aves the deepest impress of shame upon blundering ignorance. In the
language of some men, there is a vividness, an energy, a power of
expression, which penetrates even the soul of dullness, and leaves an
impression both of words unknown and of sentiments unfelt before. Such men
can teach; but he who kindly or indolently accommodates himself to
ignorance, shall never be greatly instrumental in removing it. "The
colloquial barbarisms of boys," says Dr. Barrow, "should never be suffered
to pass without notice and censure. Provincial tones and accents, and all
defects in articulation, should be corrected whenever they are heard; lest
they grow into established habits, unknown, from their familiarity, to him
who is guilty of them, and adopted by others, from the imitation of his
manner, or their respect for his authority."--_Barrow's Essays on
Education_, p. 88.

27. In the whole range of school exercises, there is none of greater
importance than that of parsing; and yet perhaps there is none which is, in
general, more defectively conducted. Scarcely less useful, as a means of
instruction, is the practice of correcting false syntax orally, by regular
and logical forms of argument; nor does this appear to have been more ably
directed towards the purposes of discipline. There is so much to be done,
in order to effect what is desirable in the management of these things; and
so little prospect that education will ever be generally raised to a just
appreciation of that study which, more than all others, forms the mind to
habits of correct thinking; that, in reflecting upon the state of the
science at the present time, and upon the means of its improvement, the
author cannot but sympathize, in some degree, with the sadness of the
learned Sanctius; who tells us, that he had "always lamented, and often
with tears, that while other branches of learning were excellently taught,
grammar, which is the foundation of all others, lay so much neglected, and
that for this neglect there seemed to be no adequate remedy."--_Pref. to
Minerva_. The grammatical use of language is in sweet alliance with the
moral; and a similar regret seems to have prompted the following
exclamation of the Christian poet:

"Sacred Interpreter of human thought,
How few respect or use thee as they ought!"--COWPER.

28. No directions, either oral or written, can ever enable the heedless and
the unthinking to speak or write well. That must indeed be an admirabl