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attained by that patient industry which can alone lay the foundation of permanent excellence , v But supposing the old and more severe course of study to be the best for ensuring real proficiency , it will still be said , that there may be ( and no doubt there are ) many persons to whom speedy acquisition is the end in view , and who cannot take into consideration collateral objects . This
particularly applies to paodern languages . These persons would never , perhaps , think of , and indeed . could not afford , the patient drudgery with which a school-boy , who : has all his full course before rum , must wade through difficulties that gradually vanish away . Ah older and stronger mind shrinks from these difficulties ; it seeks a quicker path , and it may often find it . But
it should be remarked , that experience shews attainments so made to be always of an imperfect character . This class of scholars , who have borne the title of < rtJ / ijt * a $£ iV , are proverbially below the level of real proficiency , but to persons so situated this may be all they can afford to reach . To them the Hamiltonians should peculiarly direct their anti-attrition system for smoothing the jarring ruggednesses of the road to knowledge .
It appears , indeed , to us d priori in the highest degree probable that for such persons , as well as for certain classes of schools for those boys who cannot go through a more complete course , a readier and more expeditious plan than the old one may in many points be adopted . In this view it becomes important to consider the merits of the Hamiltonian or any other process that may profess to give those who can afford only a limited time a more extended quantum of knowledge . This is in truth a matter of
calculation and experiment . Even here the sturdy advocates of old ways would , perhaps , contend that the slow plan of learning a few words thoroughly in the given time , is more useful in the end than packing a great many into the memory imperfectly . Supposing that in a given time at the commencement less was actually learned on the old than on the new plan , it might be said , that it is by no means clear that the old plan may not improve the capacity more than the new , so as to facilitate the result of future experiments by those habits which a severer course of discipline will excite and cultivate .
On this part of the subject we shall quote Dr . Jones ' s summary of the Hamiltonian system , with the opening of his vigorous attack upon its fundamental principles , addressed to the Edinburgh Reviewer : " Mr . Hamilton ' s system , as for as it is peculiar , consists in three things : first , in excluding" " the use of the grammar and dictionary , secondly , in attixinir to each term one undeviating signification , however differently applied ; and first , in excludingthe use of the grammar and dictionary , secondly , in afiixing to each term one undeviating signification , however differentl y applied $ and
thirdly , in prescribing to the pupils a Key , containing a closely literal version . On each of these heads I shall make a few brief remarks . And with regard to the first , I observe that the Latin and Greek Grammars furnish systems o 3 f generaljprinciples as necessary to construe the simplest sentence , as the knowledge 01 the letters is for reading . I here suppose the attention of the learner to be at first directed solely to general principles $ such as the declensions of nouns , adjectives , pronouns , and the conjugations of verbs , without dwelling on exceptions or technical rules of syntax , until he shall have made some
progress in construing . ft Mr . Hamilton professes to teach ten thousand words in ten lessons of one hour each ; and this vast multitude of words he finds in the Gospel of John . This circumstance at once falsifies the assertion . The Godpel of John is the simplest of all narratives , and consists not of many words , but 6 f the same words , and those the most common , repeated some more or less in every verse from beginning to end . Exclude the indeclinable particles , such as-the prc ^ -
Untitled Article
11 % ; Jt $ yietff ~ -HamiUohian . System .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1827, page 112, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1793/page/32/
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