The daily gazette., 1876-06-15

For the Gazette.
Remarks on the study of Lam
OssaOes.
Having assigned to each of the four
branches its place and degree Of i'm
portance, we will now before entering
on the details OF the method by which
their acquisition IS best secured, con-
clude our general observations on the
study of languages by.adverting to the
propriety of making grammar an in
PRODUCTION to 1t, at the same time ex-
amining in what course of grammati-
cal studies consists. Grammar may be
viewed in two lights, either as col
lection of rules which serve to guide
us in the expression of thought, or as
an investigation of the principles of
language deduced from the nature and
relotions of the ideas to be represented,
In the first light, grammar, applying
only to the facts of one language, is
called particular, and constitutes an
art; in the second, grammar, propos-
ing to explain the nature of words and
their relations of the things which
they represent, and also to account
for the mode of using them by a con.
sideration Of the mental operations on
which it depends, is said to be gener-
al. because it embraces the principles
of all languages; it then constitutes
science, being founded on the univer-
sal and immutable laws of external ma
ture and of the human mind, There
are as many particular gramrhars as
fhnra a la n w fhnrn ic
only one general grammar, one science
of a language. The art of grammar
gives the rules for. using the materials
of l language. The science of'grammar
gives the rationale of all the facts of a
language. The art is local, its rules
are established by custom; the science
is universal, its principles are inde-
pendent of custom. The former is
available to those who possess the ma
terials of one language, the latter to
those who are acquainted with sever
al idioms; the one, when studied at a
proper time, is conducive to the &C
quisitien of a critical knowledge of a
language; the other affords no aid in
this acquisition, but tends to exercise
the higher Lowers of mind.
OF these two departments of gram
mar, the art is the one more especial
ly resorted to as an auxiliary to the
study of foreign language because it
is the record, and not the rational of
the facts, which, by exhibiting the
usage of a language. has led people to
presume that students could thus be
made to conform to that usage. With
regard to the science of grammar, no
one can consistently with reason, en-
tertain the opinion that it is capable
of atfording assistance towards gaining
skill in reading or speaking a foreign
language, for it is evident that the
power of philosophizing about langu-
age in general, and the power of using
one in particular, are completely dis
tinct. 1t is only through confusion
of terms; that the denomination OF
grammatical science is sometimes
given to the theory of particular Ian
guages, when considered as auxiliary
to their acquisition. The assistance
given by grammars in acquiring a LAM
guage, appears from what was accom-.
plished before their existence. A Ian
guage must be long in use and have
attained certain degree of consisten-
cy, it must be spoken and written by
men of talent and information, who
give it a character of stability, before
it can become the object of grammical
inquiry, before its words can he clas'
sified, or their syntactical concord and
arrangement be generalized; before,
in fact, its genius and form can be
subjected to a code of laws. Hence
we lind, that in languages grammars
have been subsequent to standard lit
erary works, they are formed from
great writers, not great writers by
them. Although Hebrew is mos
ancient language, yet it was only in
the year 1040 of our era, that it was
for the first time reduced to principles
and rules by Rabbi Judah Ching OF
Fez' The grammatical art afforded,
consequently, no assistance to Moses
in writing the Pentateuch, nor toDavid
in the composition of his sublime
i psalms, nor to any other of the sacred
writers. Plato, among the Greeks, in
dulged in grammatical researches, q:
may be seen in his book Cratylus
but Aristotle, his disciple, was tht
first who analysed language, divided
the parts of speech and laid the foun-
| uattiOu VI SIuIluldl. IL thSoO ~
complete essays, four books of syntax
were afterwards added by Apollonius
of Alexandria, and many years elapsed
before grammar was publicly taught
for the first time, at Athens, by Epicu
rus. These were the first grammarians
of a people, who long before, had
produced almost all the literary master
pieces which are still the delight OF
the learned, and among others. the
works of Homer, Pindar, Euripides
Sophocles, Aristophanes. Thucydides
and Xenophon. Rome did not, it is
true, remain without grammatical
works; Ennius had early turneds his
attention to points of grammar; so had
afterwards, Varro and Cicero. Julius
Cesar himself, in the midst of camps,
had written treatise on the analogy
OF words; but it was only subsequent
| ly to the glorius Augustan age, that
regular grammars were in use among
the Romans, when the Latin languargt
was in its decline. In the study ol
the Greek, which held in their educa
ton the same degree of importance
| that the French does in thar of modern