the analysis of sentences. In studying Latin or Greek, it is absolutely necessary to acquire a knowledge of the ordinary inflexions of the noun, verb, and adjective, before any progress can be made with the sentence; and this is also the case to a certain, though a less degree in German, and perhaps also, though to a still less degree, in the case of French. But in the case of English it is absurd to waste time over learning the cases of nouns which have lost all their case endings, and have substituted for those case endings structural position or logical relation in the sentence. What is wanted is to get as quickly as possible a notion of the structure of the sentence and of the logical relation of its parts. And for this purpose the teaching of English grammar should be begun, and based throughout its course, on the analysis of sentences. The teacher should, immediately after imparting the first elementary notions and general definitions, proceed to the subject and predicate, beginning with the noun and pronoun as the subject, and with intransitive verbs, as verbs of complete predication. He should then pass on to the direct objective relations of nouns and pronouns with verbs of incomplete predication, introducing no more study of caseendings than is absolutely necessary for the purposes of the pronouns. Number, gender, person, tense, mood, and voice, should be taught as modifications of these relations. Having thoroughly worked these forms and relations of the noun, pronoun and verb, always by means of the structure of a simple sentence, the teacher should proceed to the enlargement of the subject, and thereby introduce for the first time the so-called possessive case-ending of nouns and personal pronouns, the adjective, the

noun in apposition, the possessive pronoun, and the participle. Having treated of the simplest forms of enlargement of the subject, he should proceed to the simplest forms of extension of the predicate. In this relation he should first introduce the adverb, showing its use both for extending the predicate, and, by means of the adjective, for further enlarging the subject. He should then introduce the indirect objective relation of nouns and pronouns (such as that which is called, by analogy with Latin, the dative case), always as a means of extending the predicate. All through this course of teaching, it is an essential thing that the children should be required to make and form simple sentences in various ways, so as thoroughly to understand the practical application of what they are learning to the art of speaking and writing correctly. The teacher should then go on, by way of further extension of the predicate, and of further enlargement of the subject, to the use of the preposition with nouns and pronouns. After this he should proceed to easy types of complex sentences; .teaching the children the use of the subordinate sentence, and therewith introducing to them for the first time the conjunction, the relative pronoun, and those words such as "why," which answer the purpose of a relative pronoun and preposition combined. By this means, he will be able to teach them to distinguish with confidence between the several uses of words-such as those words which are sometimes used as prepositions and sometimes as conjunctions; those which are sometimes used as conjunctions, and sometimes as relative pronouns, and the like. Having thus given the children their first notions of the relations of a subordinate to a principal

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sentence, he should then return to the simple sentence, and should instruct the children in the various kinds of phrases, in the more difficult uses of the participle, and in the nature and functions of interjections; and after this should go back once more to the complex sentence, and carry on his teaching into the different kinds of subordinate sentences; being extremely careful at this point of his teaching to ascertain that the children see clearly the reason why any given subordinate sentence is substantival, adjectival, or adverbial, by making them always point out the word in the principal sentence upon which the subordinate sentence depends.

30. Advantage of this Method. Some persons may think that this way of teaching English grammar, by means, that is to say, of logical analysis, is more difficult for children than the old method of teaching it by a system of supposed inflexions, and of parsing those inflexions, based on the analogy of Latin; and may imagine that it will be found too difficult for children in our elementary schools. I am perfectly convinced from observation and experience, both as an inspector and as a teacher, that this is not the case. The technical terms which it is necessary to use in teaching grammatical analysis are neither more nor less difficult in themselves than those which it is necessary to employ in teaching arithmetic, geography, or book-keeping; and they are not more difficult than the terms which it is necessary to use in teaching grammar on the old system. As regards all such terms, whether employed in the teaching of book-keeping, or of analysis of sentences, the great point is to make the children have an intelligent

understanding of the real things which underlie them, and which they represent, and this can be satisfactorily done in the case of English grammar only by means of analysis. Moreover, teachers who adopt this mode of teaching English grammar, will find that the power of getting quickly at the sentence is of immense advantage as a means of interesting the children, and engaging their attention, in what must otherwise appear to them a most dry and unprofitable study. As soon as a child can begin to construct sentences, he feels, as a learner in algebra feels when he is able to solve an easy problem by means of an equation, that he is really doing something; and that he has got the best of answers to that question which children are always asking secretly of themselves, if not openly of their teachers, in their studies, viz. :-" What is the use of all this?" I succeeded, when I was acting as an inspector in Liverpool and Cheshire, in spite of the disturbance of things caused by the recent introduction at that time of the Revised Code, in persuading two or three of the principal teachers in some of the best elementary town schools in my district, to try the effect of teaching grammar in this way to their upper classes; and all those who made the attempt told me afterwards that they were satisfied it was a great improvement on the former method. And I have since that time myself taught English grammar to a little girl of nine years old on the same system, and have been more than ever convinced of its utility.

31. Importance of Inspection of Fifth-Year Pupil-Teachers.-The probability is extreme that before the inspector has listened ten minutes to a lesson on grammar, from a fifth-year pupil-teacher,

he will hear several things of very questionable authority told to the children, and one or two actual mistakes made. Unless the grammar lesson is very easy, and the pupil-teacher unusually wary, the inspector will probably soon find that he is out of his depth. He will thus have an excellent opportunity, at the close of the day and when he is speaking to the pupil-teachers about their work, of bringing home to them all the importance, for purposes of general culture, and of improvement in their profession, of learning another language besides their native tongue, and of studying and teaching English grammar all through by means of analysis of sentences. But if the lesson on English grammar is a very easy one, and does not really bring out any illustrative difficulties, or if it happens that the lesson given before him by the fifth-year pupilteacher is not on grammar, the inspector will stop the lesson after hearing it for a certain time, say for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, will select a simple passage from one of the prose books used in the school, and will request the pupilteacher to question the class on that passage. This is particularly important in the case of a pupil teacher at the end of his fifth year; because, in inspecting his teaching, there lies upon the inspector the responsibility of reporting (under Article 60, of the new Code) whether he has completed his engagement with credit, and having satisfactorily passed his final examination can be specially recommended for immediate service with a provisional certificate. With this responsibility upon him the inspector will of course take care to pay full and careful attention to the teaching of the fifth-year pupil teacher. If this is not his first