of memory, in pronouncing them. The sooner, therefore, that the little learner acquires the habit of reading such words at sight, without puzzling himself with the confusion arising from the discrepancy between the names and the sounds of their component letters, the more easy and the more sure will be his progress.

Each of these methods of teaching, in the elementary processes of spelling and reading, is good for its own purpose; the phonetic for the analogies of orthoëpy, and the empirical, as it may be called, for its anomalies. But the error in teaching has been the indiscriminate and exclusive use of the one or the other; in consequence of which, the learner's progress has been rendered unnecessarily difficult and tedious. The inherent difficulties of a language so irregular as the English, render the closest attention, on the part of the teacher, to every means of overcoming them, doubly important in early training.

Orthoëpy. In this branch of instruction everything depends on the living teacher, on the correctness of his own exemplifications and the diligence of his endeavors. Indeed, there is, commonly, ne reason, but neglect on the part of the instructor, why every child at school is not daily and thoroughly trained in the exact articulation of all the elementary sounds of the English language, and in the dis tinct enunciation of their principal radical combinations; nor any other reason why an obsolete, awkward, or inappropriate manner of pronouncing common words should be tolerated in any stage of education.

"School Reading."-A similar remark may be made, as regards the unmeaning and inexpressive style of reading, which is so current, not only in schools, but in higher seminaries and professional exercises. This fault, so commonly remarked, would not exist at any stage of education, or in any form of life, private or public, if our primary teachers were only attentive to accustom their pupils, in their very first exercises in the reading of sentences, to repeat them carefully, with a view to the expression of sense and not the mere pronouncing of words.

Academic Elocution. This department of instruction is another in which the appropriate cultivation of the expressive faculties is not dependent on any change in the prescribed forms of education, so much as on the personal endeavors of the teacher. Our public speakers would not so generally utter their words in the formal tones of arbitrary pulpit style, were teachers duly attentive to point out to young academic declaimers the natural and appropriate vocal expression of feeling and sentiment; nor should we ever see those frenzied extravagances of passion and grotesque gesticulation, which so fre

quently degrade the style of popular oratory, were teachers careful to cultivate, in academic declamation, purity of taste, and true force of effect, in the utterance of emotion.

Grammatical Instruction.-Even in the teaching of grammar, where less scope, perhaps, is given to the discretion of the teacher, it still depends on himself whether he shall follow the precise order of topics in an ill-arranged text-book, or use his own judgment, and present the subject to the minds of his pupils in the order which he feels that an intelligent and practical study of the subject, and a rational progress in its application, demand. Nothing lies more properly within the province of the teacher, than the duty of seeing to it that his pupils thoroughly understand every word of their various lessons, and thus reap the benefit of grammar, in the perfect interpretation and right use of the current words of their own communications by speech and writing, and in the perusal of the useful productions of the press. The faithful use of an etymological spellingbook, and of the dictionary, is all the cost of an aid so valuable to the teacher, and of an attainment so valuable to the pupil.

Practical Rhetoric: School Exercises.-Training in the appropriate use of the English language, ought not to be limited to the mere gramınatical exercise of composing sentences. Even in our common schools, it should extend to that cultivation of taste by which neat as well as correct expression is acquired as a habit. To cultivate, in his pupils, the power of appreciating excellence in language, it is not necessary that the teacher should refer them to a systematic treatise on rhetoric. The school reading book usually furnishes abundance of the best materials for culture, in the presentation of the best modes of composition, as exemplified in the language of the pieces prescribed as reading lessons. The very best training for the acquisition of sound judgment and good taste in expression, may easily be had, if the teacher will but secure the intelligent and voluntary action of his pupils, in frequently analysing portions of some of the best of such passages, in occasionally transcribing them, and even committing them to memory. The exercise of careful transcription, is, perhaps, the best practical expedient that can be found for securing that literal and mechanical correctness in the details of the written forms of language, as to orthography and punctuation, which though, indeed, but minor matters, are yet so important, as indispensable to the decencies and proprieties of style. How ineffectual, for such purposes, the common routine of education proves, none can know but persons whose business brings them into extensive observation of such particulars.

Rhetorical Exercises in higher Seminaries. To remedy the evils arising from the narrow and artificial character of our higher forms of rhetorical culture, we need a wider scope of discipline not only in rhetoric itself, but in logic, and in the principles of taste as embodied in the aesthetics of every form of expressive art. We need, yet more, however, a special course of practical training, for which the rhetorical teacher ought justly to be held responsible,-a course which should consist in the careful and close analysis of distinguished models of successful composition, so as to trace their order and method in the arrangement of thought, the artistic character of their æsthetic. light and shade and coloring, the mechanism of their sentential structure, and the aptness of their verbal expression in detail. A long and rigorous course of disciplinary exercise in such forms, would not only furnish the pen of the ready writer for the varied demands of actual life, but the requisite preparatory training for the office of public speaking, in which a ready command of well digested thought and fit expression is so important to successful effort. The student would, by such training, effectually learn the value of clear consecutive thinking, of genuine taste, of manly plainness of diction and simplicity of expression: he would be thoroughly secured from falling into the "bald, disjointed chat," the pompous harangue, the insane extravagance of emotion, and the fantastic verbiage, which are so often palmed on our popular assemblies, and lauded in our transient vehicles of criticism, as wonderful displays of original genius or oratorical power.

The Study of Language.-One very important aid to the generous culture and full development of the expressive faculties, is, as yet, very imperfectly furnished by our higher forms of liberal education. While the study of the ancient languages is formally acknowledged as one of the most efficacious methods of training the mind to a distinct perception of whatever constitutes power or perfection of expression; and while liberal provision of time and means is carefully made, with a view to secure the full benefit to be derived from the contemplation and analytical examination of these faultless models; too little attention is paid to the invaluable advantages which might be gained from a corresponding rigor of study and analysis, directed to the great authors who constitute the classics of modern literature, in foreign languages, and in our own.

The perfunctory perusal and verbal recitation of a few passages from such authors, which usually form a part of academic exercises, in this department of education, can never be seriously proposed as effecting the purposes of critical appreciation and thorough discipline.

In our highest seminaries, little is attempted beyond the processes of grammatical analysis and interpretation, in a course of literal and mechanical routine, even with regard to the ancient classics; a mere modicum of the same species of attention is usually given to the very noblest writers of Germany, France or Italy. The Spanish and the Portuguese languages are given up, for the most part, to those persons who happen to have occasion for the use of them, as a convenience in mercantile operations. The languages of the North of Europe, whose ancestral affinities with the English render them so richly instructive, as regards the full and true understanding and expert use of the most significant and expressive part of our own native language;-these, as yet, are left to an adventurous few, comparatively, --the solitary explorers and pioneers in the study of modern literature.

America, in its peculiar national position, which brings to its open homes men of all countries and of every tongue, possesses unequaled facilities for the extensive acquisition of all the benefits resulting from the study of language in its various forms; and a wide range of advantages, in this relation of culture, should be justly held as the birthright of our children, and as the characteristic distinction of our educated youth and mature scholars. Not that we would have American teachers pursue the course, which is unfortunately yet too common, of giving a superficial attention, for a few months, or a few weeks, perhaps, to one or more of the languages of modern Europe, and then attempting the task of teaching them. But, generally speaking, American teachers who wish to enjoy the advantage of teaching more intelligently and effectually their native language, in consequence of the opportunity of better understanding its character, by their ability to compare it with others, an advantage beyond price; most, if not all, of such teachers have easy resort to a living instructor in whatever language they desire to study, and may, in due time, become possessed in this way, of a vast amount of intellectual wealth, the benefit of which is sure to be felt, not only in their own mental action, but in the attainments of their pupils.

In the department of language, however, there is no acquirement of which teachers and pupils stand in more urgent need than that of a perfect command of correct, clear, strong, expressive English. The attention paid to this most important attainment is, as yet, utterly inadequate to the demands of a generous cultivation or those of actual life and its daily duties. Nothing is more common than this humiliating admission. Yet little is done to do away with the necessity for it. We have, it is true, of late years, made some advances toward a

better state of things, in our educational provision of better modes of teaching grammar, synthetically as well as analytically; and, in some schools, the practical study of etymology receives a commendable degree of attention. Yet it is rare to find in any seminary that thorough analytical investigation of the words of our language which every student is expected to exemplify in his exercises on a page of the ancient classics.

The study of English words, if faithfully pursued in the daily lessons of our schools, with any thing like the application exhibited in the examination, and classifying, and arranging, and labeling of the specimens of even a very ordinary cabinet, would enrich the intellectual stores of the young and even of the mature mind, to an extent of which we can, at present, hardly form a conception. Nothing, however, short of such diligence will serve any effectual purpose. The student of his own vernacular tongue must be content to employ the same close, minute inspection, the same careful examination, the saine correct designation, the same exact location and scrupulous conservation of every word that he would intelligently appreciate or skillfully use, as the mineralogist adopts in the selection and arrangement of his specimens.

Our prevalent modes of education have been so defective, as regards the means or opportunities of acquiring a proper knowledge of the English language, that the humble attainment of perfect orthography is comparatively rare, even among the "liberally" educated. Few students, even in our higher seminaries of learning, are trained to recognize and appreciate the value of an English root or primitive word, to trace a secondary to a primary sense, or a primary to its secondary, to translate a passage of Latinized English into its Saxon equivalent words of the mother tongue, to draw the line of discrimination between present and obsolete usage in expression, to detect the nice shades of meaning in words regarded as synonymous,-to use, in fact, their own language expertly.

It is universally admitted that no language needs such processes to be applied to it so much as our own. Its vast copiousness, in consequence of its many sources, the conflicting character of these themselves, the comparatively small number of English writers who have been willing to take the pains to write correctly, so far as to merit the name of models, the contradictory usage which has, from this cause, prevailed, even among distinguished authors-all have conspired to render careful study and extensive practice indispensable to the student who would do justice to the great language which it is his birthright to inherit, for all of life's best purposes.