AN EASY, NATURAL, AND RATIONAL MODE OF TEACHING AND ACQUIRING THE FRENCH LANGUAGE, ON A PLAN ENTIRELY NEW; IN WHICH THE ANOMALIES AND IRREGULARITIES OF VERBS ARE CLEARLY DEMONSTRATED AND REDUCED TO RULE: The whole deduced from the PHILOSOPHY OF THE LANGUAGE AND AN ANALYSIS OF THE HUMAN MIND. BY WILLIAM HENRY PYBUS. LONDON: PRINTED FOR BALDWIN, CRADOCK AND JOY, 47, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1816. PUBLIC PREFACE. Dormitur aliquando veritas, moritur nunquam. IT is far from being the wish of the Author to claim any peculiar merit to himself for presenting this Work to the public: his chief desire is, that the Work itself may be found to deserve the attention of those who are solicitous to reform and improve the present system of education, by diminishing, if not removing, the many difficulties that attend it; and by this means, to enable aspiring youth to obtain that success, which a moderate degree of application deserves, and which a strict adherence to the rules here laid down will ultimately ensure. For this purpose the Author has, for a length of time, devoted himself to the study of the different faculties of the human mind,* and the various capacities of individuals. * The mind, like the body of youth, if suffered to follow the laws of nature, will expand itself with equal regularity and vigour. If we do but consider for an instant, philosophically, what a child is, we shall be sensible that he is composed of two distinct parts, corporeal and mental; the former of which (the baser part) grows and is strengthened when regularly nourished with proper food and exercise: the latter (which is the nobler part) will, likewise, grow and be invigorated, if duly supplied with its proper aliment-instruction.* But to produce this desired effect, it must be presented in Animi cultus quasi quidam humanitatis cibus. CICERO. b WQR 20JUN'34 During twenty years of the Author's life passed in travelling through the greater part of Europe, and some parts of Asia, Africa, a manner, as suitable, and of a nature as congenial to the mind, as food to the body; or it will receive it with extreme reluctance, if it does not totally reject it. It must be acknowledged by every one, that we cannot confine a lim, without torturing the child: the mind is not less susceptible of confinement; it is for this reason, that we frequently find children who are restricted by arbitrary rules, from giving way to their natural genius, dread the idea of school; who before they were thus restrained, were really enjoying their existence; were the delight of their parents; and pleased every one by their captivating actions, or artless manners; their sprightly sallies, their infantine questions, observations and ideas. Then, indeed, the bloom of the rose appeared on their cheeks, and rays of intelligence beamed from their expressive eyes. And what could be the cause of this? Nature: for then, they were under her benign influence; unfettered by arbitrary rules. It is impossible to express, what the Author has suffered on perceiving the tortured state of mind, so strongly depicted on the countenances of some children, after having commenced their course of scholastic instruction. From being lively and animated they by degrees lose their wonted energy and cheerfulness; the colour forsakes their cheeks, and they no longer appear the same beings. Indeed, the greater talents and inclination Nature has bestowed upon them, for receiving instruction, with the more violence do they reject it, when offered in the unnatural mode, in which it is usually presented to them. Nor do they recover from the stupidity, which appears to cloud their intellects, until they are able to divest the mind not only of its natural inclination for general inquiry, but also of its predilection for experimental or practical information, over that of abstrusely-worded theory. The objects displayed to the eye at school, now no longer attract their former vivid attention. The productions of Nature and of Art are viewed by them with indifference. Science becomes a burthen; and the body participates in the melancholy languor which pervades the mind. The above is a faithful picture of the wretched state into which the human frame is frequently plunged, and in which, in some cases, it unhappily remains for many years. Fortunate is the child, |