THE USE, MISUSE AND ABUSE OF TEXT BOOKS.
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��nectives had any meaning at all. They are generally regarded as mere insignifi- cant hooks and bands, which use has em- ployed to unite the significant parts of speech. With all this apparatus for the study of the classics, it may be doubted whether they are, to-day, so thoroughly mastered as instruments of thought and speech as they were two centuries ago. When scholars learned the Greek and Latin from extensive reading and com- parison of ancient authors, they were enabled to think, write and speak in them as well as in the tongues in which they were born. The languages are not now studied for the same purposes as former- ly. They used to be the only media of communication among learned men, hence they were compelled to learn to speak and write them with facility. Now they are studied for discipline, for infor- mation, as models in grammar and rhet- oric, as a grand thesaurus of philology, etymology and scientific nomenclature. Webster's Dictionary contains 114,000 words ; yet the scientific terms alone de- rived from the Greek and Latin, all told, would probably amount to double this number. Numerous helps are often an encumbrance to the learner; as too heavy armor impedes the warrior. They are unfavorable to originality.
Martin Luther made his address before the diet of Worms first in German ; but the Emperor preferring to hear it in Latin, when exhausted by his long speech before this august body, he was required to repeat it in Latin. After a moment's breathing time he began again and re- peated his address in Latin with undi- minished power. It may be doubted whether the man now lives who could, extemporaneously, perform such a task. Yet our helps for the study of all lan- guages, living and dead, have, since his day, increased a hundred fold. .
We have too many introductory books. When an author makes one successful effort in text-book venture, he feels bound to make a score. Dr. Anthonmadeat least forty. Only one grammar should ever be used in learning any language. The declension and paradigms, the rules and exceptions of the language should all be 1 earned from one book. There is great
��advantage in associating the facts and principles with the pages where they are recorded. They are then easily found when needed for use. The grammar first put into the learner's hand should accompany him through the college and seminary. A single preparatory reader, adapted to the grammar in use, is all that any pupil needs to introduce him to the classic authors themselves. It would be better to have but one lexicon, and thus, very early in the course, learn to select the right meaning for each particular sentence. In this there is great utility in point of accuracy and thoroughness. Forty years ago, one text-book in any department of education was deemed suf- ficient. Now a boy does not use any one book long enough to know its contents so as to find what he needs by the power of association. No author is content to publish a single school book of any kind, at the present day. They come in series now; and in the modern " battle of the books " the warriors march no longer in single file, but move in companies, regi- ments and battalions. " Single misfor- tunes," said an Irish priest, "seldom come unattended." Our "books are mostly " progressive," showing the unparalleled march of intellect in our day ; in fact, it has, in some schools, marched out of sight. Precisely at the time when the price of books is double what it used to be, and when purchasers have not one- half as much money as they once had, the number of text-books has increased ten fold. I have seen an advertisement of Eobinson's complete mathematical series, amounting to twenty-one volumes. Here are more books than most farmers and mechanics ever own. In my boy- hood it was rare to find intelligent labor- ers who owned that number of books. One arithmetic then sufficed to make good accountants. One book then made good arithmeticians, and no keys were used. Now, no arithmetic that has any difficult problems to be solved is pub- lished without a key. How absurd is it for an author to scour the world for " hard sums," as they are called, and then work them all himself and offer the solutions, for a consideration, to the young aspirant for mathematical prizes !
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