e Regained, was, no doubt,
somewhat due), this last of his great poetic compositions!

Even in the study of modern languages, in the schools, there is not
enough pronouncing of the original. It is mostly read off in English. If
a teacher of a foreign language, whose pronunciation is correct (if it
is not correct, he should not teach it), were simply to read aloud to
his students, they having the text before their eyes, and were to
require them to read, until they could pronounce correctly and fluently,
the language studied, it would be a much better introduction to the
language than the usual grammatical grind at the outset. A certain
amount of grammatical grind is necessary, but a thorough training in
pronunciation should come first of all. And then, if a student got
nothing other than a good pronunciation, it would be certainly worth
more to him than any amount of grammatical drill without it. A living
language should not be studied scientifically until it is _known_. And
the most important thing to know, at first, is its pronunciation.

Thomas Elwood, Milton's young Quaker friend, tells us, in his
autobiography, of his reading Latin to the blind poet,--how he was
required to get rid of his English pronunciation of the language, which
his 'master' disliked, and to learn what he calls 'the foreign
pronunciation,' his description thereof showing it to have been the
Italian,--and then adds, 'Having a curious ear' (that is, a careful,
accurate, nice, keenly susceptible ear), 'he understood by my tone, when
I understood what I read, and when I did not; and accordingly would stop
me, examine me, and open up the most difficult passages to me.'

This sentence suggests that much more might be done than is done, in the
way of getting at students' appreciation of the Latin or Greek they may
be reciting, by requiring them to voice the original in advance of
translating. After having attained, by sufficient practice, an easy
fluency of utterance, they could--or some could--bring out, through
their voices, much which they could not reveal through translation or
any amount of exegesis. All the members of the class might be on a par,
so far as translation and exegesis go, in exhibiting their knowledge and
appreciation of the original; but there would always be a few who could
reveal through vocalization what is beyond translation and exegesis.
And the professor would not necessarily need to have the 'curious ear'
of a Milton to det