which nobody has more for her age. I am sure you can enter into all these niceties, and that my observations will not be lost upon you. And now, my love, let me mention another thing. You must get over that little embarrassment which I see you show whenever you meet him. It was very natural and excusable the first time, considering our long acquaintance with him and the General: but we must make our conduct conform to circumstances; so try to get the better of this little flutter: it does not look well, and might be observed. There is no quality more valuable in a young person than self-possession. So you must keep down these blushes,' said she, patting her on the cheek, or I believe I must rouge you:- though it would be a thousand pities, with the pretty natural colour you have. But you must remember what I have been saying. Be more composed in your behaviour. Try to adopt the manner which I do. It may be difficult; but you see I contrive it, and I have known Mr. Granby a great deal longer than you have, Caroline.'"-(pp. 21, 22.) tion with which those features were lighted up? Let critics hesitate to pronounce her beautiful; at any rate they must allow her to be fascinating. Place her a perfect stranger in a crowded assembly, and she would first attract his eye; correcter beauties would pass unnoticed, and his first attention would be riveted by her. She was all brilliancy and effect; but it were hard to say she studied it; so little did her spontaneous, airy graces convey the impression of premeditated practice. She was a sparkling tissue of little affectations, which, however, appeared so interwoven with herself, that their seeming artlessness disarmed one's censure. Strip them away, and you destroyed at once the brilliant being that so much attracted you; and it thus became difficult to condemn what you felt unable, and, indeed, unwilling, to remove. With positive affectation, malevolence itself could rarely charge her; and prudish censure seldom exceeded the guarded limits of a dry remark, that Miss Darrell had a good deal of manner.' "Eclat she sought, and gained. Indeed, posed to desire it. But she required an she was both formed to gain it, and disextensive sphere. A ball-room was her true arena: for she waltzed 'à ravir,' and could These principles are of the highest practical importance in an age when the art of marrying daughters is carried to the highest pitch of excel-talk enchantingly about nothing. She was lence, when love must be made to the young men of fortune, not only by the young lady, who must appear to be dying for him, but by the father, mother, aunts, cousins, tutor, gamekeeper, and stable boy-assisted by the parson of the parish, and the churchwardens. If any of these fail, Dives pouts, and the match is off. devoted to fashion, and all its ficklenesses, and went to the extreme whenever she could do so consistently with grace. But she aspired to be a leader as well as a follower; seldom, if ever, adopted a mode that was unbecoming to herself, and dressed to suit the genius of her face."-(pp. 28, 29.) Tremendous is the power of a novelist! If four or five men are in a The merit of this writer is, that he room, and show a disposition to break the peace, no human magistrate (not catches delicate portraits which a less skilful artist would pass over, from even Mr. Justice Bayley) could do more than bind them over to keep the peace, not thinking the features sufficiently and commit them if they refused. But marked. We are struck, however, the writer of the novel stands with a with the resemblance, and are pleased pen in his hand, and can run any of with the conquest of difficulties - we them through the body can knock remember to have seen such faces, and are sensible that they form an agreeable variety to the expression of more marked and decided character. Nobody, for instance, can deny that he is acquainted with Miss Darrell. "Miss Darrell was not strictly a beauty. She had not, as was frequently observed by her female friends, and unwillingly admitted by her male admirers, a single truly good feature in her face. But who could quarrel with the tout ensemble? who but must be dazzled with the graceful anima down any one individual, and keep the others upon their legs; or, like the last scene in the first tragedy written by a young man of genius, can put them all to death. Now, an author possessing such extraordinary privileges, should not have allowed Mr. Tyrrel to strike Granby. This is ill managed; particularly as Granby does not return the blow, or turn him out of the house. Nobody should suffer his hero to have a black eye, or to be pulled by the nose. The Iliad would | Hamilton to have had recourse to these means of making known his discoveries; since he may not have had friends whose names and authority might have attracted the notice of the public; but it is a misfortune to which his system has been subjected, and a difficulty which it has still to overcome. There is also a singular never have come down to these times if Agamemnon had given Achilles a box on the ear. We should have trembled for the Eneid if any Tyrian nobleman had kicked the pious Æneas, in the 4th book. Æneas may have deserved it; but he could not have founded the Roman Empire after so distressing an accident. HAMILTON'S METHOD OF (E. REVIEW, 1826.) 1. The Gospel of St. John, in Latin, adapted to the Hamiltonian System, by an Analytical and Interlineary Translation. Executed under the immediate Direction of James Hamilton. London. 1824. 2. The Gospel of St. John, adapted to the and somewhat ludicrous condition of giving warranted lessons; by which is meant, we presume, that the money is to be returned if the progress is not made. We should be curious to know how poor Mr. Hamilton would protect himself from some swindling scholars, who, having really learnt all that the master professed to teach, should counterfeit the grossest ignorance of the Gospel of St. John, and refuse to construe a single verse, or to pay a farthing. Hamiltonian System, by an Analytical Whether Mr. Hamilton's translations and Interlineary Translation from the are good or bad is not the question. Italian, with full Instructions for its The point to determine is, whether use, even by those who are wholly igno- very close interlineal translations are rant of the Language. For the Use of helps in learning a language? not Schools. By James Hamilton, Author of whether Mr. Hamilton has executed the Hamiltonian System. London. 1825. these translations faithfully and judiWE have nothing whatever to do with ciously. Whether Mr. Hamilton is or Mr. Hamilton personally. He may be is not the inventor of the system the wisest or the weakest of men; which bears his name, and what his most dexterous or most unsuccessful in claims to originality may be, are also the exhibition of his system; modest questions of very second-rate importand proper, or prurient and prepos-ance; but they merit a few obserterous in its commendation ;-by none vations. That man is not the discoof these considerations is his system verer of any art who first says the itself affected. thing; but he who says it so long, and so loud, and so clearly, that he compels mankind to hear him—the man who is so deeply impressed with the importance of the discovery, that he will take no denial: but, at the risk of fortune and fame, pushes through all opposition, and is determined that what he thinks he has discovered shall not perish for want of a fair trial. Other persons had noticed the effect of coal gas in prcducing light; but Winsor worried the town with bad English for three winters before he could attract any serious attention to his views. Many persons broke stone before Macadam; but Macadam felt the discovery more It may have been necessary for Mr. strongly, stated it more clearly, per The proprietor of Ching's Lozenges must necessarily have recourse to a newspaper to rescue from oblivion the merit of his vermifuge medicines. In the same manner, the Amboyna toothpowder must depend upon the Herald and the Morning Post. Unfortunately, the system of Mr. Hamilton has been introduced to the world by the same means, and has exposed itself to those suspicions which hover over splendid discoveries of genius detailed in the daily papers, and sold in sealed boxes at an infinite diversity of prices—but with a perpetual inclusion of the stamp, and with an equitable discount for undelayed payment. severed in it with greater tenacity, wielded his hammer, in short, with greater force then other men, and finally succeeded in bringing his plan into general use. "2. Dio. God. "8. Questo era nel principio appresso Per mezzo di lui tutte le cose furon Literal translations are not only not used in our public schools, but are generally discountenanced in them. A literal translation, or any translation of a school-book, is a contraband fatte: e senza di lui nulla fu fatto article in English schools, which a made: and without of him nothing was made schoolmaster would instantly seize, as of that, of which is been made. di ciò, che è stata fatto. In lui era "4. la vita, e la vita In him was the life, and the life era la luce degli uomini: was the light of the men: "5. la. E la luce splende tra le teneAnd the light shines among the darkle tenebre hanno non ammessa е a Custom-house officer would a barrel of gin, Mr. Hamilton, on the other hand, maintains, by books and lectures, that all boys ought to be allowed to work with literal translations, and that it is by far the best method of learning a language. If Mr. Hamilton's system bre, is just, it is sad trifling to deny hisness, and the darknesses have not admitted claim to originality, by stating that her. Mr. Locke has said the same thing, or that others have said the same thing, a century earlier than Hamilton. They have all said it so feebly, that their observations have passed sub silentio; and if Mr. Hamilton succeeds in being heard and followed, to him be the glory - because from him have proceeded the utility and the advantage. The works upon this subject on this plan published before the time of Mr. Hamilton are, Montanus's edition of the Bible, with Pignini's interlineary Latin version; Lubin's New Testament, having the Greek interlined with Latin and German; Abbé L'Olivet's Pensées de Ciceron; and a French work by the Abbé Radonvilliers, Paris, 1768- and Locke upon Education. One of the first principles of Mr. Hamilton is, to introduce very strict literal interlinear translations, as aids to lexicons and dictionaries, and to make so much use of them as that the dictionary or lexicon will be for a long time little required. We will the language to be the Italian, and the book selected to be the Gospel of St. John. Of this Gospel Mr. Hamilton has published a key, of which the following is an extract: suppose principio era il Verbo, e In the beginning was the Word, and Vi "6. fu un uomo mandato da Dio There was a man sent by God che nomava si Giovanni. who did name himself John. "7. Questi venne qual testimone, affin This came like as witness in order di rendere testimonianza alla luce, onde In this way Mr. Hamilton contends - and sunny day, with a heap of unknown | noisy boys, and with a recollection that words before him to be turned into by sending to the neighbouring shop, English, before supper, by the help of he can obtain any quantity of unripe a ponderous dictionary alone. The gooseberries upon credit. Now, if this object in looking into a dictionary can statement be true, and if there are only be to exchange an unknown 10,000 words in the Gospel of St. John, sound for one that is known. Now it here are 160 hours employed in the seems indisputable, that the sooner this mere digital process of turning over exchange is made the better. The leaves! But in much less time than greater the number of such exchanges this, any boy of average quickness which can be made in a given time, might learn, by the Hamiltonian the greater is the progress, the more method, to construe the whole four abundant the copia verborum obtained Gospels, with the greatest accuracy by the scholar. Would it not be of and the most scrupulous correctness. advantage if the dictionary at once The interlineal translation, of course, opened at the required page, and if a spares the trouble and time of this meself-moving index at once pointed to chanical labour. Immediately under the requisite word? Is any advantage the Italian word is placed the English gained to the world by the time em- word. The unknown sound therefore ployed first in finding the letter P, and is instantly exchanged for one that is then in finding the three guiding let-known. The labour here spared is of ters PRI? This appears to us to be the most irksome nature, and it is pure loss of time, justifiable only if it spared at a time of life the most averse be inevitable and even after this is to such labour; and so painful is this done, what an infinite multitude of labour to many boys, that it forms an difficulties are heaped at once upon the insuperable obstacle to their progress: wretched beginner! Instead of being they prefer to be flogged, or to be sent reserved for his greater skill and matu- to sea. It is useless to say of any rity in the language, he must employ medicine that it is valuable, if it is so himself in discovering in which of many nauseous that the patient flings it senses which his dictionary presents away. You must give me, not the the word is to be used; in consider- best medicine you have in your shop, ing the case of the substantive, and but the best you can get me to take. the syntaxical arrangement in which We have hitherto been occupied it is to be placed, and the relation it with finding the word: we will now bears to other words. The loss of time suppose, after running a dirty finger in the merely mechanical part of the down many columns, and after many old plan is immense. We doubt very sighs and groans, that the word is much, if an average boy, between ten found. We presume the little fellow and fourteen, will look out or find more working in the true orthodox manner, than sixty words in an hour; we say without any translation: he is in purnothing, at present, of the time em- suit of the Greek word Baλλw, and ployed in thinking of the meaning of after a long chase, seizes it, as greedily each word when he has found it, but as a bailiff possesses himself of a fugaof the mere naked discovery of the cious captain. But, alas ! the vanity of word in the lexicon or dictionary. It human wishes !-the never-sufficientlymust be remembered, we say an to-be-pitied stripling has scarcely conaverage boy-not what Master Evans, gratulated himself upon his success, the show-boy, can do ; nor what when he finds Baλλw to contain the Master Macarthy, the boy who is following meanings in Hederick's whipt every day can do ; but some boy between Macarthy and Evans and not what this medium boy can do while his mastigophorous superior is frowning over him, but what he actually does when left in the midst of Lexicon:-1. Jacio; 2. Jaculor; 3. Ferio; 4. Figo; 5. Saucio; 6. Attingo; 7. Projicio; 8. Emitto; 9. Profundo; 10. Pono; 11. Immitto ; 12. Trado; 13. Committo; 14. Condo; 15. Edifico; 16. Verso; 17. Flecto. by this method; the next best is to Suppose the little rogue, not quite at | languages, than to turn something you home in the Latin tongue, to be desi- do not understand, into something you rous of affixing English significations do understand, and as if that was not to these various words, he has then, the best method which effected this obat the moderate rate of six meanings ject in the shortest and simplest manner. to every Latin word, one hundred and Hear upon this point the judicious two meanings to the word Baλλw! or, Locke :-"But if such e man cannot be if he is content with the Latin, he has got, who speaks good Latin, and being then only seventeen.* able to instruct your son in all these Words, in their origin, have a na-parts of knowledge, will undertake it tural or primary sense. The accidental associations of the people who use it, afterwards give to that word a great number of secondary meanings. In some words the primary meaning is very common, and the secondary meaning very rare. In other instances it is just the reverse; and in very many the particular secondary meaning is pointed out by some proposition which accompanies it, or some case by which it is accompanied. But an accurate translation points these things out gradually as its proceeds. The common and most probable meanings of the word Baλλw, or of any other word, are, in the Hamiltonian method, insensibly but surely fixed on the mind, which, by the lexicon method, must be done by a tentative process, frequently ending in gross error, noticed with peevishness, punished with severity, consuming a great deal of time, and for the most part only corrected, after all, by the accurate vivâ voce translation of the master - or, in other words, by the Hamiltonian method. The recurrence to a translation is treated in our schools as a species of imbecility and meanness; just as if there was any other dignity here than utility, any other object in learning * In addition to the other needless difficulties and miseries entailed upon children who are learning languages, their Greek Another recommendation which we Lexicons give a Latin instead of an English translation; and a boy of twelve or thirteen have not mentioned in the Hamiltonian years of age, whose attainments in Latin system is, that it can be combined, and are of course but moderate, is expected to is constantly combined, with the sysmake it the vehicle of knowledge for other languages. This is setting the short-sighted tem of Lancaster. The Key is proand blear-eyed to lead the blind; and is one bably sufficient for those who have no of those afflicting pieces of absurdity which access to classes and schools but in a escape animadversion, because they are, Hamiltonian school during the lesson, and have long been, of daily occurrence. Mr. Jones has published an English and it is not left to the option of the child Greek Lexicon, which we recommend to to trust to the Key alone. The masthe notice of all persons engaged in education, and not sacramented against all im- ter stands in the middle, translates accurately and literally the whole verse, provement. |