility of series N ow the series the properly organ i sed series is incontestably the most practical the most clear one may say the only logical form under which truth may be manifested ,

In reality sci entiﬁ c men whether they know it or not pass their lives in reading deci phering then in constructing such series or in preparing the material for these series The oral teaching of every good professor is nothing more than the development of a series G ive n fro m his lips t h e series is almost always perfect the end being presented as B ut the boo k which repro an end and the means as means Too often it d uces h i s te aching is seldom irreproachable i n gs ends and m eans together into a con fused heap Here we have the true reason why a course of lectures is al ways found more helpful than a printed bo ok We hav e here once more t herefore a reform t o be attem pte d ,

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S TU D Y oE T H E S CI E N C E S

3 5s

‘

The written scienc e would thus become the rival and the perfect image of the reality P roblem s as yet u nsol ve d being brought f ully into view would more directly attract the atten tio n of scien t iﬁc men to them and the conquests of science would become at the same time bot h more certain and more rapid .

What we have said with respect to the s cience of botan y applies equally to all other sciences As a method of e xpos i tion o ur system seems to us therefore capable of rendering the greatest services to true science W hat use can the study o f language make of this propert y of the system ? It can m ake an immense use— one so great indeed that our method would be impossible if the sciences could not be taught by the series In fact the material of which our series is constructed as w e have stated in the chapter on the construction of the i t is the tran s lation of the s y stem is n atural history itself — life of t h e plant the translation of the life of the ins ect the life of the bird the life of the q uadrupe d the play of th e elements it is the expression of the general life of manki nd a n d its development by and in the tra des the arts , the i n d ust r i al occupations ; all this is orga ni sed —as l i ving as that reality itself which the method attempts to interpret E verything is fixed d efined , immutable in Nature ; ends and means al l are contained therein all ar e linked together Where could linguistic science possibly find material more fruitful or on e easier to put to its use ? Is not the principle of causality which rules over the ord er and the harmony of the world the sole basis that should be adopted by a method aspiri n g t o be truly rational ? .

’

[

The work carried out for science and by science wil l serve In return for this also therefore for the study of language linguistic scienc e S hould set in order deﬁne popularise the revelations of physical science and consequently S hould off er a system of which the true deﬁnition w ill still be The languages by th e sciences , Th e sciences by the languages ,

It h as needed some courage on our part to resist here t h e temptation to put into series either a chapter of physics or t h e h i s to r y of a plant or an entomological study by Reaumur But we hav e explained at the commencement of the boo k ,

MATHE MATI CS :

wthe

3 59

series of a quadruped the series of a plant or th e series of an insect should be constructed W e must content ourselves with this gener al indication and must reser v e th e elaboration of the scienti fi c series for definite scientific works ho

TH E

L A N G UA G E S

A ND T H E

E XA C T

’

S CI E

N CE S

It should be stated i n the ﬁrst place that the exact scienc e s are just those which are taught with the greatest success i n the ordinar y schools What is t h e reason of t his ? O pen a book of m athematics and you will ﬁnd a series of lesson s termed theorems developed separat ely and methodically Their enunci ation exactly corresponds to th e expression of “ the ends or aims of our li nguistic lesson s and the demon s t r at i on by deduction answers to the development of th e ” “ Th e successive means by which our ends are attained books therefore which treat the exact sciences d o reall y present these sciences under the form of ser ies It is in fact to t his disposition of their lessons that the t eaching of the exact sciences i n our present schools owes its successes or rather its triumphs The mathematical books therefore be ar telling witness in favour of our system The fact now stands revealed — our system is not new i t 1s as old as the sciences which have applied it instinc t ively for centuries ,

”

But that which is even better tha n the mathematical books and which still more resembles our series is the verb a l lesson or exposition of the teacher The book often presents two deductions or two fragments of deductions upon the same line The te ach er gives forth only one sentence at a time He stays and rests as we d o upon this sentence ; his accent isolates it so to speak and sets it alone upon its own line The book often omits a connection or a deduc t ion the teacher who speaks in order to be understood never commits th is fault or if such an omission occurs he at once corrects it It is for this reason that the student usual ly prefers his o wn notes and e xercises to the most learned of printed books ,

‘

Wh at then we may ask i s l ack i n g to the geometric or al gebraic theore m for it t o be a perfect linguistic them e ? ,

S TUD Y or THE S CI E N C E S

3 60

or next to nothin g so far as r e gard s i t s basi s The n ature of the e x act sciences spec ially lends itself to the prin ci l e s of our syst em In fact there is nothing m o r e r i gi d p than mathematical deduction It is no longer i t is true the relat ionship of succession in time which li nks idea to ide a phrase to phrase but th e logical relationship of principle to consequence which is not less inﬂexible than the form er 1 (s i d e “E coles C antonales p Let but a teacher be ruled to some extent by pedagogic science and his book will be as perfect as his lecture The arbitrary disposition of the typo graphical line spoils t h e book ; it paraly ses or lames the s traightforward march of reason ; it embarrasses deduction it lessens or obscures the evidence If a mathematical theorem were written as it should be written any scholar would be able to assimilate a book upon m athematics j ust as easily as a book upon history The exact sciences are indeed nothing but the development of pure reasoning— reasoning never contradicted altered or corrupted by sentiment N othing ,

’

”

It is therefore th e form and m ore particularly the written form or the printed book which yet leaves something to be desired in the teaching of the exact sciences Let but treatises be written in which the theorems are grouped an d classiﬁed in families i n which deduction is rigidly conducted and thoroughly developed i n which the sentences S impliﬁed and disentangled from each other occupy their natural place and stand eac h o n its o w n sep arate line as they do i n our series ; i n which the pa ragraphs after the manner of our steps are multiplied as necessitated by the ideas and according to the v aried play o f the data and the mathematical theorem will present all the properties of a linguistic theme It co uld be given and after wards a ssi m ilated i n the same way and i n any language desired ; and the study of mathematics instead of opposing and hindering the study o f languages would serve it as an auxiliary However restricted the language of the exact sciences may be this language certainly has its value In default of colou r it can give to the science of language the precision the swing ,

‘

W h y s h o ul d

t h ey

al so

i n t ime ?

t h e e xact sci en ce s t h em sel ves b e re or m e d , so t h at m i gh t b e t h e s t ud y o f f act s accor d in g t o t h e i r or d er o f successi o n T h i s i s pe r e ct l y possi bl e n ot

G RE E K A ND

LATIN

P A R T F I F TH G RE E K A N D

VA L U E

THE

LATIN

RE E K

Th e i nter est

L ATI N

AND

th e

r ace

M Y n ame is a compound of ﬁve letters

Taken separately these letters are to me nothing more than they are to all the world besides G roupe d in a certain fashion they form a word Which has the virt ue of exerting a very peculiar e ff ect upon my mind : it is the name of my father the name of m y mo ther ; it is my own name it is a part of mysel f—i t s tands for myself This word includes f o r me a whole world of ideas of senti ments of remembrances It c o ntains and sums up the exist ence of beings who are or have been the most closely connected with my own existence For me this name cannot perish it is for me clearer and more sacred than even the portraits of those whom it recalls The portrait can S ho w but one moment o f an existence the name translates its totality To renounce this name to barter it for another seems t o me to be al most impossible I S hould feel myself committing the blackest of impieties the meanest of apostasies I should feel as if I were denying the nam e of my father and mother blushing for their life of self-sacr i ﬁ ce despising thei r love S uch i s the virtue of a family name .

ﬂ .

, .

I am bound by i n e aceabl e ties to the cottage i n which I was born to the orchard which was the scene of my childish games to the v illage where dwel t my mother to the village “ church and the village chimes When I hear the word s my country it is to these scenes that my soul take s wings I cling to the persons ol d and young whom then I knew ,

”

TH E

INTE RE S T

or THE RACE

363

rather all these things belong intimately to my being they are as if welded to m e they form part of my very self Hence this sorrowful emotion when one of them passes away from earth ; h ence this rending of my very substance which trans lates itself to t h e external world by a S igh or by tears It is a part of this substance which is torn violently from m e it i s a part of my being which d ies a living im age w hich goes out upon the hearthstone of my life S uch is th e v irtue of our earliest reme mbrances and it is within the depths of this double sentiment that the domestic and religious traditions have their roots or

As with individuals so the races have also their name —a name which e xpresses them and deﬁnes them a name which includes the facts of their life the archives of their existence and this name is —the i r lan guage ! It is bequeathed from generation to generation as an entailed patrimony The lan guage has all the virtues of th e family name the race by who m it is spoken clings to it as to a part of itself an d deems it imper i shable Is it possible to im ag i ne a nation decreeing the abolition of the lan guage of its forefathers ? A s w ith in d ividuals the races have their reminiscences their childhood s earliest remembrances ; they are termed “tradi tions And these traditions constitute the basis of the racial characteristics they are th e ir substance If these were to perish the races would perish It is the living source from w hence the three great ar t eries of the G ood the True nce an d the Beautiful draw their sustena '

“

’

”

For the Latin races Latin is the language of their fore fa thers ; it is the true name of the race and its literature contains a part of the substantial traditions of this race more especially that of the Law G reek is not the l anguage of their forefathers but it is that which brings i n a golden sunbeam the traditions of the True and the Beautiful w hich j oined to the traditions of the Rom an law rendered the Renascence possible The G reek langu age is so encrusted within the languages of our own day that t o get rid of the one we should have to destroy the other For t h e Latin race s the Roman to n gue furnished the r a w material b ut G reek fashioned it : the material is Latin b ut the construction is G reek If Latin is t h e original n ame , w e ,

G RE E K A N D LA TI N

3 64

m ight

say that G re ek is t h e surname O n e represents t h e essence the other the manner of existence The surname often says more to us than the original name and even becomes a title And if G reek has become a dis t i n ct i ve title o f a race have they any right to renou n ce it ? .

The li fe of nations is as a b alance ; one of the scale — pans The S tate is carries their past the other carries their future t h e pi vot upon which the w hole is su pported It is formed for both of t hem an d as its name (status) seems to imply it is by means of the S tate that the equilibrium —that is the conciliation of opposed and apparently ant agonistic forces takes place Although the attributes of th e S tate are as yet but ill defined there are certain funct ions which belong to it by nature The S tate i s before al l else the representative of the race ; to it are confided the interests of the n ation I t has the charge like the V estal virgins of Rome of maintaining upon the altar of the country that which m ay be termed the sacred fire of the race and to watch not only that this shall never go out but that it S hall never diminish or languish To it therefore is confided the sacred i n the least degree keeping of the ancient mother — tongues of the race The interests of the race imperatively demand the maintenance of the G r ee k and Latin tongues C avean t con s ul es ‘

“

t h e i nd i vi d ual

f The study of ancient languages has received a name so t rue so j ust so profound that we might almost say it had T H E H U M A N I TI E S f allen from heaven this name is To study these languages is to make a man of one s self ! To be complete the E very harmonious being has two poles man of to day should be grafted upon the m an of ancien t time s There is something lacking to h i m who has not studied “the humanities His personality is ill bala n ced he himself dimly feels this He may be thrice as gifted as the humanist who stands before him y et by instinct he wil l everywhere yield the highest places to the humanist This may be noticed more particularly i n the writer and th e thinker The exclusively modern man i s timid He has no conﬁdence in himself—h e lacks assurance Whence comes this ? It is because he can feel 110 s olid base whate v er beneat h 2

i nter est

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G RE E K A N D

‘

3 66

LATIN

it «is this incontestable merit that has made i t privilege of b eing adopted as the ﬁ rst basis of literary education of all t h e n at i on s w h o have schools at all both of the Latin or the non Latin races Let u s add that if this language has its adversaries it is not in reality the language itself that is attacked but th e absurd and irrational method by which it is applied which cause it alone to absorb a good third of the student s life In our opinion there is no to n gue which presents s o perfect a n d tempered a mi n gling of antique and m odern as t h e French language Hence perhaps th at secret charm whic h captivate s aa at i o n s h e nce that S ingular prestige which has c aused the French l anguage to be considered the human language par “ excel l ence For all these reasons the h umanities should remai n dear t o us and to our children Let the S tate pr otect and foster them for they are th e source n o t only of beautiful forms of expression but still more of precious tradition swhich aid in forming good citi z ens d etrac t ors d eserve t h e

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”

The interests of the race however are not always in accord w ith those of the indivi d ual It may be that what is obliga tory for the race should re m ain optional for the individu al The race has an unlimited time before it while the days of the individu al are numbered For th e indi vidual the ﬁrst If it be necess ary he will alienate even hi s d uty I S to live family titl edeeds and no one has t h e r i gh t to m ake of this a crime Therefore the S tate cannot absolutely impos e upon “ a free man the obligation to partake of the humanities whatever other social interests may be invoked to do so The true source of riches is the good use of time is ” mo ney as the proverb has it I S it making good use of time to gi ve twelve years o t one s life to the study of a lan guage which we are assured Can never be thoroughly learnt ? I beseech you leave me to dispose M y time belo n gs to me o f m y o w n goods as I think ﬁt otherwise do not call me free ,

”

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I have said that the duty of the S tate is to protect t o foster —I d i d not say to i mp ose—the humanities N ow it will pI o t oot them wil l foster them will even pro pagate them if it n gt h of tim e necessary to be given to them ; can reduce th e l e i f instead of selling th em to its su bj ects a t the ru i nous pi i ce of ten years of their li ves it were to grant them at the price of a few months and more particularly if besides it could ,

S TU DY C F

AN CI E NT LAN G UA G E S

367

— e ara ee the m to deliv red complete that is fruitful n b e t u , g N o w this the S tate can d o if it will

O ND E MNA TI O N

P RO C E S S E S A P PL I E D A N C I E NT LA NG UA G E S

TH E

O F

UDY

Ten years

TH E

and

ten m asters

Are ten years of one s life under t e n teachers absolutely necessary to learn Latin ? W hy is the very same child who n w G or erma ithout going to ca n learn E n lish o r French g school at : all oblige d when h e goes to school to give t en years to the learning of Latin ? The question seems to us to be very well put : we demand a frank and precise answer Let no one here attempt to make the t r i i n gl y subtle distinctions or ant i theses between the spoken language and the written lan guage the everyday lan guage and the l it erary langu age the livi n g language and the dead langu age the pra o tical language and the philological language Whether it be a ck n o wl ed ge d o r not there is for each lan guage a definite foun d ation a first footing upon which 1 s based all its ulterior deve l o pm e n t s literary or otherwise This fo undation is no more dead in Lati n than in G erm an To teach i t it is necessary to S peak Latin as one would speak G erman N ow a person either possesses t h i s f oun d at i o n or h e doe s not possess it When h e has lear ned it he knows or at “ least he un d erstands all the variou s lan guages ”w hich con s t i t ut e this language ; an d wh en he doe s not po s s ess i t he u n derstands none This fo undation of the Latin tongue was t aught by every Roman m other to her ch i l d w i t h i n the circle of one year I Who can doubt this ? Do es the present school t eaching deliver it t o our childre n at the end of fo rty or of fifty seasons ? W h o w ill d are a ffirm that it does ? D oes it even know this fo undation of the Latin tongue its elf ? We should not care to guarantee this ’

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1Th e perfection of a Let u s here lay down a principle — linguistic method is or S hould be in inverse ratio to the number and the cl ever n ess o f t h e teachers r equired by its use I am aware that the classical school will acknowledge wit h '

G RE E K

36 8

AND LATIN

di fficulty any such principle for it goe s aga i ns t i t s v ery c onst i t ut i o n and as we have said the privileg ed classe s were alway s enemies to reform But nevertheless a principle is a principle and the above statement is evidently one In fact the more defective a system the greater are the e fforts required o n the part of those w h o apply it ; t h e worse the method , the hard er o n e has to work What heavy labours are not spared to the workm en o f t oday by new types of machinery that a child ca n direct with on e hand ! What services have not been rendered—ﬁ r st by the sail , and then by t h e propeller blade instead of the galley oar—to our modern sailors C o mpare the post o f ancient days with the telegr aph o f to day ! Where once it required coachmen and horses and carriages and legions of servants all that i s n o w necessary is the attentive eye of a sli m girl calmly watching a dial face which thinks and speaks for the whole universe I repeat t h e perfection of a method i s in in v erse :ratio t o the eff orts which its use n ecessitates ,

If this principle is true was ever a system mo re imperfect The plethora of teachers t han that of the classical school ? w hich it declares absolutely n ecessary for its working is ei t her a form idable abuse or else the indication of a v ice m ore f or m i d abl e st il l What do we find ? It requir e s the combined e ff or t s of eight or ten graduates —that is t o say the knowledge which — represents more than two hundred years of study to produce in ten years—what ? A result which the humblest of mothers can re alise infinitely better than ourselves in two or three t erm s ! We shall be reminded of the numbe r of the pupils B ut why do not our colleges have also twelve professors for G erman twelve for Italian twelve for arithmetic ? Are these languages and these sciences less difficult than Latin ? Be it not forgotten it is not against the teachers them selves that we are here instituting proceedings but against the methods ag ainst routine The time has come when the truth may be S poken without need of tenderness of feeling for that egotism of cl iques or o f castes which everywhere The upholders of national h inders the march of progress education S hould dare to cast to the winds those calamitous traditions which it has received from the enemies of progress "

‘

N o,

it is not n ecessary to S pend ten years

one s life i n ’

G REE K

AND L ATIN

classificati on has therefore n o linguistic virtue ; it h as no use fulness for the deter mination of the value of the terms These term s are classified by the simple chance of their initi al l etters they are arranged m what i s termed alphabetical order The making of a dictionary has its d i ifi cul t i es but this work d oes not a ff ect either the teacher or the p upil The tool is given into their hands ready made they have only to use it .

The dictionary we h ave sai d is a collection of isolated words 5 therefore i t contains nothing but generalities—that is abstraction s The problem to be solved is therefo r e this : wit h the abstract to form the con crete ; with the dead to make the “ living ; o ut of darkness to bring forth light Let us take an example A pupil proposes to tra n slate into Latin this everyday fact I r aise my hand to my head He “ tu 1 ns up his dictionary and at the word raise he ﬁnds t h e following expressions : i ol l o attol l o eri go ef e1 o a ugeo & c He has several expressi ons before him of which he has to choose one Which shall he decide upon ? If the d i ct i on a1 y formed a true system it would be su fﬁcient to have the key to mak e the choice B ut the dictionary is a dead body and as such is dumb O nce more what wil l make the way clear to t h e stu d ent an d guide him rightly in his choice ? I have known scholars who thought to construct good Latin by taking from amongst t h e words served up to them by the dictionary those which appeared the m ost s trange to them A n express i on was considered to be so much the better Lat i n the less i t resembled the corresponding expression i n their own tongue ,

“

”

A child is taken w ith its eyes blindfolded into an unknow n lan d he is p l aced at four crossways then given his sight and “ told You must open your eyes ; here are four roads choose you that which l eads the most directly to Rome and take care you choo se aright We know that all roads lead to Rome but we also know that from any one point to another there is only one straight line There is therefore only one road t hat is truly direct The embarrassment of the child i n such a predicament wou l d be great or rather it might be great ; for what he is most likely to do is to laugh at you an d he would be right to laug h What you propose to him cannot be serious l y meant To m ake a choice he mus t at least know in w hich direction Rome l ies ,

O F TH E

DI S CIP LIN E

CI RC L E

VI CI O US

371

This is exactl y th e case o f our yo ung Lat i n l s t To choo se “ ra is e h e should be tween four si gn i fica t i ons of the word know the connection of each not only with the abstract word “raise ” but the idea e xpressed by the sentence in his o w n lan gua ge In other words he req uir es to know t h e precise And if by chance—a chanc e m eaning of the four Latin words wh i ch pres ents its elf as we know j ust as often as no t —neither o f the fou r words ser v ed up by the dictio n ary is the correct word —what then I t stands confessed to be able to construct rightly a Lati n theme by the aid of the dictionary i t is necessary already to know Latin W e defin ed and we had the right to define the “ study of languages by the dictionary as The discipline of t h e ” v icio us circle .

”

But we shall be told : Raise is not the whole of the phra s e If the student comes to gr1ef over the ve r b possibly he wi ll be more lucky with the other words I will suppose that this does happen although there are good reasons t o suppose t he contrary To what re s ul t would this lead ? Remem ber th at we are requiring not the t 1 an sl at i on of isolated and abst ract words but of organised phrases N ow the word that rules the whole sentence that imprints upon it its character and that m akes it what it is is the verb If you confess yoursel f incapable of translating the verb l n the exact sense indicated by the sente nce you may throw down your pen close the dictionary and trouble yourself no furt her with the const r uc tio n of Lati n sentences Y es it certainly is the v erb that caus es almost the who le o f the di fﬁcul ty with foreign languages It is for th i s r eason that our method concentrates upon the verb al l the energies o f the mind o f the pupil and all the e ff orts all the attention all the art of the teacher .

The clas sical school will reply There are dictionaries and dictionaries A practical dictionary should give abundance o f e xamples an d should reproduce a as occas i on required part of the l itera t ure of the language Then the pupil rea d s compares and after thi s excellent exercise chooses his word D o you believe a child will do thi s ? S i c notus Ulysses ? A child who compares expressions in a lan guage he does not know ! A n d how clever he 13 at th i s operat ion ! E very comparison p1 esupposes an ideal Whence think you ; , "

’

372

G RE E K

AND LATIN

is t h e s cholar to obtain his ide al of Lati n ? I f he already poss esses this ideal he has no need to search in other word s, “ he would not require to study Latin Your practical d ictionary puts the di fﬁ cult y a little further away but it in no way solves it The pupil stray s abroad in rather a wider circle but the circle is alway s a vicious one To learn L ati n you use a dictionary but t o use a dictionary you must ﬁrst know Latin ,

”

“ 7

professors , when we are obliged to have recourse to a d ictionary eve n fo r a French expression in the dictionary o f the Aca demy nay even in t h e monumental work of Littré itself sometime s hesitate for a con siderable time over the choice of a single expression ; and yet w e condemn a child o f twel v e years old to ﬁnd out in their school dictionaries the e xact expr ess i on of any of the hun d red thousand sentences required to translate the human individuality into Latin The classical pedagogy in default of other virtue seems at least to have that of being very childish and very simple J ust consider : in order to translate into Latin the or d inary ” “ expression I stop at the door I myself had to rea d not 1 — which does not contai n it and does not the school dictionary know i t —but two or three classics After I had learnt t h e G erman dictionary by hear t I t r a n s l at e d w ith some conﬁd ence Je m ete m en ch apea u ( I put on my hat ) by I ch Icoe m ei nen 2 I should I ch sei ze m ei n en H ut H ut z u ( instead of certainly have composed a Latin phrase 1 n the same excellent t aste if I had taken counsel of the Latin dictionary to say in ” “ Latin I stop at the door c

‘

“

are sure you have chosen co1 r ect l y when you ha ve th e good fortune to come across the complete phrase in the d i e But consider what this means t i o n ar y Why should I be made to turn up words in the dictionary Would it not be simpl er to give me by word of mouth at al l ? the correct expr e ss1on at once ? If the dictio nary is fairly complete you have the pupil conde mned to go through two t hree five ten columns 1 All this to find one u nhappy word a word which he cannot always find which he even finds but seldom unless the dictionary were an encyclop aedia containing Y ou

1 2

h at

Q ui ch er at A

( Tran s

E ngl i sh .

Je m ets m on ch apeau

wer et ran sl at e d ,

I put m y

G RE E K

3 74

AND LATIN

fear that he may be deceived But n ow perha ps you wi ll kindly e xplain to me what pleasure and what proﬁt you can i i n d in making h i m turn over an d over for two hours at a t ime even this lesser heap o f paper in order t o enable h i m to put into Lati n ten lines whic h you m ight very wel l teach him to express to pe1 fect i on in a few minutes ? It is indee d v ery much as i f a m other when her child asked the name of some o bject instead of giving it to h i m d irectly hers elf were to refer him t o the people down i n the village ,

‘

There prevails among the teaching bodies of all countries at the present time a curious disease which we may call by ” “ t h e name of While this dise as e lasts the voca bul om an i az study of languages cannot make progress Dictionaries are made for teache rs and not for scholars The lesson manufactured by mean s of the dictionary r epr e s ents a labo u r wor s e than barren B y this exercise not only d oes the pupil not conquer the language but the little that h e does learn is mos t ly false The acceptable expressions that come from h is pen fro m time to time are reminiscences He owes them either to the actual voice of the teacher or to the read ing of authors undertaken aloud in cl ass In these two c ases it is his ear in which these expressions still vibrate t hat dicta t es them t o him ; it is never the dictionary that i nspires h i m to give them ,

A disastrous councillor for translating into Latin will this same dictionary prove a better aid for tra nslating f 1 om Latin i nto the pupil s native tongue ? The degree of perfection of an instrument can be established by means of two data The degree of perfection of the product itself I 2 The time n ecessary for producing it Twenty candida t es present themselves for th e examinations A Latin paragraph of ﬁfteen or twenty sentences is given to them They are allowed two hours or so to divine th e s i gn i ﬁ cat i on of these f e w sentences The faculty is triumphant 1 if it so happens that only one half of them are p lucked A n d nevertheless it is not practice that these unlucky ones require They have been manipulating their instrument for some nine years at least They certainly ought it would seem to know it thoroughly to the depths o f its resources ,

”

A n d i n F rance

d i ct i onary i s

ft e n

wed

al l o

cand i d at es as

w el l !

RE AD IN G O F TH E C L AS S I CS

37 5

And be it noted ther e is no question here O f G reek or of S anscrit but of translating Latin where for a French s tu d ent every word shows its meaning and even for an E n glish student e v ery other word is akin to words i n his native ton gue N ine years of practice ! Two hours to interpret ﬁfteen or twenty sentences ! Two or three mistranslations in half a page ! The dictionary is condemned It is not less clu m sy an instrument for translating f r om than in t o a language '

We n ow come to the third Operation the reading of classics I V e have no need to add to what others hav e said upon this The most bitter of criticisms the most cutt ing o f s ubject ironies ha v e vied with each other 1 n heaping insults upon the classical processes of teaching N otwithstanding this the classical school perseveres i n its errors This is b ecause i f the ancient system i s condemnable and condemne d nothing h as yet been brought forward which might replace it The pupils on our system assimilate i n ﬁve minutes that which they could n ot manage to interpret correctly on the O l d system in two hours by the aid O f the dictionary Five minutes against two hours ! This ratio is sufﬁciently elo quent in itself for there to be any need O f commenting further upon it but it requires a little explanation .

”

In the classical process the phrase is read out once twice Oft en a third time Then a halt is called and the attempt i s made to divine th e meaning Then the phrase is re arranged ” “ in the modern or logical construction The pupil makes a h istake the teac er brings him back again Finally the m scholar g rasps or fancies he grasps the author s idea an d ventures upon an equivalent phrase l n his own tongue It i s generally wrong the master attempts t o correct him sub s t i t ut es an o t h e 1 phra se and often still another P lace your watch in front O f you and s ee how lon g this O peration takes M ultipl y this time by two thousand an d calculate how long it will take you to translate a book o f V irgil how man y years will be needed to read the entire I should add t h at if one p upi l has construed aright [ f ne 1d you are not by this assured that all t h e Others have heard an d If you are a good teacher you sho uld u nderstood thoroughly now recommence an d have the sentence repeated by those pupils suspected of inattention It must not be forgotten also ,

’

G R EE K A N D

LATIN

that in this estimate already so heavy the time devoted what is termed preparation is not included ,

Against this labour let us place th at O f our method We have already explained how by our process each conception of the author becomes the conception of the whole class how each Of his thoughts becomes the thought of each O f O ur pupils how we proceed not from word to word but from sentence to sentence doing the work Of the author over again n ot by t 1 an sl at 1 n g it but by composing it in the language itself without t h e possibility of making m istakes or mistranslations without the need of recourse to construction and r econstrue t ion nor to repetitions and readings always requi ring to be begun over again xpending one ﬁfth or one si x th the ime E t c we get through ﬁve times or t en times the work This I s our secret the whole of our secret .

, ,

The instrument put into the hands O f the child to work u po n the l anguages is defective from all points of view Con sequent upon the false principle that the study of a language may be a personal and solitary work the use of t h e diction ary is the occ as ion of an incalculable waste of time and seems to have been designed exp ressly and solely to kill time and occupy students during the intervals between classes The slowness of the process discourages the chil d paralyses his energy and little by little kills his will like all the e xer n to us from the J esuits If I n com cises which have come do w l 1 s of no u s e at all or poor the dictionary if complete it t e e p is impracticable It should be banished from all elementary classes and a logical and fruitful process of teaching should be made at las t to replace this pitiful delusion —the barren an d pernicious discipline o f the v icious circle .

MP RO V E M E N T—S C E PT l CA L D I S D A I N O F TH E O F F I C I A L S C H OO L S A ND T H E I R S E C R E T A V E R S I O N T O R E F OR M

TH E FE A

OF I

A l ast

con test

We h ave state d our opinion upon the importance of G reek But if it were only possible t o buy the knowledge a n d Latin o f these languages at t h e price o f the ten best years of o ur .

G RE E K

37 8

AND LATIN

not be less im potent for m odern lan gu ages than for an cient la n guages If we do a p ply it why should we not achieve the result achieved by N ature herself ? O nce more we ask Did the mothers Of ancient days posses s and follow other p ed ago gic principles than those posses se d and followed by t h e mothers of the children of t o d ay ? If we really have d isco v ere d this matern al process by what right do y o u d oubt its success with G reek an d Latin ? Do you ﬁnd these two l an guages to be of such peculiar nature that it is necessary to inve nt special meth ods for them ? From the o fﬁcial Objections one would really th i nk that in o r der to hav e the gift or t h e secret o f te aching Latin it would be actually necessary to hav e been a Roman matron Of the time of N uma o r V espasian .

“

But Latin is a dead language they cry ; a d ead la n guage c annot be treated like a living language Why not Whence do y ou t ake the premisses of this conclusion ? What influence can the qualification of dead or living e xe 1 t upon the tea chi n g O f a language ? Is G erman less a dead language than Latin itself in the coun t ries where no o n e spe aks i t —as wi t h ou r selves e x cep t i h the cl assroo m ? It i s true that n o t m uch r e a t e r s uccess is usually ac h ieved with it th a n with the dead g ” “ lan guages I t s quality of li ving is not O f very b r eat use to it 9 Let us repeat a reflection previously uttered A language hich is spoken is not a dead language N ow in orde 1 t o teach a la n gu age w e have said it is necessary to S peak it Therefore from the point of v iew of teaching there are no d ead languages ,

At bo tto m the prejudice we are co mbating has no avowable motiv e w hatever and it is a stran ge thing but we ﬁn d this prej udice chieﬂy amongst the professors themselves If we press them to j ustify their opinion they have usually nothi n g “ to say but that it is their feeling and that is all A pro f essor ought to know that a feeling is not a reason This sceptical disd ain this aversion O f the school for any reform o f the schoo l this fear of anything better must have some reason for its e xistence Let us set forth these reasons and j udge them in the full light Of day ,

The sentime n t in question ap pe ars t o us t o have i ts origin i n thre e d istinct causes The ﬁrs t is the imperfect ion itself of .

O BJ E C TI O N S

ANS W E RE D

3 79

the modern linguistic m ethods All of the m in fact have aime d at solving the problem O f t h e ancient languages But the verdict of experience has not bee n given in their fa vour And in this there is nothing astonishing S ystems radically inc apable of te aching us a living language cannot prete nd t o be in possession O f the secret O f teaching an ancient language This nonsuccess has had the effect of d iscrediting ever ythin g term i ng itself a li n guistic method W e know h o w mank i nd i s too apt to reason and how at one bound i t raises thi s gene .

r ali s at i on

A certain modern method is proved wort hl e ss Therefore all are worthless And this has been to the triumph of the dictionary proc ess of learning languages ,

”

The second cause is the feeling which is to be found more o r less at the root of every contradiction n amely pe rsonal egotism W e have stated that the Objection of which we are S peaking is generally made by members O f th e teaching pro f e s si o n Unconsciously their j udgment is dictated by personal interest and a feeling of a m our p r op re By their interest for does not our system institute an indirect attack upon their position ? What becomes of the p r esent methods if the teachi n g Of langu ages can be simpliﬁed to the extent we have ind icated ? By their am our pr op r e ; for why could not they as well as others have discovered a better system if an y better syste m These unworthy could exist than that of the present colleges ? feelings however would never be allowed weight by those who sa w in a n e w system a tr ue means of helping forward the cause of education ,

‘

”

A third ca use and the principal one is t h e knowledge of the difficulty O f a really e ff ective reform This 1 eason i s a legitimate one and deserves to be taken into consideration In the first place a professor has always present to h i s m ind the remembrance of his l On g struggle with the classical languages and it is extremely d i fii cul t for him to believe that any one can triumph over them with less e ff ort than he was obliged to expend upon them himself He has besides his everyday experience ceaselessly reminding him o f the amoun t of pains it costs to obtain even the most moderate li nguisti c d evelopment i n the schoolboy mind Therefore by training if not by nature the teacher i s v ery s ceptica l when mention ,

G RE E K A N D

3 80

LATIN

is made of the virtue of cert ain metho d s For him the imbe ci l i t y of the mind does not come fro m the defec t iveness of methods but the powerl essness o f th e methods ﬁnds its explanation in the imbecility of the mi nd In our Opinion this is to take the e ff ect for the cause ; but it must be admitted that it is extremely d i fficult for any on e who is committed to the practice O f the ordinary methods not to fall into this error .

To all this is added the di fﬁ culty O f working upon a dead O n e can co n cei ve , i t may be objected that you lang uage might be able to construct your series in a living language ei t her by actually going to the country where this language is spoken or by havin g recourse to the knowledge of a native of t h is country B ut how could you manage to construct your series in a language which nobody n o w speaks ? This is a grave question and one which it is proper t o answer not by general considerations but by precise facts .

2 "

S ol uti on

th e

ﬂ i ct

con

W e will concede in the ﬁrst place to our opponents that ,

the t ask i s an arduous one we will grant that the enterprise i s even more laborious than they themselves suspect Havi n g made this reservation we j ustify i n the following m anner our position and our statements S uppose for a mo m ent that our method had been constr ucted i n the t i me O f C icero or of Demosthenes Applied to the two “ classical lan guages then living th ey would have rendered the teaching of these langu ages as easy as that of G erm an or of French or E ngl ish today In fact grant that this method is an excellent one for the living languages is it not confessed thereby that it would have been of old equally e x cellent for G reek and Latin ? But can a method which was a good one for these languages in the lifetime of C icero cease to be e x cel lent when applied at the present day ? There remains therefore to be proved that if our sys t em had been created at the time of Cicero it would not have sensibly di ffer ed from that which we have constructed or believe ourselves able to construct at the end O f the nineteenth century C icero an d Demosthenes are dea d and with them every one who spoke t heir tongue But there remains to us _

”

G RE E K A N D

3 82

L AT I N

boo k whatever and he will ﬁnd himself in th e p res ence o f a language he already knows wel l he will never in fact meet in these books an y expression which does not ﬁgure in the S eries He wi ll there f ore read this lang ua ge and will understand it as each of us reads and understands a book writ t e n in his mother-t o n gue For that pupil G reek and Latin will be surely “ d ead langu ages s omethi ng other than ,

“But

how will you deal with the terms of enti rely moder n creation some one accustomed to j udge O f things only from “ their smallest side will be sure to Object terms such as powder gun cannon steam electricity tele graph & c O ur method preoccupies itself solely with the sentence and wi t h the verb It must not be forgotten that we know a language thoroughly when we thoroughly know these t w o elements As to this do z en substantives of modern creation we can at need graft the m upon the ancient lang uages exactly i n the sa me w ay as th ey have been grafted on the modern languages O n e may know a language perfectly an d yet be ignorant of these f e w technical terms If a river receive the water from sundry g utters or from a f e w fresh r unnels it is not thereby any less the same river ,

I know O f only one further Objection to our system Wh o will engage to do this work h o wil l undert ake this dis ? W 2 It cannot be expected that s ection O f two great literat ures ? this should be imposed upon the ordinary teacher To carry it out it would be necessary t o have complete possession of the vast system O f disposition and all the secre ts O f th e “S eries O ur answer is : This work is i n pa r t accomplished ; it is already over twenty ye ars since the labour was com .

’

m en ce d

“the

What migh t be termed error i n G reek and Latin ” teaching i s not an error special to the E nglish school or the French school or to any school it is G erman S wis s Russian E very school in the world i t is E urope an it is universal cultivate s i t i n ri valry w i t h its neigh bo ur All without exception treat G reek and Latin practically und e r the same pro cess At no time I n the world s history h as the question of reform been so much agi tated as at present At no t i me have the err ors O f the classical systems been criticised with so much v ehemence , nor the entrenchments of pedantry assailed wi t h ,

’

THE

DYIN G

DI A LE O TS

3 83

m uch resolution If a n ew way can b e Opened t h e tim e is rt ai nl y ripe for it ; the reform is no longer a mere idea —i t is an urgent need And with so much i n its history that points to li be rty the nations will not fail to honour France for being in the vanguard of progress i n the s cholas tic w orl d as i t is i n the so cial world so

TH E

D Y IN G

— AN D I A LE cTs

A RK or

S A FETY

A nation is not a homogeneous whole as t h e po liticians i n an interest quite other to that of i t s o f the prese nt day— happiness —wish to make the world believe The great races are not vast fami l ies issuing fro m a single stock but assem bl ages of tribe s at one time distinct and Often enemies to eac h other Hence alongside each general lan guage we hav e S pecial languages called dialects which survive among the tri be by which they are spoke n as the man is survived by the name which he has made illustrious ,

still abounds with minor languages O f this kin d \V e have said that the races bear a name which sums up thei r life and deﬁnes their character ; this name is their language The dialects are therefore as the residues of civilisations which have pre ceded our ow n E ach o f the m re presents a chapter i n the annals of th e human race For this rea son the dialec t s deserv e to be immorta li sed History will have hard things t o say in after years of the levelling despotism of o ur time which has d eclared war not only against the liberty o f nations of tribes and of families but even against their langu ages themselve s Unit y i n variety —this is Life unity without variety —this is D eath Therefore the dialects should be allowe d to live an d with them the ra ces and the t ribes that speak them A state desiring to be something more than a mi schievous abstraction mus t rest upo n strong and numerous i n di vi dualities True unity is somethin g quite other th an a dull uniformity E urope

, .

The d ialects have a great value not only as the r epository of the thoughts and of the life of another age but still more as the substratum o f the general mode rn language s ,

3 84 1

G RE E K A N D

LATIN

The di alects are therefore worthy of att en t io n fro m t h e triple point of vie w o f history of linguistic literature and of t heir inﬂuence upO n the national characte r E verywhere cam is taken to preserve the stone monuments O f earlier ages ; science cannot per mit political vandalism to raze to the ground and bury out of S ight the chief mo num ent O f those very ages But where I S the ark that S hall shelter and save the sacred archi ves O f the civilisations O f which ours is the resultant ? The dictionary perhaps or possi bly the libraries ? ,

Let us try to estimate the chances o f safety that a lan guage could ﬁnd i n these t wo sanctuaries Th e dictiona ry — as we h ave S een only preserves a language i n the state of a d ead body and of a dead body in pieces To reconstitute a lan guage by means O f the dictionary is not less impossible than t o reconstitute the world by the aid o f the fourscore pri m e r elements known to chemis tLet a erman for instance G y attempt to ﬁnd out i n Littré the expres sion of his who l e individuality in French O r let a Frenchman try to expres s his own i n G erman by the aid of the dictionary of G rimm ! It could not be done The dictionary is therefore perfectly powerless in itself to save a language from Oblivion 1

the l ibraries o ff er better guarantees of safet y ? Yes assuredly but upon one condition : this is that the dialect os But where is the dialect t hat s esses a rich literature p enjoys this privilege ? Indeed a dialect is a dialect only fo r the reason that it has not or has no longer any literature A n d moreover if a literature is an eminentl y ﬁt sanctuary for the preservation of a given language it should be thoroughly recognised that this langu age itself cannot be extracted there from but with inﬁnite pains and precautions We wil l go further and maintain even that without a system such as that we have set forth this operation is practically impossible Therefore literature abandoned to its own resources is found to be almost equally powerless with the dictionary for per e t uat i n g either the knowledge or the usage of any dial ec t p whatever ”

‘

That ser vice which the two great means of which we h ave j ust spoken—the dictionary and the literature —are incapable or those which are con o f rendering to the d y ing dialects d em n ed to die our method of S eries n o w comes forward t o o ffer H ave we not demonstrated that this system is a mould ‘

8 3 6

A PPE NDIX

A P PE NDI X I

—TH RE E

F RE N C H

S E RI E S

LA P O M P E

I La f em m e

L E SSO N S

a l a pom pe

se r end

La femme prend l e seau par femme l eve l e seau femme traverse la cuisine femme ouvre la porte femme franchit l e seuil femme sort de la cuisin e femme se retourne femme ferm e la porte

la la la la la la la la la

La femme quitte la cuisine femme s é l o i gn e de l acuisine femme se dirige v ers la pompe femme s approche de la pompe femme parvient a la pompe femme S arrete pres de la pom pe femme l éve l e seau femme allonge l e bras femme place l e sea u sous l e t uyau de la pompe femme l ache l anse d u seau

la la la la la la

’

Femme (ﬁ l l e ﬁ l l et t e bonne servante gar con domestique servite ur S ean ( arrosoir u rne cruche broc seille j atte baquet vase vaisseau ustensile C uisine ( maison logis demeure domicile ,

S PE C I M E N

APP E N D I X

F RE N CH

S E RIE S

L E S S O NS

3 87

] LA P O M P E

La f em m e pompe d e l

E lle é tend l e

bras elle saisit l o balancier elle hausse l o balancier elle abaisse l o balancie r elle hausse l e balancier elle abaisse l e balancier l e balancier grince la pompe tremble

’

eau

, ,

’

L eau monte dans la pompe l eau coule par l e tuyau l eau tombe dans l e seau l eau frappe l e fond d u seau l eau bruit au fond d u seau l eau tour noie dans l e seau l eau é cume dans l e seau , l eau monte dans l e seau l eau monte monte et mon t e encore elle empl it l e seau la femme l ache l e balancier ,

’

B alancier

l e (

bras

l e l e vier, l e

machin l aff ai r e P ompe ( l e corps de pompe dedans Tuyau (l e cond uit l e canal

manche la machine ,

’

cylindre

’

l i n t é r i eur , l o

APPE NDIX

88 3

APP E N D IX

] P O MPE

em por t e

La f emm e

’

a la

eau

fem m e se penche v ers l e seau prend l e seau par l anse e t l e retire d e dessous l e tuyau elle ferme l e poing gauche elle appuie l e poing gauche contre sa hanche elle se penche d a cOt é gauche e t fait ainsi é quilibre au poids de l eau La

cui si ne

’

pr end

r et r e

f erm e

’

tourne l e dos a la pompe quitte la pompe S é l o i gne de la pompe se dirige vers la cuisine s a pr o ch e de la cuisine p arrive ala porte ouvre la porte franchit l e seuil entre dans la cuisine

E lle

elle elle elle elle elle elle elle elle

’

E lle

referme la porte elle traverse la cuisine elle porte l e seau d eau asa place ; elle se penche e t pose doucement l e seau d eau a terre elle l ache l anse d u seau , se redresse et reprend haleine P uis ell e emploie l eau au x usages or d 1n a1r es m é nage ,

’

P lace (l e lieu , l

’

en d r oi t ,

coin

pench e

appui e

en ch e é q ui l i bre

se p

f ai t

APPE NDIX

3 90

n Lastly the first ac t io may have been finished for a cer 4 tain time at the moment the s econd act commences “Yesterday I had al read dined been dining when he y ( ) arrived Hier j avai s d éi d d i n é quand il ar riva Here the first action is more than perfect when the secon d occurs The term P luperfect (that is Act plus or more than — u u perfect P l sq e P arfait) , furnished by the grammars there fore in every way suits the first of these two acts We may represent this relation by t wo straight lines w hich fol low each other at a cert ai n interv al If n ow we transport these f our relations into definite n ished u finished indefinite unfi and f ture periods time o f ) ( ( ) the follo wing ar e t h e form s we shall obtain .

, .

’

A CT S

CO O RDINAT E D A

THE S AM E PE RI O D O F

—S I MULTA N

OU S ACTS

whil e I was dining wh i le I have be en dining while I am dining B

— CO N S E CuTTV E

TI ME

work ing h e h as b een work i ng h e will be working w as

ACTS

YE S T ER D A Y ( d eﬁnite or ﬁnish ed period of tim e) He arrived I was dining I mperf ect act I h ad dined ( been dining) P erf ect act P l uperf ect a ct I had dined .

—this morn ing (indeﬁnite or unﬁni h ed p

ToDA Y

erI O d

He arrived I was dining I h ad dined ( been dining) I h ad dined

of ti m e)

I mperf ect act P erf ect act P l uperf ect act .

M ORROW TO -

future period of time ) ( He wi ll arriv e I mperf ect act I am dini ng P erf ect act I h ave dined ( been dining) P l uperf ect act I shal l hav e din ed .

CO O RDINAT E D AC TS —AUTHO R S T E XT ’

39 1

AP PE N D I X IL ] A CT E S

ccO RDO NN ES

— A A

DAN S

U N M EME

S I MU L TA N ES

CTE S

T E MPS

tandi s que Je d i nai s t andi s q ue j e d i n ai s tand i s q ue j e di n eral B

—A0TE S

CO N S ECUTIF S

HI E R (temps d é ﬁ ni ) I l arriva

A cte i mparf act A cte parf act u r ai t A cte pl use a g p f .

’

Auj ourd hui ’

C E M A TI N ( t emp s i n d é ﬁ ni ) Il

est

arrivé '

A cte cmparf ai t A cte parf ai t A cte pl asgue

D E M A I N (temp s av enir) I l arriv era

A cte i mparf act A cte parf a zt A cte pl usu e q parf a zt ’

A P PE NDIX :

392

A P P E N DI X

III

LE Ll oN E T LE MO UCHE RO N ( LA FO NTA I N E )

L O ut r age

’

l e Duel

V at— en chétif i n s ect e excr em ent de l a terre ! O est en ces mots que l e lion parlait un jour au moucheron L autre lui déclara l a guerre — il enses tu l dit P ui que ton titre d e roi me f asse peur n i me soucie ? U n b oeuf est plus puissant q ue toi e l e m ene a ma fantaisie j v

’

va t en par l ai t

’

A p eine il achevait ces mots que lui m eme i l sonna 1a charge fut l e trompette et l e héros D ans l abor d i l se met au large puis prend son temps fond s ur l e cou d a lion q u il rend presque fou Le quadrup ede é cume e t son oeil étincelle i l rugit O n se cache o n tremble al e n vi r on e t cette alarme universelle est l ouvr age moucheron

ach

evai t

s onna

f ut t r ompe t t e se m et pr end fond rend f ou é cume é t i ncel l e rugi t s e cach e t r e mb l e ’ est 1 ouvr age

’

av orton d e m ouche en cent lieu x harcelle t ant ot pique l é ch i n e et t ant ot l e m useau , t an t ot entre au fond d u n as eau Le rage alors se trou ve ason fai te mont é e Un

’

h ar cel l e

APPE N D IX

394

AP PE N D I X III ] .

Le Li on et l e Mouch er on

E L A TI V E P H R A S E S R (

J e pense q ue N e pense pas

t p

I N TE R L O C UTOR Y

S E NT E N C E S

)

vous sa v ez la su ite que -tu puisses apprendre quelque chose sans cela I P enses t u que 1 on puisse apprendre une langue sans cela ? E t que rien n e v ous fasse peur La constr uction d une phrase ne doit pas v o us faire peur O n v oit que v ous n ave z pas peur S i v ous faites une faute que cela n e v ous soucie Votre mémoire devient de Jour en jour plus puissante P our b atir une phrase nul n est pl us puissant que toi Vous menez la lan gue avotre fantaisie M ettez vo us comme on dit an large P r en ea votre temps E t dans l abor d repr é sentetoi bien l e fait E t dans l ab or d produisons l e v erbe O est l a l ou vr age d un bon é colier V ous triompherez O n tri o m phera —nous triompherons J e triomphe de v ous v oir si bien marcher J e ris de voir qu il n est plus de d i fﬁ cul t é pour vous M ettez v ous en devoir -de v ous bien repré sent er l o fait que vous exprimez Faites v otre dev oir -de bien prononcer Fais ton devoi r -de parler correctement Qui fait une faute s ou v ent n en peut mais Vous n etes pas encore Sur les dents M ontrez que v ous n etes pas encore sur les dents O n n e peut pas dire : l e voil a sur les dents D u combat vous vous retirerez avec gloire V o us pou v ez j e crois sonner l a victoire P renez gar de au x moindres mots entre nos ennemis l es plus acraindre sont souvent les plus petits Au x grands périls t el a pu se soustraire qui périt pour la moind r e a ai r e

Cont F att

;

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Cont Cont B dit

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Cont F at t Tr b Lent B d it

C ont i n uez

F ai s at tent i on Tres b i en L e n t e m en t B i en d i t .

D t p D onn e t oi d e l a pei ne P h am P ar l ez h ar d i m ent C our age Cour A tt A t t e n t i on .

zvou .

A ppl i q ue

CE RTIFI CAT E O F M LO O KRO Y .

A P P E N DI X I V

39 5

FRE N C H M I N I STE R O F P U BLI C I NSTR U O T E M P I E W H O P RO V I D E D F UND S F O R E X PE RI TI O N T o M M E NTA L C O U R S E S I N G E R M A N

CE RTI FI C ATE

TH E

P A RI S , Le 9

A M onsieur TE M P I E

j ui n

1 88 8

M O NSI E U R , —M onsieur l e

vice recteur de l A cad é m i e

de P aris m a tran smis un rapport sur les résultats Obtenus dans l en s ei gn em en t de l alleman d a l ecole normale d i n s t i t ut eur s de P aris par M onsieur G ouin qui a é t é autorisé afaire l appl i cation de sa méthode dans cet établissement C e t essai a permis de constater d une mani ere certaine qu en moins de go o l econ s les el ev e s suivaient un e conversation ordinaire comprenaient n u ex pos é fait en allemand savaient donner eu x m emes une le con démontrer l es r egles de l a grammaire et é crire correctement J e crois de v oir v ous adresser mes félicitations pour les résultats d us a v otre initiati v e M onsieur l e v ice recteur m i nfor m e que v ous auriez l inten tion d é t abl i r a P aris dan s un local que v ous demanderiez a la v ille des cours d e langues V ivantes oil v otre (la ) méthode pourrait rece v oir un e utile application C e proj et mérite d etre pri s en con s i d erat i on et j e v err ais avec plaisir que la con s ecr at i on donnée par cette l ettre au x r é sultats d é aObtenus j l ﬁ t décider es conseils g é n é rau x a v ous en v oyer des bours iers p pour s ui vr e ces cours Recev ez M o n sieur l assurance de ma con si d e r at i on tr es distinguée ’

’

L e M i n i str e d e l I n str uctcon P ubl cque et d es B eaux A r ts, ’

L O C KRO Y

APPE N D IX

3 96

T r ansl ati on [

]

To M TE M PI E .

—M onsieur l

P A R I S , Jun e 9 t h ,

1 88 8

Recteur de l A cad é m i e de P aris has Viceforwarded t o me a report upo n the resu l ts Obtained i n the teaching of G erman at the N ormal S chool of P receptors P aris by M G ouin w h o has been authorised t o carry out the applicatio n of his method in that establishment This tri al permi ts the deﬁn ite statement to be made that in less than 3 0 0 lessons the pupils followed an ordinary con v ersation understood a l ecture giv en in G erm an kne w them selves how to give a lesson to demonstrate the rules of grammar and to write correctly I think it my duty t o congr atul ate you upon the results due to your initiative Recteur informs me that you have the M onsieur l e V ice intentio n of establ i shing in P aris on prem is es which you will ask o f the town classes for the teaching of modern languages in which the method might receive a useful application This project deserv es to be taken into consideration and I should see with pleasure that the oﬁ ci al recognition given by this letter to the results already obtained might decide the G eneral C ouncils t o s end you e x hibition scholars t o follow these courses Receive & c S I R,

’

‘

Th e M i ni ster

P ubl i c I nstr ucti on

ign d e S ) (

an d

L O C K RO Y

A r ts,

INDE X

3 98 B ook , f orm of te ach i n g re ad i ng of N at ur e Botany , t h e t each i ng o f Br eat h i ng, an d t h e l engt h

ph rase

C A E N, st ud i es at C ad en ce C ani s e t L upus C ases k n owl e d ge of, by G erm an s i n st abi l i t y o f C er t i ďŹ cat e by M L ock r oy C h i l d , m e t h od of a h ack ney e d r i d d l e l earn s n o gr am m ar l i vi ng l an guage o f l ogi cal or d er o f l i n gui st i c w or k of s ub j e ct i ve l an guage o f curi o s i t y O f, cause l e ar ni ng a l an guage e asy t o d i st i n gui sh e s by acce n t i nst i n ct i ve gr am m ar o f an d t h e pr es en t t en se an d t h e G er m an pr e fi x e n j oy m en t O f sch ool C h in e se re f err e d t o C i ce ro r e vi ved C l as ses, at B erl i n â&#x20AC;&#x2122; C l assi cs, aut h or s an t e ced e n t s i n s t ud y o f o r gan i sat i on o f C l assi cal pr ocess, G r e ek d ecl e nsi ons con st r uct i on sub or d i n at e m ood s t i m e gi ven i n an d t each er s C om pl em ent s of ve r b s C on ce n t r i c S er i e s C on cept i on, m ent al .

C on d i t i on al m ood C on j ugat i on, s t ud y

un i t y

C on j un ct i on

per fe ct t abl es of pr act i ce O f e p rm an e n t

IND E X C on st ruct i on,

39 9

anci ent or n at ur al

m o d er n or l ogi cal G e rm an by t h e cl ass i cal pr ocess b y t h e S er i e s m et h o d C on st rui ng ab r o gat e d C o nt i n ual t al k , t h e C on er sat i on i n G er m an C O or d i n at e d act s C r i osi t y of h il d

D EA TH O F

P RIA M

D ead l anguages D ecl ensi ons L at i n

ol i n t h e cl assi cal sch o st u d y o f, a t or t ur e on t h e S er i es m et h o d con st r uct i on o f t ab l e D efi n i t e per i od s of t i m e D i al ect s, t h e d yi ng D i ct at i on D i ct i onary , l ear n i nog off b y h ear t ,

f t h e e ar o f t ot al i t y o f, con t ai n e d i n t h e S e l l e : u se of, i n t h e cl a ss i cal s ch o ol con d em n at i o n o f, a s a n i n st ru m e n t f or i s co ery o f t h e S e r i e s sy st em i s ci pl i n e, st ri ct an d l ax i sl i e f o r t h e st ud y of l an g age s e xpl ai n e d i f c l t i es, I n con st r uct i on of S er i e s o f or d i n ary pr o ce s s o f r e fo r m s i ve r si on n e ce ss ar y t o pu om e s t i c S er i e s o m i n an t , t h e r aw i ng, ar t o f t each i n g rei S pi n n er i nn en cur e O

D v D D k D ﬁu

D D D D D

E A R,

as as

t h e o r gan o f l an gu age t un i n g-o r k o r st an d ar d

E ar l y r em i n i s cen ces E l e m en t ary S er i e s

gi ve n by w o r m e n t each er s

E n cl i t i cs

verb s un i f o r m i t y i n cl as s iﬁ cat i on V i rgi l

’

al l

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m e t h od o f t each i ng con s t i t ut i on o f i n G er m an

s t ud

IND E X

400

E n cl i t i cs i n t h e cl assi cs E ngl i sh , rst l e sson i n e m pl o m e n t of d e n i t e t en s e y E q ual i ty o f i nt el l e ct s E rr ors o f t h e cl assi cal sch ool E veryd ay l an guage E xer ci se , con st ruct i on of proper t i es o f val ue o f d i f cul t i es of c on st r uct i on l engt h of E y e, fut il i t y o f t each i ng b

ﬁ

F A I LUR E F i gur at i ve l anguage

F i r e, S er i es F i r st l esson

d o m e st i c l i fe or gan i sa t i on of ar t O f t each i n g

b a s ed

i n e i gh t l an guages F o w l , S e r i es o f F ren ch , r st l ess on I n e m pl oy m e n t o f i n d e fi n i t e t e n se a d i f cul t l an guage t h e h um an l an guage

ﬁ

G A ME G ift s o f N at ur e G ift f or l an guages G en er al i sat i on G e ograph y , t h e t e ach i n g o G er m an , at t e m pt s of aut h or t o l e ar n .

r oot s

t h i n ing in r st l e s so n i n con ugat i o n s

ﬁ

j pr eﬁ x

l an guage

an e asy

G oet h e, t r an sl at ing G r amm ar aut h or s s t ud y of G erm an a q uasi at t r act i ve s ci e n ce l u e of r i a l v a a t c c p psy ch ol ogi c b asi s ’

gam e uni t y of refor m of n at ur al G r amm at i cal sen se ’ G reek , aut h or s k n owl ege pr on un ci at i on a

IND E X

40 2

L A F ONTA IN E an ua e m a g g , y b e l ear ne d i n s i x m on t h s art of l ear ni n g s ub ect i ve ob e ct i ve gur at i ve li m i t o f i nar t i cul at e e ase o f l e ar n i n g psy ch ol ogi cal d i ff er en ce t i m e n ece ssary t o l earn a wh ol e wor l d t o con uer q t h e n am e of a r ace anguages, t wo di ff er e nt by t h e sci en ces and vi ce ver sct s t ud y of, an o r e at s ch ool g at i n, t each i ng of construct i on of exerci ses rst l esson i n gramm ar conj ugat i on b el ongs t o se con d age o f anguage spok en I n Roum ani a

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3 09 6

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5 3, 6O , 6 1, 127 5 5 6 O , 1 8 2 , 1 89 65 ,

1 23 1 28

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m ad e t oo e asy n o l onger a d ead l an guage m o d al ph r ases or d i n ary k nowl ed ge o f n ow r e q ui r es t e n m ast er s m et h o d o f t each i ng m ust b e spok en val ue o f d i f cul t y of t r an sl at i ng i n t o i fe o f t h e peopl e put I n S er i es i n e by l i n e ar r an ge m en t i ngui st i c m et h o d , n eed o f .

2 82

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m et h od o f t each i ng L i t erat ure and h ist ory com bi ned L i t erary S eri es speci m en m et h od of t each i ng cl as si ﬁ cati on of Logi c of t h e ch i l d L ogi cal or d er of const r uct i on

2 3

M A THE MA TI CS M ean s an d en d

3 09 3 25 3 39

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I N DE X Z

40 3

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t each i ng

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’

1 29 ,

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M i n d facul t i e s of M i n d s ey e, s e ei n g i n M n em on i c pr oper t i es M od al ph r as es M o m e nt s of pr eci si on M on d eux, H en r i M oo d s M ot h er s S e ri es M o t i ve of Rel at i ve ph r ases M y s t i c l ad d er o f i n d i vi d ual i t y ,

’

N A ME, pr opert i es of N at i ve t each ers N at ur al f or ce s t am ed N at ur al m et h od or d er of c on st r uct i o n s ci en ces N at ur e, pr ocess O f l ogi c of sch oo l o f o r d e r of s ecr et s O f at f aul t wi t h t h e case s N ecessi t y O f speci fy i ng t h e t i m e N or w egi an , ﬁ r s t l esson i n N ur sem ai d , h er ser i e s can t each t h e bul k of

362 I 79 3

3 56 6 : 3 5 a 3 8, 44 : 1 2 8, 1 7 8 : 2 5 3 , 2 9 3

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O A K, S er i e s of O bj e ct l es son s O bj e ct i ve l an guage gan i sat i on i n S eri e s m et h od o f t each i n g O l l en d orf, ab sen ce o f t h eory G e r m an m et h od appr e ci at i on o f s t ud y o f fai l ure of use o f t h e sub st an t i ve h i d e ous con fusi on o f w i t h out a m ast er O r al e xer ci se , t o com e r st O r d er ed conver sat i on or

ﬁ

I n six

m o nt h s

I ND E X

40 4 N at ur e an d d i sor d e r n at ur al an d l ogi cal O r gan o f l an guage O r t h ogr aph y

O rd er

P A R S I NG I n pr act i ce P ar t i ci pl e P as cal , q uot e d s t yl e o f P a st , pr ese n t , an d f ut ure P e r ce pt i on of t h e m i l l an d con cept i on P er i od s o f t i m e P e r pet ual speech P erson al w or k o f t h e s t ud en t P h aed rus, C an i s e t Lupus P h r ase , m e asur e o f P l an t , S er i es O f P l oet z , sy st em at i c vocab ul ary P l uperfe ct act s P re fi x ’ P ren d er gast s sy st em P r epo si t i on P r ese n t t en se, i m por tan ce o f P r oj ect f or coun t y h i gh sch ool s P r onun ci at i on , f al s i fi cat i on o f good re ason O f fal s e fi gur e d P sy ch ol ogy, l an gI I age a ch apt e r P sy ch ol ogi cal cl assi fi cat i on P um p, S er i es O f P un i sh m en t , a d i ver s i on

Q U I E TI S TS

bj e ct i on s

RE A D I NG t he

cl ass i cs

Read i n g b ook ch il d s ﬁ r s t Re ad i ngl es soii s I n h i st ory Red uce t h e sub j ect s Reform o f l an guage t e ach i ng ’

of of

f of of O f

gr am m ar t e ach i n g r ead i n g t e ach i n g d r aw i ng t ea ch i n g h i s t or y t e ac h i ng ge ogr aph y m at h em at i cs t e xt b ook s t each i ng G re ek an d

Rel at i ve ph r ases

L at i n

406

INDE X

“

S er i es,

S peci m en ,

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l anguages

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m et aph or i cal f or r e a d i n gl e ssons f or d r aw i ngl esson s l i t e r ary h i st ori cal geograph i cal

1 94

2 89

29 2

3 09

-9

3 55

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ﬁ

S ub s t an t i ve s , ge n er al and speci c S ub st i t ut e s S ub ect i ve l anguage i t s o rgan i sat i on m et h od o f t each i n g S ub un ct i ves S ucces si on i n t i m e S y m b ol s o f m et aph or s S y m m et ry , vai n S ear ch f o r S yn t ax S y n t h e si s S y st em at i c vocabul ary

T E A CH E R ,

f or t h r ee cl asses n ecessi t y o f a ’ Te ach er s t ask s i m pl i e d spo k e n s er i e s T e ach i ng m us t assum e t h e ch ar act er T en ses an d act s var i ous use of sam e T h eor y T h i n k i ng i n t h e for e i gn l an guage T h ough t an d w or d s T h i r d per s on Ti m e I n gen er al al w ay s m en t i on e d n ecess ary t o l e a r n a l an guage Tr ad i t i on s on e

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3 56 3 59 381 3 86

3 20 1 72 111

3 64 1 20

I N D EX

Tr agen, i nn er m eanin g of T r an scri pt i on of a cl assi cal w or k Tran sl at i on , G oet h e an d S chi l l er j ud gm en t of Typograph i c f orm .

VALUE of G reek an d Var i an t s Ver b, i m por t ance o f S er i e s

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part pl ay e b y con cen t r at i on of at t en t i on upon d e n i t i on by posi t i on st ud y of Verbs, of en d s and of m ean s i rregul ar com pl et e an d i ncom pl et e Vi ci ous ci r cl e of t h e d i cti onary Vi r gi l , t ran sl at i ng l engt h of s cen e s i n en cl i t i cs i n assi m il at i on of E cl ogues, con str uct i on n o l onger a d ead l an guage spe cim en o f t r an s cr i t i o n p m et h od O f s t ud yi ng .

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