who write for public instruction or entertainment, or, those who exclusively follow other literary pursuits. It is for the use of such that I have written the last section of the second volume which is altogether grammatical and critical. It contains a more extensive system of syntax*, by far, than any other ever before offered the public. If a few natives of any country are, from peculiar situations, impelled to acquire such a critical accuracy, still fewer of those who learn a foreign tongue, are in want of such knowledge; yet, strange to tell! by far the greatest part of preceptors teach a foreign language to their pupils, as if the learner were conversant in it; (which, as beginners or children, would be absurd to suppose,) and as, if the former really meant often to confer on his scholar the pedantic and useless knowledge of a hyper-critic, before he is acquainted with one word of the language he wishes to learn!! Scientific errors, as well as all others, originate in wrong judgment, or the abuse of words; these causes, together with a blind attachment to ancient forms, have concurred in establishing the method of the schools, which, for the benefit of society, and in favor of the arguments already advanced against it, should at present, be entirely exploded. The false acceptation given to the word ROTE, for instance, has confirmed many respectable French teachers, in their former prejudices, and more strictly attached them to the old mode of teaching by rules diametrically opposite to the simple method here laid down. The numberless French grammars for the use of Englishmen have been of very little service to me for the syntax of this production. It has not been so, however, with the excellent grammatical works of Wailly, Fabre, as they have supplied me with many valuable rules and examples. I am also indebted to Messrs. Caminade and Serrau. They suppose learning by rote to be a wrong and vicious manner of speaking; but, if by rote we, with Locke, understand (and it is truly its proper sense when applied to language) the learning of a language, without the assistance of grammar, merely by associating and living with those who speak it well, such a supposition is both unjust and unfounded. The turns of expression falsely charged to rote, are such as follow, j'ai quelques for j'en ai, I have some; je suis froid for j'ai froid, I am cold, &c*. By the paltry aid of these affected phrases, and others which the inventive genius of schoolmasters have framed, several teachers have laboured, (though it is hoped in vain) to bring into disrepute the following method of tuition, which Locke, Condillac, experience, and NATURE recommend to the serious attention of mankind, in preference to all others. But these modes of expression are never used by Frenchmen, and yet they all learn by rote. By whom then are they used? By those only who follow the wise precepts of their masters, in writing Themes or Exercises in a language of which they have no just idea. These exercises produce the solecisms above stated, which the method of tuition by rote could never have in Mr. Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States, and a gentle. man so highly and justly celebrated for genius and philosophical knowledge, has, in a letter to the author concerning this work, observed, that "The proposition to teach a language by phrases, is new as a method; although, "besides infants learning their native tongue, we have seen persons learn a "foreign language that way; and I have observed they are less apt to run "into barbarisms, as je suis froid, for I am cold, &c. than those who learn "single words and put them together of themselves. I have observed that "to understand modern Latin, you must understand the native language of "the writer, and to find the meaning of a phrase, retranslate it into his lan"guage," &c. troduced; for j'ai quelques, je suis froid are sentences foreign to the usage and phraseology of the French language, and such as no Frenchman, however cultivated, could have uttered. Indeed, an Englishman learning French, may render them, as he generally renders the English phrase, literrally into French. Thus the method adopted by the French masters owes its origin, in a great degree, to a mistaken acceptation of the word rote. Many are not aware of what dangerous consequences to society, the false acception of a word may prove. Locke on the abuse of words, Helvetius on the same subject, and Condillac, in particular, Traité des Systêmes*, will convince the doubtful, that apparently trifling deviations from the real meaning of words, have given rise to the greatest errors and to such false systems of philosophy, as for centuries past, have involved the human mind in darkness, and still unhappily lead astray their misguided votaries. I now conclude my Preliminary Discourse to a work, for which I shall not solicit either encouragement or indulgence: If our method is adequate to the account given of it, what occasion is there to cringe for that patronage which it is the interest of the public voluntarily to afford? could I have been imposed on by experience, or by the flattering illu sions of the imagination, the public, far from shewing me Montaigne, who in his infancy, had learned the dead languages by the simple and unerring method we here inculcate, when treating on the same subject, in his usual nervous simplicity (which I do not presume to translate), says, "La pluspart des occasions des troubles du monde sont grammairiens. "Nos procès ne naissent que du débat de l'interprétation des loix; & la plus"part des guerres, de cette impuissance de n'avoir sceu clairement exprimer "les conventions & traictez d'accord des Princes. Combien de querelles & "combien importantes a produit au monde le doute du sens de cette syllable "boc." indulgence, should withhold that encouragement which, in their opinion, may be due to more meritorious productions. If I have any supplication to offer, it is to those, whose penetration may detecs errors, where the genius of Locke, Condillac, Gebelin, Sicard, and other distinguished writers, ceasing to guide me, I was compelled to follow the dictates of my own judgment. And, for the good of sciences, which contribute so much to our improvement and social happiness, I intreat those discerning observers to point out those errors, in order that at some future opportunity they may be corrected. A little reflection on our method of tuition will show that it is applicable to every language; and should it obtain a merited preference to the other modes of teaching the French, there remains little doubt, that future times will apply it to all others. |