Nothing can have a greater tendency to clog and destroy the native
activity of the mind, than the profuseness with which the memory of
children is loaded, by nurses, by mothers, by masters. What can more
corrupt the judgment, than the communicating, without measure, and
without end, words entirely devoid of meaning? What can have a more
ridiculous influence upon our taste, than for the first verses to which
our attention is demanded, to consist of such strange and uncouth
jargon? To complete the absurdity, and that we may derive all that
elegance and refinement from the study of languages, that it is
calculated to afford, our first ideas of Latin are to be collected from
such authors, as Corderius, Erasmus, Eutropius, and the Selectae. To
begin indeed with the classical writers, is not the way to smooth the
path of literature. I am of opinion however, that one of the
above-mentioned authors will be abundantly sufficient. Let it be
remembered, that the passage from the introductory studies to those
authors, that form the very essence of the language, will be much
facilitated by the previous acquisition of the French.
Having spoken of the article of memory, let me be permitted to mention
the practice, that has of late gained so great a vogue; the instructing
children in the art of spouting and acting plays.
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