ject is better than another for our education in the matter depends upon whether it is possible to ease the labour of conceiving the more difficult abstractions by something foreign to them; whether mathematics or metaphysics can be made easier by toiling in some foreign lines of thought, as Latin Grammar, English Grammar, or Botany. It remains for anyone to show that such an influence exists; the arguments for the efficacy of grammatical discipline do not reach the point; they assume that grammar has a monopoly of exercising the mind upon generalities, a point that has yet to be proved.

Grammar as exemplified in the Latin and Greek languages is particularly devoid of subtlety, until we come to certain delicacies of syntax, as in the construction of the tenses and moods of the Verb. The Parts of Speech are assumed without any definition; they are recognized by the Inflexion test, and not by their function in the sentence; being in that respect very different from what is found in English Grammar. This has been made an argument for taking Latin before English-the easy grammar before the abstruse one. But the greater should imply the less. If, at the proper age, a pupil has mastered English Grammar, he has, in point of reasoning power, gone a step beyond Latin or Greek grammar, and should therefore be relieved from further labour for perfecting his reasoning faculties in the grammatical field.

It is in the exercise of translating from Latin or Greek into English, and vice versa, that the highest mental efforts are made, and the greatest strain put upon the faculties. Accordingly, it is to this exercise that the supposed training more especially applies. Now the mere conquering of difficulty is not special to any

EXERCISE OF TRANSLATING.

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line of study; we must further enquire what are the special difficulties to be overcome. The exercise of translating is a constructive effort: given a passage, a certain amount of grammatical and verbal knowledge, and the use of a dictionary, the pupil has to divine the meaning. There are three stages in the pupil's progress. In the first, his information and resources are unequal to the task, in which case the labour can do him very little good; we are not the better for working at a point where we cannot make any progress. The second stage is where, by a certain measure of application, the pupil can succeed; in which case, the operation is exhilarating and rewarding, and will be achieved. The highest stage is when the work can be performed with ease, and without any effort at all; in which stage there is no difficulty to be overcome, and, therefore, very little effect accruing from the exercise. We are to assume, what is not always the case, that the student can be uniformly placed in the second situation, and are to enquire what there is in the particular work to train, discipline, or strengthen any of the higher faculties.

The translation exercise is a tentative process; the meanings of the separate words have to be ascertained; and out of several meanings of any one word, a selection has to be made such as to give sense along with the selected meanings of the others. Various combinations have to be tried; baffled at one attempt, the student must make a second and a third, until at last he alights upon something that pays a due regard to every word and every peculiarity of grammar. A considerable amount of patient effort is demanded, and the long-continued exercise of patient effort must do something to

form habits of application. There is not, however, anything specific, unique, or unparalleled in the operation. All study whatsoever needs a similar exercise of patient application; and many kinds of study take precisely the same form, namely, assigning to words alternative meanings, until some one meaning is hit upon that resolves a difficulty. It is the application needed to solve riddles and conundrums. To make out the meaning of a scientific proposition, to find the rule that fits a given case, we must try and try again; we reject one supposition after another as not consistent with some of the conditions of the problem, and remain in patient thought until others come to mind.

It is in the interpretation of language that most difficulty is felt in keeping the pupil always in the medium position above described; giving him work to do that shall neither exceed his powers, nor be too easy to call them into full exercise. With a passage that the dictionary does not give the means of rendering, the chance is that the attempt will not be seriously made, so that the mind is not put on the qui vive to drink in with avidity the master's explanation. It is, moreover, generally admitted that the use of 'cribs' does away with the good of the situation, as regards translating into English. Hence to secure any discipline at all, the operation of translating from English into Latin and Greek must be kept up, although in itself the least useful of any.

The remark could not fail to be made that the operation of translating is necessarily the same for ancient and for modern languages; and, therefore, any modern language yields whatever discipline belongs to the situation.

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It cannot avail much, in reply, to advert to the peculiarities of the Latin and Greek Grammars-the more highly inflexional character of the languages; for each language has its specialities, and the business of the pupil simply is to attend to them. Every language must express the same facts of time and manner, and it cannot be very material, as far as regards mental discipline, whether it is by inflexion or by auxiliaries. The fact of inflexion is sufficiently experienced in any case; and how far it is carried is an inferior consideration.

In Science, far more than in Languages, is it possible to adjust the difficulties at each stage to the strength of the pupils, although, undoubtedly, to do this in any subject needs very good teaching. The Grammar of language being most nearly allied to science, can be best graduated in this way; while, in the miscellaneous chances of translation, difficulties start up without any reference to order or the preparation of mind of the pupils, and the thing cannot be otherwise.

The argument from Training is applied to certain special points, some of which will be considered under separate heads: such are the discipline in English and in Philology generally. Much stress is laid upon the remark that it is necessary to know more languages than our own to be delivered from certain snares of language; and the favourite example is the ambiguity of the verb 'to be.' It so happens, however, that this very ambiguity-predication and existence-was pointed out by Aristotle (Grote's Aristotle, i. 181).1

In an address to the Social Science Association in 1870, Lord Neaves recommended the study of Latin, Greek, and French, as the best means of cultivating precision of thinking. Now, whether or not the writers in

In the interesting Rectorial Address of Professor Helmholtz, delivered this year to the University of Berlin, the merits and demerits of the different academical institutions of Europe are freely indicated. With reference to the English Universities, Oxford and Cambridge, the professor thinks his own countrymen should endeavour to rival them in two things. 'In the first place, they develop in a very high degree among their students, at the same time a lively sense of the beauties and the youthful freshness of antiquity, and a taste for precision and elegance of language; this is seen in the fashion in which the students manage their mother tongue.' This must refer to the prominence still given to the classics in Oxford and Cambridge; yet, in Germany, the classics are far more studied than in England, whether we consider the universal compulsion of the Gymnasia, or the special devotion manifested by a select number at the Univer sities. Whatever good mere classical study can effect must have reached its climax in Germany. As regards Oxford and Cambridge, and particularly Oxford, the best parts of the teaching seem to be those that depart most from the classical teaching, as, for example, the very great stress laid upon writing a good English essay. It is often said, that even in a professedly classical examination, a candidate's success is more due to his English Essay than to his acquaintance with Greek and Roman authors.

After refuting a number of the alleged utilities of classical learning, Mr. Sidgwick still reserves certain dis

those languages are distinguished above all others for precision, it is a singular fact, that these are the languages of the three peoples most remarkable for confining their attention to their own language.