questions which the scholars may readily answer in the language they are learning. Nothing, therefore, availed, but to unite the excellences which these two grammars afforded; the sentences must be so dissected that the teacher may propose questions, and the scholar be able to answer them, in the language taught. This twofold need I in some measure supplied by causing my scholars to transpose the constructions of all the lessons they had learned; and in order to combine and unite the first and last lessons learned, the earlier lessons were continually repeated. In this way I attained my object. I was, however, still anxious to improve upon my efforts. "If," said I often to myself, "all the ordinary forms of conversational discourse were united in a series, and all the rules of grammar could be applied to them, this would be the method of acquiring a perfect knowledge of a language in the shortest time possible." While I continued to exercise my scholars in combining their lessons in various forms, I was naturally brought nearer to this simple, easy, less monotonous, and often amusing system, by means of which beginners, from the first hour of instruction, are not only able to speak, but are not obliged to restrain their reasoning faculties, and confine themselves to tedious forms. I therefore prefixed to all my sentences a clear and intelligible grammatical statement; I then arranged them in questions and answers, at the same time embracing all the parts of speech, the general as well as the particular rules grammar, the idiomatic phrases, and the greater part of the familiar forms of conversation. I was not guided by arbitrary laws, but by the manner in which a child begins to learn his mother tongue. I left the scholar in freedom to meditate upon what he had learned, and to give an account of every thing before he applied it. I thus succeeded in teaching my scholars at the same time to read, write, and amuse themselves. Experience has taught me that in less than one hundred and twenty lessons I can attain my object. Arranged in this manner, my method very nearly answered my intentions; it had, however, the defect, of being adapted only to private instruction, besides leaving too much to scholars the choice of sentences in their compositions. This, I remedied by adding exercises to the lessons, in which I endeavored to give every sentence and every rule, with all the turns and transpositions capable of making sense. By this means my Method may be used with a great number of scholars, and it is by no means difficult for them to answer the questions with which they have become familiar in the Lessons. I do not flatter myself that my work, as I here present it, is susceptible of no improvement; but all who have been occupied in the study of languages, or have had opportunity of watching the progress of scholars in different schools, will agree with me, that this Method affords the only means of obtaining an exact knowledge of a language by the shortest way, and without disgust or fatigue. I have felt it necessary thus to explain how I have succeeded, step by step, in forming my Method, that I might anticipate those who should feel disposed to criticise my work without waiting till at a future time it shall appear complete. I beg to remind them that this Method is not, like many others, the work of a day, or the product of a fiery imagination, but the fruit of seventeen years' labor and experience. H. G. OLLENDORFF LE SANSONNET PRUDENT. UN sansonnet altéré trouva un flacon d'eau. Il essaya de boire; mais l'eau arrivait à peine au col du flacon, et le bec de l'oiseau n'atteignait pas jusque-là. Il se mit à becqueter le dehors du vase, afin d'y pratiquer un trou Ce fut en vain, le verre était trop dur. Alors il chercha à renverser le flacon. Cela ne lui réussit davantage : le vase était trop pesant. Enfin le sansonnet s'avisa d'une idée qui lui réussit : il jeta dans le vase de petits cailloux qui firent hausser l'eau insensiblement jusqu'à la portée de son bec. L'adresse l'emporte sur la force; la patience et la réflexion rende faciles bien des choses qui au premier abord paraissent impossibles THE SAGACIOUS STARLING. A THIRSTY starling found a decanter of water, and attempted 1. drink from it; but the water scarcely touched the neck of the d canter, and the bird's bill could not reach it. He began to peck at the outside of the vessel, in order to make a hole in it; but in vain, the glass was too hard. He then attempted to upset the decanter. In this he succeeded no better; the vessel was too heavy. At length the starling hit upon an idea that succeeded: he threw little pebbles into the decanter, which caused the water gradually rise till within the reach of his bill. Skill is better than strength: patience and reflection make manş things easy which at first appear impossible. |