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dividual ^ , but on the efficacy or inemcacy of systems ; passiDg especial strictures on the paper signed William Steveas , which appeared in your number for November last . That which must first strike every one who reads but a little way into that communication , is the unpardonable mis * nomer that forms its superscription . This misapplication of the term Hamiltonian
is carelessly repeated in the course of the detail , gives the whole a character to which it has no claim , and has , 1 fear , misled the writer himself . The particulars so circumstantially related by ypur correspondent canuot be designated by a more appropriate title than the Slev&tsian Experiment : but this , of course , modesty forbade him to employ . In some places the scholastic advocate seems directing his efforts to shew that the Hamiltonian
system is the cause of his pupils' uuparalleled success ; in others , that the com * binationof methods is . the suminum bo * nuin ; and again , in others , that his judicious analysis ( such it really is ) of sentences into their component parts , and of these parts into their properties and powers , deserves the high meed of public praise . Mr . Stevens , before he iutro * duced the principle of Mr- Hamiltou into ( C
his tuition , was opinion that some * thing would be found wanting wheu applied to the ancient languages ( why not to all ? J 9 where the classes would be composed of boys , " &c . Verily , in his experiment he has more than realized his anticipation . With your permission , I will attend his steps through the long course of his statement . In the first place , I must observe that ,
as he applies the term Hamiltonian so arbitrarily , he had done well to favour us with a clear definition of its import . I have always thought ( and Mr . S . alters not my idea ) , that the Hamiltonian System is this : Use an interlinear literal translation of the language to be learnt ;
let this translation , with its foreign representative , be repeated clearly by the teacher for supervisor ) ; let the learner distinctly repeat it after him till he makes no error in pronunciation and in literal rendering ; let there be no parsing , no tracing o grammatical derivations , affinities , and analogies ; no use whatever of grammar or dictionary ; and let all this be done principally , if not solely , with adults . Like Mr . S ., I wish to be explicit , and pray that he and Hamilton and all their friends will forgive me , if I unintentionally indite a misrepresenta- * tion of the innovator ' s system . Now , as I am flure that my delineation is not far
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Miscellaneous Correspondence . 59
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from truth , I proceed boldly to ask Mr . S . how he can , with such disregard as he has evinced to the directions above enumerated , designate one of his pupils a " Hamiltonian pupil , " his method a " Hamiltonian Experiment ; " how he can thus expect to convince the world , or even seriously to persuade himself , of the utility of Hamilton ' s mode of tuition ?
He will say that he and many others wished to see the effect of a combination of methods . I suppose they would also be glad to ascertain whether , and in what degree , an ingredient , especially a novel ingredient , in the compound , is the cause of any part of the result . Me- * thinks Mr . S . would have improved his attempt to satisfy the public mind
respecting Mr . Hamilton and himself , if , consistently with professed explicitness , he had in the progress of his detail pointed out to what cause particular e £ - fects are , or are deemed by him to be , attributable . For example , he might have stated , This result is clearly brought about by the medicinal properties of the essentially HaririItouian portion of my plan ; this other is plainly to be ascribed
to the nutritive qualities of the essentially non-Hamiltonian part . Alas for '' Mr . Stevens ' s advocacy of Hamilton ' s principle ! He would then have found that the few grains of bond , fide Hainiltouiauism which he has thrown in , are no invigorating , hardly a wholesome , ingre - dient . Allow me to attempt to form a supplement to the elucidations of Mr . Stevens .
Of the first Latin Class only one member seems likely to give evidence of the usefulness of Mr . Hamilton in education : aud even he cannot be taken as a proof , because he had the advantage ( an incalculable one ) of the parsing lessons . The others , in addition to this , possessed a previous acquaintance with grammar . No one can say that these
boys owed their progress to the partial adoption of Hamilton's method . The weight of probability must , to every one who judges fa irly of the nature of language and of the human mind , appear to lie in the other scale . With respect to the Greek class , as there was not opportunity for satisfactory trial , I only point to a motto which may be as suitably
pronounced over the exploit of the other classes , " non ouot , bed quales . " The second Latin class may " afford a fair example of what may be effected by this ( the Stevensian ) method , " &c , but cannot , with any fairness , be brought forward as an instance of Mr . Hamilton ' s services in the cause of . education . Ob-
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1829, page 59, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2568/page/59/
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