The German Manual of Mr. KLAUER professes to be a
work adapted for self-tuition. It mapbe so, but we confess we have some difficulty in mastering the plan on which it would recommend the learner to proceed. The first volume consists of extracts in prose and verse, with a short German grammar, in German ; the second contains instructions in pronunciation, in English and' French, with dialogues in German and French, followed by inter- lineary translations, in English and German, of a portion of the extracts of the first volume, with an analysis of their construc- tion. We see a great deal of confusion in this arrangement,. though we are far from denying that the student may pick up much useful assistance from the work in carrying on a solitary study of the language. We believe that language-masters, as a body, are a pack of the most captious and quarrelsome fellow's in existence. Mr. KLAUER KLATTOWSKI is excessively severe upon a Mr. JOHAN REINHOLD. SCHULTZ, the author of a Key to NOEHDERS Exercises, and seems never tired of persecuting him, chiefly for blunders of orthogra- phy. Now Mr. SCHULTZ has as much right to say a Mr. KLAUER as Mr. KLAUER has to print a Mr. SonneTz. The latter gen- tleman has been long settled in England, and we know, in his ca- pacity of German teacher, has borne a very fair reputation and had considerable practice. He enjoyed a respectable education at a university in Prussia, of which country he is a native ; and is better qualified to teach than most professors. But here comes a Mr. KLAUER Kearrowsm, whom we never before heard of, breathing vengeance against his unpolite orthography, and attacks him through several pages of small print, for no better reason that we can see, than that language-masters are always ready to break —not a lance, but a cane with one another.
Previous page
