facing the facts of the age, and of our own office. And therefore we shall not shrink from the task, however delicate and difficult, of speaking to our hearers as to women. Our teaching must be no sexless, heartless, abstraction. We must try to make all which we tell them bear on the great purpose of unfolding to woman her own calling in all agesher especial calling in this one. We must incite them to realize the chivalrous belief of our old forefathers among their Saxon forests, that something Divine dwelt in the counsels of woman: but on the other hand we must continually remind them that they will attain that divine instinct, not by renouncing their sex, but by fulfilling it; by becoming true women, and not bad imitations of men; by educating their heads for the sake of their hearts, not their hearts for the sake of their heads; by claiming woman's divine vocation, as the priestess of purity, of beauty, and of love; by educating themselves to become, with God's blessing, worthy wives and mothers of a mighty nation of workers, in an age when the voice of the ever-working God is proclaiming through the thunder of falling dynasties, and crumbling idols, "He that will not work, neither shall he eat."

IV.

ON THE FRENCH LANGUAGE.

BY

ISIDORE BRASSEUR,

PROFESSOR OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE IN KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON, THE CHARTER-HOUSE, AND THE COLLEGE FOR CIVIL ENGINEERS.

E who co-operates in a useful work may

worthily excite a noble envy. In the accomplishment of his task he enjoys the sweetest of satisfactions; even that which attends the consciousness of well-doing. Penetrated with this sentiment, happy in my mission, I have the honour of opening the Course of Lectures on the French Language, which will constitute a portion of the studies pursued at Queen's College.

In an Introductory Lecture, the Rev. Mr Maurice-worthy interpreter of the "Committee of Education"-has explained, with abundant clearness, the objects of this institution, made known the principles that form its basis, and how, acting in concert with the "Governesses' Institution," with which we are in natural relation, the College signalized its

existence by the creation of "Certificates of Qualification;”—a mean which we hope to turn to the advantage of those who design to become Teachers, and likewise to parents. In these attestations parents will see titles to that confidence, which should always be possessed by the person in whom a mother may repose the care of forming the mind and heart of her daughter.

Further preface being then needless, I begin the particular object appointed to occupy our attention on the present occasion.

The universality of the French language is no longer contested. We have discovered-we have acknowledged, the causes that made it to spread over all the quarters of the globe. These causes are diverse some are to be attributed to the march of political events, to the successful progress of our literature, and to the advance of enlightenment, of taste, and of civilization among the people of Europe; the others take their origin in the genius of our language.

Needful to Europe, that country of literature, was a language common to all her co-citizens.

For a long time, the learned of this immense country had corresponded in Latin. That customuseful to them, and which rendered them, in a manner, co-patriots-was far from being equally favourable to the instruction of the rest of readers. Of necessity, it prevented science from introducing itself into the

world, and descending to all ranks of society, and, could it have had permanent continuance, would have divided men into two classes-one, which might have learned all; and another, that must have remained in total ignorance.

The French language, by its precision, its lucidity, and the facility which it offers for the expression of thought, with all the shades that belong to it, deserved the preference ;-it obtained it. Ought we to be surprised at this result? Had not French, so to speak, become the usual language of well-educated and cultivated men; and did it not unite in itself, without the inconvenience of being exclusive, all the advantages of the Latin? Its claims to the preference could not fail to be established at an epoch when not one remarkable discovery was made that was not immediately explained and developed in our language. Essentially sociable, the French language is now found wherever civilization exists. In the drawing-room it is spoken, in the retreat of the study it is written. Leibnitz, the learned Schwab, published several of their works in French. At a later period, the best comic of Italy, Goldoni, appeared with honour upon our scene, after having reformed that of his own nation. The first work of the celebrated Gibbon, an Essay on Literature, was published in French; and it was in French that he began to write his great work on the Decline and Fall of Romea task which he would have achieved, had he not

yielded to the wishes of his friends. Hales, Crawfurd, Townley, have left valuable and clever works written in French. In our own time, many have likewise made their pen illustrious by French writings. To name them all is unnecessary; it will be sufficient to add to the above the names of Humboldt, Schlegel, and Lord Mahon, to shew in what estimation talented foreigners held and still hold our idiom.

With its progress and vicissitudes, we need not on this occasion concern ourselves. The history of one language, moreover, is nearly that of all others. It was born,-it lives,-it grows old,—it dies,-like man, society, the world. Nor is it my present design to make the magnificent panorama of the French Parnassus pass before us. In opening this Course,

a course to which pupils of even a tender age are admissible, it seemed to me that I should commit an error, were I to launch at once into the high regions of literature, without preparing the way by a prefatory discourse on the language and the mode of teaching it.

If the utility of the practical understanding of a language so widely spread as the French, is not sufficient in the eyes of all to make it the object of serious study-if needful for that, are considerations of an order more elevated-they will be found in the advantages which the knowledge of languages in general gives.

"The knowledge of languages," says a cele