After translating a paragraph phrase by phrase, it should be translated fluently, pronouncing the English interpretation, but having recourse to it as seldom as possible. The same plan should be pursued for each paragraph or narrative in the first book, no attempt being made to utter the words. The book should be read in this manner two or three times.

It is wrong to conclude, as many do, that a foreign text cannot be read, according to the interpretation we give that word, without pronouncing it, at least mentally. In the mother-tongue, the sense of written words is only conveyed to the mind by the sounds they represent, ideas being previously associated with these sounds. Pronouncing them is a necessity, which gradually becomes a habit. But words written in a foreign idiom convey to the student no sound expressing their sense, not any more than they would to a deaf and dumb person in his native language. There is, therefore, no necessity, nor even possibility, of pronouncing them. In fact, the meaning of the written signs of a foreign language, as well as of all other signs, can be learned without a sound being attached to them. The Chinese characters, for instance, are understood without any pronunciation. A child associates the sense to the sound of words, and does not consider their orthography; in like manner, the student of a foreign language should associate the sense with the orthography of words, and not with their pronunciation.

Après avoir traduit phrase par phrase un paragraphe, on le traduira en entier sans interruption et en prononçant le français de l'interprétation, mais en recourant à celle-ci le moins possible. On fera de même pour tous les paragraphes ou récits du premier livre, sans jamais chercher à en prononcer les mots. Le livre une fois fini, on le relira une ou deux fois en suivant le même procédé.

C'est une erreur de croire, comme le font certaines personnes, qu'on ne peut lire un texte étranger, dans le sens que nous attachons à ce mot, sans le prononcer au moins mentalement. Dans la langue maternelle, le sens des mots écrits ne se révèle à l'esprit que par les sons qu'ils représentent, les idées étant à priori associées aux sons. Leur prononciation est une nécessité, qui devient à la longue une habitude. Mais les mots écrits ne rappellent à l'étudiant dans une langue étrangère, pas plus qu'au sourd-muet dans la sienne, aucun son qui en donne le sens. Il n'y a donc pas nécessité, pas plus qu'il n'y a possibilité, de les prononcer. Il en est, en effet, des signes écrits d'une langue étrangère comme de tout autre signe: on peut en connaître la signification sans y attacher un son. Les caractères chinois, par exemple, se comprennent dégagés de toute prononciation. Le jeune enfant associe le sens au son des mots et n'a aucun besoin de songer à leur orthographe; de même, l'étudiant d'une langue étrangère doit associer le sens à l'orthographe des mots, non à leur prononciation. Si,

If, according to our directions, while pronouncing the English, the eye rests upon the French text, an incorrect pronunciation will be avoided, as it would be impossible to pronounce the French idiom while the organ of speech is absorbed by the pronunciation of the English.

The opposite interpretation does not remove the necessity of study; it only renders the improvement more rapid, more certain, more attractive, than with the use of the dictionary. As pupils advance in the art of reading, the recurrence of the same expressions, of the same prefixes and terminations, as also of words of the same class, besides those which are more or less similar to each other in the two languages (and they are very numerous), will, by instinctive analogy, assist the student in the analysis of phrases and in acquiring the knowledge of words.

Three months, during which two hours a day would be devoted to reading, should suffice, without any great exertion, for the perusal of five or six volumes (1)—the reader being able by that time to dispense almost entirely with the aid of the opposite translation. For some time longer, however, an easy and familiar course of reading should be pursued; the student having recourse to translations, in preference to a dictionary, for the definition of words in difficult passages.

(1) We could mention several students who, during that short space of time, have read ten volumes in French, without interpre tation.

comme nous le recommandons, on prononce toujours le français en suivant des yeux le texte anglais, on se gardera forcément par là d'une fausse prononciation; car il serait impossible de prononcer l'anglais, lorsque les organes de la parole sont occupés à prononcer le français.

L'interprétation en regard ne dispense pas du travail: elle le rend seulement plus prompt, plus sûr, plus attrayant que l'emploi du dictionnaire. En avançant dans la lecture, le retour des mêmes termes, des mêmes préfixes et des mêmes désinences, comme des mots d'une même famille, sans compter ceux qui se ressemblent plus ou moins dans les deux langues, et le nombre en est grand, aidera, par un sentiment instinctif d'analogie, à la décomposition des phrases et à la connaissance des mots.

Trois mois, à raison de deux heures par jour, doivent suffire sans de grands efforts pour effectuer la lecture de cinq ou six volumes (1) et se trouver à peu près indépendant de la traduction en regard. On continuera cependant encore pour quelque temps la lecture d'ouvrages en style simple et familier, recourant toujours à une traduction de préférence au dictionnaire pour l'explication des mots et des passages difficiles.

(1) Nous pourrions citer des personnes qui, dans ce court espace de temps, ont lu jusqu'à dix volumes anglais avec et sans interpréta tion.

As a taste for reading is promoted by the enjoy ment it affords, constant practice is essential, and pupils will thus soon acquire a facility for translating at first sight. But this should not satisfy them. As the scholar becomes more and more familiarized with the greater portion of the phraseology and vocabularies of a foreign language, he must become independent of this indirect, inconvenient, and imperfect style of reading, and begin the study of direct reading. This will be easily accomplished, if, being previously initiated by a teacher into a good pronunciation (1), he mentally pronounces the words as the sense is transmitted to the mind by the eye. He will thus acquire the habit of following the ideas in the text itself, first step in the art of thinking in a language.

The perusal of serious works and eminent authors should not be attempted until translation is no longer necessary. In fact, scientific subjects cannot be studied through translation with any advantage; the mind, constantly diverted by the research of expressions corresponding to the original text, cannot pursue a logical deduction of ideas, or devote to such matters the amount of earnest reflection they require.

On the other hand, all the beauty and the leading points of style which constitute the merit of imaginative works, are lost in an improvised transla

(1) Refer, for exercises in pronunciation, to our treatise on “The Study of Languages," chs. III. and Iv.