lar trial, be found superior.
Competition in the art of translation is not our object; our object is
to show, that half an hour a day, steadily appropriated to grammar and
Latin, would be sufficient to secure a boy of this age, from any
danger of ignorance in classical learning; and that the ease and
shortness of his labour will prevent that disgust, which is too often
induced by forced and incessant application. We may add, that some
attention to the _manner_ in which the pupils repeat their Latin
lessons, has been found advantageous: as they were never put in bodily
fear, by the impatience of a pedagogue, they had leisure and
inclination to read and recite, without awkward gestures and
discordant tones. The whining tones and convulsive gestures often
contracted by boys during the agony of repeating their long lessons,
are not likely to be advantageous to the rising generation of orators.
Practice, and the strong motive of emulation, may, in a public
seminary, conquer these bad habits. After the pupil has learned to
speak ill, he _may_ be taught to speak well; but the chances are
against him: and why should we have the trouble of breaking bad
habits? It is much easier to prevent them. In private education, as
the preceptor has less chance of curing his pupil of the habit of
speaking ill, he should be peculiarly attentive to give the child
constant habits of speaking and reading well. It is astonishing, that
parents, who are extremely intent upon the education of their
children, should overlook some of the essential means of success. A
young man with his head full of Latin and law, will make but a poor
figure at the bar, or in parliament, if he cannot enunciate
distinctly, and if he cannot speak good English extempore, or produce
his learning and arguments with grace and propriety. It is in vain to
expect that a boy should speak well in public, who cannot, in common
conversation, utter three connected sentences without a false concord
or a provincial idiom; he may be taught with much care and cost to
speak _tripod_ sentences;[4] but bring the young orator to the test,
bring him to actual business, rouse any of his passions, throw him off
his guard, and then listen to his language; he will forget instantly
his reading master, and all his rules of pronunciation and rhetoric,
and he will speak the language to which he has been most accustomed.
No master will then be near him to regulate the pitch and tones of his
voice. We