The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1852-07-24
SELF EDUCATION.


We DO not mean, for the present At any rate.
under this head, to treat of education in its
largest and most proper sense. We intend
only to speak Of that portion OF mans edn-
cation which be receives at school, and we de-
sign to show, that no man Of good understand
ing and solerable industry need regret that ne
did not graduate at College, but that on the
contrary, 20 far as classical literature lmeaning
the dead languagesl and the mathematical eel
sences are concerned, he may acquire, in his
own room. and with no living instructor, fully
as much as he can get from the most famous
institutions. Nothing is wanting but the will.
The boy, who is designed for college. COM
rnences his classical studies at ten or twelve
years Of age. He is cent to public school.
provided with Latin grammar and thrust in
TO class with, perhaps, dozen boys OF his
own age. They move along pretty much IN
the same way that dozen hounds. united by
q chain, would move. Some are stronger than
the rest and would fan pull forward the whole
squad. But the ris inertie of the mass is
too much for them. They are dragged back
at each successive effort, and are very lucky
il they do not sometimes make two steps back
ward for one forward. They continue, howev-
er, to get certain portion of the grammar by
rote. They learn how to decline noun, q
pronoun and an adjective, and to conjug ate a
verb. They become initiated into Syntax, but
few of the masters think il all necessary to
make them acquainted, even slightly, with the
rules of Prosody. In process of time they
come to read a little, and then begins the tug
of war. For FIVE or six years, they are expect
ed, every day, to translate about a score of
lines, in the most abominable English, and as
they take on little Greek in their progress, in
the course of time their labors are doubled
In this way, to use their own phrase, they
s'read through Latin and Creek" an express.
sion which implies about four books of
Cesar's commentaries upon the Gallo war,
Sallust's History of the war with Jugurtha,
about four books of Virgil's Eneid, hundred
or SO odes of Horace, with few Of his epis.
ties and satires. an Grafton or two of Cicero, a
book or two of Ivy, comedy of Terence, q
small portion of Tacitus, three or four satires
of Juvenal, small portion of Xenophon, a
book Of Herodotus, two or three books of Ho-
mer, a play of Eurpides, and, perhaps, anoth-
er of Eschylus. This is the labor of about
seven years, and perhaps, in the same time. he
may have learned little about Geography,
something of Arithmetic and Algebra, and
may have obtained, from abridgments, some
r.. Il l.
Now, we maintain, that any man, of tolera-
bly, good parts, and eighteen years old at the
commencement, may, without any assistance,
except from translated books, make himself
master ola vast deal more than is here set
down, in four years. Let him begin with the
week -ifhe be diligent.
of it that is Immediately necessary TO his pur
pose. He can follow the verb through all its
variations. and can have obtained enough in.
sight into Syniax to make him sufficiently ac
quainted with the rules of construction. He
can also master and comprehend the rules of
Prosody, and thus, from the very beginning,
avoid that abomination into which 80 MANY
, school-boys plunge, and which makes them.
through life, murder the Latin language. as
though it were dialect of Hottentots and not
OF civilized men. He is now ready to begin to
read. Let him get books, well translated to
Imam, though not to a school.boy; they are
the best OF all teachers. Let him accustom
himself, in the beginning, to run through a
half dozen verbs, which he may meet with.
every day, until the terminaiions-narking the
tenses-shal have become familiar to him.
His progress will be slow for short time.
but food Of light will soon break in upon
him. By the time he shall have progressed
half through the commentaries of Caesar, he
will have become competent to lay aside bis
translation, and to read the original. Instead
oil counting his daily progress by lines, he
will be enabled to estimate it by pages. LIE,
him, when he shall have once ACQUIRED a
knowledge Of the structure and infections o,
the language, endeavor to understood the book
ne is reading, without translating it in other
IA works, to think in Latin. He will soon find
that u will become easy to him, and that he
will De enabled to read it with as much randi.
~ as will English. At the end of year. he
- - ~SAS " tau LdtfI DOCK this
way, and then let him plunge, at once into the
sea Of Latin Literature, not be contented, like
the young gentlemen we have alluded TO. with
"reading through Latin" Let him then take
the letters Of Cicero or any other classical
Aork, translate them OF il into English, Law il
oy until ne shall have forgotten the original.
and then translating the English back into La.
tln' correct his performances BY the origips,.-
Inc attempts will be crude enough at fest.
Dut let lin persevere, and he will soon wr;,e
very good Latin. The same thing NAV then
DC done with fhe Greek, and with SO much
success that at the end Of three years, the sra.
dent wall hnd hmseli fully competent 10 ,e r.
the Chair OF Ancient Languages, in anv col.
iege TINS side Of Oxford or Cambridge. Al
intervals OF leisure, he may have read the hes,
nls.orlcu' works. and made himself acquainted |
WIN geography and with the grammar of hi.
In he L