The british classical authors [antikvár]

PREFACE. Among the various means of instruction which we possess, there cannot be a doubt that book-reading occupies a prominent and important place, and to attain the effect desired, claims the serious attention of the teacher. In order that the pupil may be enabled to garner up the knowledge thence derived, the selections for reading should be made with a constant view to unity of purpose and arranged according to their natural order. The various subjects thus grouped and classified should be studied by the pupil in such a manner as to render him sensible of their necessary connexion and, by constantly comparing them, to give him a faithful impression both of their relative value and of the whole composing this great variety of individual parts. But unfortunately the reverse of this too often takes place. A multitude of unconnected facts, fortuitously gathered from desultory reading, jostle one another in the mind in chaotic confusion, and render the understanding turbid instead of enlightening it. To guide the pupil therefore in the selection of his readings is not less important than to teach him the laws of a language, by which he is enabled to arrive at the meaning of the words. For the upper classes of schools so little has been done in this way that they have been compelled to have recourse to the complete works of modern English authors; thus occasioning a needless waste of time and trouble, the perfect and the imperfect models of style being studied without discrimination, and a far smaller portion of the richer treasures of English literature falhng to the pupil's share than he might otherwise enjoy; his knowledge of English life, customs, manners and feeling is needlessly stinted; nor is he so well able to appreciate and to enter into such elements : of thought and action as may be termed peculiarly English. If the study of modern languages may lay claim to intrinsic value, and an honourable position in our educational establishments equal to that of the classic languages, they should be taught so as to impart, with the language, both the general information possessed by the respective people, and their history, which is always found embodied in their literature. The language of a people elucidates only one point of its existence, is inseparable from it, and becomes, as it were, the corporeal mind of the nation; whilst the various phases of that mind indicate the nation's history. Hence the teaching of a language imparts not the language alone, but—and this more particularly—furnishes the pupil with a key to the civilization, the social habits and the political organization of the people, all of which are most faithfully reflected in the national literature.