the objective world and with language, that is to say, our knowledge of facts and our power to express them, may progress side by side. For it is men that we are forming and not parrots, as has been said in chap. xix. Principle 6.
4. From this it follows, firstly, that words should not be learned apart from the objects to which they refer; since the objects do not exist separately and cannot be apprehended without words, but both exist and perform their functions together. It was this consideration that led me to publish the Janua Linguarum; in which words, arranged in sentences, explain the nature of objects, and, as it is said, with no small success.
5. Secondly, that the complete and detailed knowledge of a language, no matter which it be, is quite unnecessary, and that it is absurd and useless on the part of any one to try to attain it. Not even Cicero (who is considered the greatest master of the Latin language) was acquainted with all its details, since he confessed that he was ignorant of the words used by artisans; for he had never mixed with cobblers and labourers, so as to see their handiwork and hear the technical terms that they used. Indeed what object could he have had in learning such terms?
6. Those who have expanded my Janua have paid no attention to this, but have stuffed it with uncommon words and with matter quite unsuited to a boy’s comprehension. A Janua should remain a Janua, and anything further should be reserved for a future time. This is especially the case with words which either never occur, or which, if met with, can easily be looked up in subsidiary books (such as vocabularies, lexicons, herbaries, etc.) It was for this reason that I discontinued my Latinitatis Posticum (into which I was introducing obsolete and unusual words).
7. In the third place it follows that the intelligence as well as the language of boys should preferably be exercised on matters which appeal to them, and that what appeals to adults should be left for a later stage. They waste their time who place before boys Cicero and other great writers.
