is impossible; to carry on a train of Reasoning without the use of Language, or of any General-Signs whatever.

But each, in proportion as he the more fully embraces the doctrine of Nominalism, and consequently understands the real character of Language, will become the better qualified to estimate the importance of an accurate system of nomenclature.

Exercises in
Composition.

§ 5. The chief reason probably for the existing prejudice against technical systems of composition, is to be found in the cramped, meagre, and feeble character of most of such essays, &c., as are avowedly composed according to the rules of any such system. It should be remembered, however, in the first place, that these are almost invariably the productions of learners; it being usual for those who have attained proficiency, either to write without thinking of any rules, or to be desirous, (as has been said,) and, by their increased expertness, able, to conceal their employment of art. Now it is not fair to judge of the value of any system of rules,those of a drawing master for instance, from the first awkward sketches of tyros in the art.

Still less would it be fair to judge of one system from the ill success of another, whose rules were framed, (as is the case with those ordinarily laid down for the use of students in Composition) on narrow, unphilosophical, and erroneous principles.

Choice of subjects for the composition of

But the circumstance which has mainly tended to produce the complaint alluded to, is, that in this case the reverse take place of the plan pursued in the learning of other arts; in which it is usual to begin, for the sake of practice, with what is easiest: here, on the contrary, the tyro

exercises.

has usually a harder task assigned him, and one in which he is less likely to succeed, than he will meet with in the actual business of life. For it is undeniable that it is much the most difficult to find either propositions to maintain, or arguments to know, in short, what to say, or how to say

to prove

it

them

on any subject on which one has hardly any information, and no interest; about which he knows little, and cares still less.

Now the subjects usually proposed for School or College exercises are (to the learners themselves) precisely of this description. And hence it commonly happens, that an exercise composed with diligent care by a young student, though it will have cost him far more pains than a real letter written by him to his friends, on subjects that interest him, will be very greatly inferior to it. On the real occasions of after life (I mean, when the object proposed is, not to fill up a sheet, a book, or an hour, but to communicate his thoughts, to convince, or persuade,) on these real occasions, for which such exercises were designed to prepare him, he will find that he writes both better, and with more facility, than on the artificial occasion, as it may be called, of composing a Declamation; that he has been attempting to learn the easier, by practising the harder.

But what is worse, it will often happen that Ill effects often such exercises will have formed a habit of resulting from stringing together empty commonplaces, and exercises. vapid declamations, of multiplying words and spreading out the matter thin, of composing in a stiff, artificial, and frigid manner: and that this habit will more or less cling through life to one who has been thus trained, and will infect all his future compositions.

So strongly, it should seem, was Milton impressed with a

sense of this danger, that he was led to condemn the use altogether of exercises in Composition. In this opinion he stands perhaps alone among all writers on education. I should perhaps agree with him, if there were absolutely no other remedy for the evil in question; for I am inclined to think that this part of education, if conducted as it often is, does in general more harm than good. But I am convinced, that practice in Composition, both for boys and young men, may be so conducted as to be productive of many and most essential advantages.

Selection of

subjects.

The obvious and the only preventive of the evils which I have been speaking of is, a most scrupulous care in the selection of such subjects for exercises as are likely to be interesting to the student, and on which he has (or may, with pleasure, and without much toil, acquire) sufficient information. Such subjects will of course vary, according to the learner's age and intellectual advancement; but they had better be rather below, than much above him; that is, they should never be such as to induce him to string together vague general expressions, conveying no distinct ideas to his own mind, and second-hand sentiments which he does not feel. He may freely transplant indeed from other writers such thoughts as will take root in the soil of his own mind; but he must never be tempted to collect dried specimens. He must also be encouraged to express himself (in correct language indeed, but) in a free, natural, and simple style; which of course implies (considering who and what the writer is supposed to be) such a style as, in itself, would be open to severe criticism, and certainly very unfit to appear in a book.

Compositions on such subjects, and in such a style, would probably be regarded with a disdainful eye, as puerile, by

But it

those accustomed to the opposite mode of teaching. should be remembered that the compositions of boys must be puerile, in one way or the other; and to a person of unsophisticated and sound taste, the truly contemptible kind of puerility would be found in the other kind of exercises. Look at the letter of an intelligent youth to one of his companions, communicating intelligence of such petty matters as are interesting to both-describing the scenes he has visited, and the recreations he has enjoyed during a vacation; and you will see a picture of the youth himself-boyish indeed in looks and in stature in dress and in demeanor; but lively, unfettered, natural, giving a fair promise for manhood, and, in short, what a boy should be. Look at a theme composed by the same youth, on "Virtus est medium vitiorum," or "Natura beatis omnibus esse dedit," and you will see a picture of the same boy, dressed up in the garb, and absurdly aping the demeanor, of an elderly man. Our ancestors (and still more recently, I believe, the continental nations) were guilty of the absurdity of dressing up children in wigs, swords, huge buckles, hoops, ruffles, and all the elaborate, full-dressed finery of grown-up people of that day.* It is surely reasonable that the analogous absurdity in greater matters also, the rest in that part of education I am speaking of, aside; and that we should in all points consider what is appropriate to each different period of life.

Classes of subjects for exercises.

among

- should be laid

The subjects for Composition to be selected on the principle I am recommending, will generally fall under one of three classes: first, subjects drawn from the studies the learner is engaged in; relating, for instance, to the characters or

*See "Sandford and Merton,” passim.

incidents of any history he may be reading; and sometimes, perhaps, leading him to forestall by conjecture, something which he will hereafter come to, in the book itself: secondly, subjects drawn from any conversation he may have listened to (with interest) from his seniors, whether addressed to himself, or between each other: or, thirdly, relating to the amusements, familiar occurrences, and every-day transac tions, which are likely to have formed the topics of easy conversation among his familiar friends. The student should not be confined exclusively to any one of these three classes of subjects. They should be intermingled in as much variety as possible. And the teacher should frequently recall to his own mind these two considerations: first, that since the benefit proposed does not consist in the intrinsic value of the composition, but in the exercise to the pupil's mind, it matters not how insignificant the subject may be, if it will but interest him, and thereby afford him such exercise; secondly, that the younger and backwarder each student is, the more unfit he will be for abstract speculations; and the less remote must be the subjects proposed from those individual objects and occurrences which always form the first beginnings of the furniture of the youthful mind.*

* For some observations relative to the learning of Elocution, see Part IV. Ch. II. § 5, and IV. § 2. See also some valuable remarks on the subject of exercises in composition in Mr. Hill's ingenious work on Public Education. It may be added, that if the teacher will, after pointing out any faults in the learner's exercise, and making him alter or rewrite it, if necessary, then put before him a composition on the same subject written by himself, or by some approved writer, — such a practice, if both learner and teacher have patience and industry enough to follow it up, will be likely to produce great improvement.