(1.88." In justice to Mr. Dufief, however, we must say, that the method has its advantages, but we cannot help telling him that he has thrown an air of quackery round the whole, by informing us, that its superiority over other systems consists in its being independent of grammar, when, in fact, a hundred and five pages of his book are devoted to the inflections of the verb alone, and a hundred and fifty to syntax. The reader will remark, that we are not at present considering the comparative merits of teaching language with the assistance of rules, or without them, but whether or not this system fulfils its promises in one important point; and here we had almost said that there is a want of good faith, for, in truth, the volumes in which this boasted discovery is explained is a grammar, such a one as Mr. Dufief (fortunately for mankind) left behind him at Philadelphia, only greatly more ponderous and higher priced. But, that he may not say that we have misrepresented him, we shall give an abstract of his first lesson as nearly as possible in his own words: It begins with the alphabet. The master reads, in a loud and distinct voice, A, the whole class in unison repeat A. In the same manner the master and the scholars go through the whole alphabet, and the accents, the cedille, and the orthographical signs, are explained. The first twenty numbers are read by the master, and repeated by the class as before, and twenty short phrases upon them, thus,-Master, "Il m'en faut un;" Class,-Il m'en faut un;-Master, "I must have one of them;" Class, "I must have one of them;" Master," Il m'en faut un;" Class-repeating the English and the French, "I must have one of them, Il m'en faut un." Twenty propositions with phrases, part of the verb avoir, four French phrases, the definition of letters and words, the nine parts of speech, are read by the master, and repeated by the whole class at the same moment, and the lesson concludes with the explanation of a few sentences from "Lecteur Francais." Here the author triumphantly remarks, "as time is valuable," (a novel piece of information verily!) it cannot but be interesting to see how much of it has been consumed in the above series of exercises; and he sums up the whole in the following table; Minutes. Reading the alphabet, and spelling the othographical signs 10 Translating 15 15 12 10 77 which he very obligingly informs us is " one hour and seventeen minutes."' It will be obvious, on the first glance, that whatever the novelty of Mr. Dufief's plan may be, it is not in teaching languages without the aid of grammar, for a prominent part of the first lesson consists in the explanation of letters, and their divisions, and of the nine parts of speech, with the inflections of the verb avoir. We know not how he may choose to designate these exercises, but we are old-fashioned enough to call them grammatical; and as to the phrases added to each word, there is not much new in that. There is hardly a Latin school in the kingdom where, in the course of parsing the lessons, a great variety of phrases are not given on almost every verb, and at the same time, the principle explained; which is rather more than can be said for this new method. We think, withal, that there is a display quite unnecessary in the summing up of the various parts of the lesson, with the time required for each, and after all, they have been merely prescribed for next day; but the table has a taking appearance, and common readers do not examine such matters too nicely. The novelty of the method then, must be sought elsewhere, than in teaching language without grammar, for it does no such thing; or in teaching it by phrases, for the late Dr. Adam, whose name can never be mentioned but with respect, taught to his class almost every phrase connected with the Latin language, though he had the good sense not to confine his labours to these; yet it has novelty, and perhaps importance, and to these we shall now examine its claims. The first thing that strikes a person who has been accustomed to the usual methods is, that every student, at the same moment, and in the same key, repeats what has just been read by the master, pitching the voice by his, in all the varieties of loudness and lowness. The most obvious advantage that it seems to possess over the common mode, for it is rather seeming than reality, is, that every scholar being employed at the same time, the class proceeds in its business without any of those interruptions that are elsewhere unavoidable, from the restlessness of those who are not immediately occupied. In this respect, it may perhaps claim the superiority over the Lancasterian system, where so much time is thrown away in marching and counter-marching, and all the parade of the mechanical economy of the school; for, from the time that the scholars enter the school till they leave it, there is not a moment lost. It is calculated, besides, to give delicacy of ear, and flexibility to the organs of speech. These are the advantages of the mechanical operations of the system; but even these are not peculiar to Mr. Dufief, for we understand that several respectable teachers of this city have practised them for some years. But however much this method may be adapted for teaching a language by the ear, and consequently the speaking of that language, we think it inadmissible, or at least of dangerous experi ment, in a large school, and altogether inadequate to convey any knowledge of the literature of a country. When a hundred young people (we shall suppose) are required to chant the same phrase in unison, how can the master be certain that many of them are not idly silent, or, at best, merely catching the sounds from those around them, while they have been at no pains to commit the lesson to memory, and, of course, forget it as soon as it has ceased to sound in their ears? We believe, that in schools conducted in the common way, the master has frequently cause to complain of one boy prompting another, for thus the most idle may blunder through the task, of which he really knows little; what then is to be expected when all prompt all? Indeed, it is quite conceivable, that a scholar may in this way attend a whole course and join in the chant, or seem to do so, and remain in total ignorance of every thing that is going on. In a small class there is not much danger of this happening, but in a large one, and Mr. Dufief proposes classes of a thousand and upwards, it is scarcely possible that it should not occur, and that frequently. Another great defect of the system is, that the master cannot be acquainted with the individual progress of his scholars, nor have any knowledge whatever of their respective characters. They are, as far as he is concerned, merely a set of puppets, of which he regulates the motion, and makes them perform feats at which the multitude may stare, perhaps, but there subsists not between him and them any of those delightful ties that ought to link the scholar to his master. They have never individually heard the music of his praise, nor has he ever seen one of the most delightful sights in nature, the beautiful countenance of an ingenious boy lighted up by the smile of conscious desert, kindled by well earned applause, nor the tear that is sometimes shed from a temporary failure, perhaps no less interesting. By this means, the powerful stimulus of a generous ambition is completely extinguished; and unless Mr. Dufief can make it appear that all are, in respect to talent, alike by nature, many of a large class must, by this mode of prescribing lessons, have too much to do, and many too little. Now, we happen to think that it should be the object of a good education, to make every one cultivate his talents to the utmost, without a reference to others. To aim at producing an equality of improvement in a numerous class, so far from following the order of nature, is diametrically opposite to it. This would be to allow a large portion of talent to lie dormant in one mind, and to endeavour to kindle in another what does not exist there. Mr. Dufief places his chief glory in teaching a language by phrases, and seems to consider memory the only valuable faculty of the mind." The Greeks," says he, " that ingenious nation, were very correct in conferring on the muses the title of the Daughters of Memory." We suspect that this gentleman has no great intimacy with the Greek muse, else he would easily have seen, that she was so called, because she was employed in the recording of glorious deeds, not because the Greeks considered the memory a nobler faculty than imagination or judgment, which last it would have been well if he had cultivated a little in himself. In truth, the main deformity of the system is, that it exercises the memory at the expense of the other powers of the mind. The scholar is, indeed, in the hands of Mr. Dufief, a mere parrot, who repeats what he hears, and with little more understanding of it. But we shall quote his own words: speaking of the importance of phraseteaching, "The present is the only mode," he remarks, "of acquiring a correct acquaintance with language." Consequently, before its invention, no one ever knew any language correctly. Unfortunate Buchanan, who had not the advantage of learning Latin by Mr. Dufief's system! The author of the work before us, who seems to be endowed with the very spirit of prophecy, with respect to the universal adoption of his system, proposes that in London four schools should be established, one in each quarter of the city, calculated to contain 2500 each. One master and an assistant, he says, are amply sufficient to discharge the duties of these four schools, and we cannot conceive that the world will be so ungrateful as not to appoint Mr. Dufief to this important charge. This notable plan is to be carried into effect at the expense of one shilling of schoolfees from each scholar for ten months, in which time it communicates to the "meanest capacity" a complete knowledge of the French language. This brings to our mind a memorable speech which we heard a few days ago in an obscure street of this city, made by one of those orators called raree-showmen. "Here," said he, to the gaping crowd of young ragamuffins around him, "here you will see the whole world, and the emperor of Russia, the most beautifullest man in the whole world, and all at the moderate expense of one penny." This will give our second Newton a salary of L. 500 a-year, and he says, if any think this sum too large, he must remember that a considerable share of it will be expended in coach hire for the purpose of conveying the exhausted philanthropist from one school to another. We were actually wondering at the man's moderation, as he might with equal propriety have charged four shillings, instead of one, for his important services, which would have given him an income of L. 2000 a-year, instead of the paltry sum of L. 500, when the price we had just paid for his Grammar occurred to our minds. In calculating the expense, he alludes, rather reluctantly, to this tremendous item, but the truth at last comes out. "I must mention" says he, “an indispensable article of expense relating to this work." He laments that it cannot be abridged, but contemplates printing it in |