subject should be taught in combination with those which are correlative to it; that is to say, words should be studied in combination with the things to which they refer; while reading and writing, exercises in style and in logical thought, teaching and learning, amusement and serious study, should be continually joined together.
44. Words, therefore, should always be taught and learned in combination with things, just as wine is bought and sold together with the cask that contains it, a dagger with its sheath, a tree with its bark, and fruit with its skin. For what are words but the husks and coverings of things? Therefore, when instruction is given in any language, even in the mother-tongue itself, the words must be explained by reference to the objects that they denote; and contrari-wise, the scholars must be taught to express in language whatever they see, hear, handle, or taste, so that their command of language, as it progresses, may ever run parallel to the growth of the understanding.
The rule shall therefore run as follows: The scholar should be trained to express everything that he sees in words, and should be taught the meaning of all the words that he uses. No one should be allowed to talk about anything that he does not understand, or to understand anything without at the same time being able to express his knowledge in words. For he who cannot express the thoughts of his mind resembles a statue, and he who chatters, without understanding what he says, resembles a parrot.
But we wish to train up men, and to do so as quickly as possible, and this end can only be attained when instruction in language goes hand in hand with instruction in facts.
45. From this it follows that we ought to exclude from our schools all books that merely teach words and do not at the same time lead to a knowledge of useful objects. We must bestow our labour on that which is of real importance, and, therefore (as Seneca says in his 9th Letter), must devote ourselves to the improvement of our understanding
