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SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL-BOOKS.* Lrvitto speech is grammatical without thinking about it, jest as men are healthy without thinking about their health. For grammar is only a kind of linguistic anatomy, the science that investigates the corpse of speech and reveals the machinery within it ; a French grammar is really the report of a post-mortem examination. To see a foreign grammar of one's own language (which is like seeing one's own watch in pieces) is to be convinced of this, but teachers until recently had not realized it. They thought grammar valuable in itself (as though anatomy were an end and not a means for the surgeon), and they taught it because they loved it. We do not love it now; we call it a necessary evil, and a little time ago we did not even call it necessary. We should learn languages, we thought then, as children learn them—by hearing and using them—but this would not do because we could not hear them and use them enough, and grammar is back in the schools again. But now it takes its proper place ; we study some of a language first, and then by induction we build up its gram- matical rules, which an obliging editor neatly tabulates to help us when deduction is required—for it is by deduction from our own roles that we "compose" and speak. So now a "First French Book" consists of lessons which have three parts each—sOme easy French for reading, some rules and tables derived therefrom, and some material for simple prac- tice in their use—and at the end it will have for reference the essentials of Freuch grammar collected and arranged. Such hooks are easily provided for learners of nursery age, but the subject-matter of the very simple sentences is apt to be too puerile for boys (who hate puerility, paradoxically but fiercely). and even for grown men. This difficulty has been skilfully avoided by alr. Stuart Walters, the author of a new Reform First French Book for Adult Students.' He has produced a. first-rate little volume, which deals with ordinary life in an intelligent way, and shuns the remarks like " Here is mamma," "I love my mamma," which in some books have replaced the older fatuities about the hat of my uncle and the pens of the gardener's wife. After the first book one volume usually ceassa to be enough, and we have separate books for reading, grammar, and composition. So the French grammar is still with us, but it is wonderfully changed; it has become a book of reference, and the sins of its authors is to make reference easy. In the best of all recent grammars, the Modern French Grammar, of Messrs. Bell, the rules are on one side and the examples on the other, the classification is entirely by parts of speech, and the book is printed in types which give three degrees of emphasis, distinguishing between the fundamentals for the beginner, the modicum for the moderately ambitious, and the subtleties for the specialist. The result is a volume which is comparable with Brads/law, though, happily, less thick. It may also he had entirely in French. (including the title) to suit the complete "reformist." The examples on the left-hand pages would be worth buying for themselves, for the rusty adult could revise the whole of his French by just reading them through. Another hook which has exercises interwoven in it, and is designed to aid instruction as well as reference, is the Modern French Grammar' of Messrs. Heath. The authors of this book have • (1) A Re 'arm First French Book for Adult Student. By J. Stuart Walters, I). de ru. London: Mitts and Boon. [le.]-12) A Modern French Grammar. By MM. Deshutobert and Ceppi. London: G. Bell and Sons. f2.1. ed.]- SS Gm:no:aim Franfaiso Modern. Same authors, publishers, and pace.— 1.14 A Modern French Grammar. By W. to. Fraser and J. Sqmir. London: D. C. Heath and Co. [M.]---(s) A Steleton French Grammar. By Professor H. G. Atkins. London: Bleats and S011. [In. ed. With Exercises, 2e, Exclaims dons, 1e. A) The Essential of French Grammer. By C. W. Bell. London: George 0.-Marrup and Co.[23.)—(7) A74 Elementary Greek Crammer. By the Bev. E. E. Bryant and D.C. Lake. Oxford: at the University From. (72-L:Rj— -(8) An Mentauary Latin Grammar. SA00 authors and publiahers. ls. 13d. —101 Snails], a Modern Grammar. By 0. II. Clarke and G. T. London Gomm Marshall and Son. 125. 6d.1-110; English. Com. yositilm. By IL S. Bate. London: G. Bell and Sons. 13e. ed.]—(111 Enstish Grammar and Composition. Part Ill., "Middle School English Compoultion.'. By G. A. Twentymati. London: Hivingtons. [2a. 61.]—(12) Botrioaktfial English C.a... By J. C. Nesfield. Loudon Macmillan and Co. [3s. rui.]— (1g) "'Englialt Composition: Bared on Study of Literary Meddle. By A. Cruse. Oxford: at the University From. pe. ed.) covered all the necessary ground effectively, and they have had the happy thought of tabulating in a section called "Material for Conversation" all the small change of ordinary intercourse—a valuable feature in a grammar, for one must know how to say " Good morning." at any lade, if one is ever to converse in the language at all. This fact, by the way, is admitted even by those pessimists who would teach boys only grammar while at school and leave all the rest until they go- to France. Such a notion is terribly old-fashioned now, of course, but once really learnt, French grammar never wholly goes, and a month abroad will do wonders if you know' your subjunctive rules, and very little if you do not. For those who hold these antique views—and more hold them than confess them—Professor Atkins's Skeleton French, Grammars is the greatest of boons and blessings. It gives al) that one need know before one goes to France in fifty lucid pages, and you can also get it with such exercises added as make it nearly a " reform " book if you fear your friends. For the benefit of the thoronghly old-fashioned Messrs. Elarrap hare published a new grammars by an author who holds that in itself "a study of Grammar is stimulating to the intelligence." It is an excellent hook of its kind, and it has an admirable chapter on the pronouns, which will win it much applause. In size it is not quite after the heart of either party in the profession, for it is about one hundred and seventy pages long, and the men of the old method like their grammars shorter than this and the" reformists" more exhaus- tive; but to the many who have no party views this will not matter much. The fact is that the "irreducible minimum" of French grammar is so small and so easy that you can learn it in no time by almost any method. In German, of course, the minimum is also the maximum, but that is auother story.
In Latin and Greek grammar the irreducible minimum has not until recently been considered very small, or rather unlit recently no one thought of reducing the time-honoured maximum at all. Not long ago, however, two Charterhouse masters produced a Greek grammar? less than half the size of the usual books, but claiming to contain all that a boy need know of Greek until he can learn it from the literature- for himself. This claim has been justified by the book's success, which has been great. It is interesting to look ut mr old grammar after reading through this new one. In our youth we were all compelled to learn alternative forum of hypothetical duals, pages of nonsense about " voiced " and " voiceless" consonants, and the principal parts of rare and cacophonous verbs, which we seldom or never met save in the grammar hours—lettiryvaw, Zenfaie, tZaspfa, lowtpxOtta. It is tragie to think of all this superfluous rubbish being shovelled into young minds. Truly the road to the most wonderful litera- ture on earth was very muddy and difficult in those days, and it is no wonder that hundreds of budding Hellenists sought the easier going of the Modern Side. But, thanks to Messrs. Bryant and Lake, the road is smoother now. These two pioneer* have lately issued a Latin grammars also, on the same lines as the Greek. The essentials of Latin accidence are set down with perfect clarity in a hundred and fifteen pages, and the idea is that the whole ground shall be covered by the beginner once a term, for four successive terms, each time with in- creasing detail. This arrangement ie made possible within no small compass by means of varying types and marginal lines- (which might have been contusing, but are not). It is an altogether admirable little book, and if it and its forerunner become widely used the average boy will be brought nearer, by many terms, to a knowledge worth having of Latin and Greek, and in more than one sense a great weight will have been lilted from the mind of every youthful classic.
Only one language is now taught with more grammar than of old, rather than with less, and that is English. The English grammars published each year grow in number and in bulk. These books are interesting reading (in places) for the ordinary man who is unused to them. He will look for the rules about will and shall (in order to refute a friend) and turn up the paragraph on metaphors (to find some good- mixed ones printed as a warning), and he will take a morbid pleasure at first in seeing his mother-tongue anatomized. But the men who teach English are past that stage ; they wonder why they should be expected to teach boys to do by rule what they already do by habit; " Why all this classifying and tabulating," they ask, "and why all these fermidable
polysyllables?" Simple analysis and parsing are,of coarse. very necessary—for boys who do no Latin, English analysis is the only thing that will give them clear heads and show them the framework that is below all human speech—and it may be that a book, if short and clear, may help in the analysis lesson, especially when one is tired, though on most days a black- board and the inspiration of the moment are quite enough. But why should boys be expected to learn that fled is a " dental preterit" and bled a" vocalic preterit," and He said that ke would come "a future in the past, sometimes called conditional "? This information and much more is enshrined in a little book called English, a Modern Grammar,' by Messrs. Clarke and Ungoed—a very learned volume which will be of interest, at any rate, to the authors of other similar works. If one most have a book like this at all, if one most read is chapter called "The Orthographic Formation of the Plural" in order to learn that "the plural is formed normally by adding a," by all means let us go to Messrs. Clarke and Ungoed for our information. Their book is clear and well ordered and of reasonable size, but that does not prove that it and others like it are not superfluous. The point at which the anatomy of language begins to bring more darkness than light, and at which necessary explanation passes into pedantry, is very early reached when the language is the learner's own. We still await a grammar which ends at that point and not after it.
School-books on English composition form now a large and growing compuny. There was a time when such books only told the composer what he must not do. We are more constructive now, and we tell him not only bow to write, but also what to write. If a boy is to hammer his bead for matter whenever be is set to compose in his own tongue, he gets valuable practice in the art of head-hammering, but be gets less practice in the art of shaping sentences and para- graphs than he would if the matter were provided and he bad only to think of the manner. It is most necessary for beginners to learn the mere mechanies of writing inde- pendently of idea-getting, and many modern books are at pains to supply material for such teaching. A particularly good book on English Composition,. recently published by Messrs. Bell, makes a special feature of exercises in the expansion and arrangement of given ideas. There are short sentences to be combined together, short passages to be reproduced, the bare bones of stories to he clothed in fitting words.embryo essays to be worked out,and limitless subjects for original paragraphs and chapters to be thought out and written without help. There is also a good deal of grammar—perhaps a little too much—very clearly set down with examples, and admirable chapters on punctuation and common errors. No boy could work through much of a book like this without gaining enormously in clearness of head and correctness of style. Even in France teaching cannot communicate the qualities that make style, but even in England it can eradicate those that mar it. If it will also see that the learner has ample practice in developing what skill he has, teaching has done its work and done it well This book will help as much as a mere book can. The same method, or nearly so, is followed by Mr. Twentyman in the " Third Year Course "" just added to his "English Grammar and Composition" series. There are exer- cises in summarizing. outlining, expanding, and paraphrasing; there are chapters on "Beginning and Euding„" and, as usual, on " Common Faults," The grammar part, which also contains exercises, is reeapitulatory only in the earlier stages and reasonably brief all through. A valuable section on prosody completes a well-planned and valuable little text-book. Some- what larger and faller is Meagre. Macmillan's Matriculation Course." This book contains a wealth of material for every kind of exercise, and some remarkably good chapters on punctuation, idiom, prosody, and style. In the last are discussed nearly thirty qualities of style, ranging from "ambiguity" to "verve," each accompanied by examples and some illuminating comment. The book is a very practical one—perhaps the shadow of matriculation lies even too heavily upon it. It contains no accidence, and only syntax incidentally, but whet it does profess to teach it teaches fully, interestingly, and well, and the material for practise in com- posing is ample and very good.
From Oxford comes a book on another principle. Compo- sition, according to Mr. Cruse," is beet learnt by imitation, and his book, which has also a very clear and thoughtful chapter on "Style," and some materials and exercises for practical work, is in the main just a classified collection of models for study. To the ordinary reader the models them- selves are fascinating enough, and of course the principle of teaching style by example has the authority of Horace and Stevenson. Stevenson learnt his mastery of the word by long practice in the imitation of other people's styles, and there are practical teachers who believe that an average schoolboy can do the like. For these Mr. Cruse's book will provide all the assistance and all the material that they could desire.
All, or nearly all, these books, one cannot but think, are help- ing to do a very great work. The familiar speech of educated people is reputed to be more slovenly in England than in most great countries, and the daily correspondence of the nation undoubtedly contains more bad grammar per head of the population than we could ever prove upon Germany or France. Classical men have been usually excepted from this condemna- tion, but they are not a growing body. It is well that the most of us should be taught by direct means to use our own tongue worthily, since we are not of those who learn it sufficiently by being taught something else.
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