There is still an open field, ample space for advancement. Much has yet to be accomplished in imparting elementary instruction, training the intellect, communicating intelligence, exciting a thirst for the higher discoveries of truth, and cultivating a taste for a refined and beautiful literature. There is still room for a more quickening character of instruction, such as shall impel intellect to do its utmost, to put forth its full energies, not to wait for what may be presented, but, understanding its own wants, to sally forth in search of supply, and to deal in a masterly manner with whatsoever it finds in its researches. Try how much you can effect in the realization of this improvement, how near to its full capabilities you can carry the work of instruction. You will have claim to the gratitude of your generation, and of posterity too, if you shall contribute to give strength to its foundations and fulness to its capabilities.

I have given you these general remarks just in the desultory form in which they occurred to me in writing. They will help you to enter into my views, as they may be developed in the following letters. I shall now proceed to the more direct execution of my engagement, and taking separately each branch of a polite education, carry out the inquiry, how it may best be adapted to its end in the creation of energy of mind, strength of moral purpose, and richness of intellectual provision. Yours.

LETTER II.

LANGUAGE.

MY DEAR M———, Language is the medium through which the whole course of instruction is conveyed, and the channel through which all the salutary and refreshing streams of acquired intelligence are again to flow out. It will, therefore, not unfitly form the first subject of discussion.

Nor would its intrinsic importance assign it a less prominent position. The future success of your pupil in detecting and avoiding error, and in acquiring clear views of truth, will be essentially influenced by her power over language. The garb which best becomes error, and in which, therefore, she most frequently makes her appearance, is that of unintelligible language, fashioned in the beautiful involutions of nebulous obscurity, and adorned by the richly-folded veil of mystery. And though it might seem to be a reasonable conclusion, that statement will be received with pleasure in proportion as its clearness makes it fully comprehensible; in point of fact, the matter is very different. Minds, where imagination prevails over sobriety of judgment, are charmed with a cloudy magnificence; and are often found in society, and through the press, contending for the truth of an opinion, couched in such terms as convey no rational idea at all in their given combination, and which are utterly incapable of being so constructed

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as to form the substantial foundation of a discussion. And many are the hearers and readers who are won to the professed belief of that which is really too intangible for a rational conviction to lay hold upon.

Now, I consider a thorough knowledge of language to be a great safeguard against the easy adoption of error; and this, joined to its advantage in the full comprehension of truth, constitutes its chief value. They who understand the nature and use of language, regard it as a medium through which they are to view some object beyond, and estimate it in proportion as it is adapted to its pose. If the representation be indefinite and dim, they know how to clear the medium, so that they shall be able distinctly to discover whether there be an object or not; and if one be found, to examine it in its real character and proportions.

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Nor is this all. The energy of mind which endows words with life, the delicacy which distinguishes through them the various shades of sentiment, the taste which appreciates the charms of new, appropriate, and graceful combination, are all dependent on an extensive, thorough, and discriminating acquaintance with the vocabulary and structure of language.

There is a reciprocal influence between mind and language, affecting the extension and character of each. If our ideas be few, our language will be scanty; words cannot be understood without some acquaintance with the things signified. Our application of words cannot exceed our knowledge of things. When we become acquainted with new things and their verbal symbols, we find those symbols capable of new combinations, and of analogical applications in many new and pleasing varieties. Thus an increase of ideas brings an

accession of words, and an accession of words extends the range of ideas.

But language is not merely an instrument of knowledge, it is a science in itself. The construction of words, the modes of combination, and their adaptation to the different purposes of speech and styles of writing, with the modification of which they are susceptible, are not the inventions of art; they originated in natural wants, they are the result of essential principles of the human mind, and it is highly instructive and interesting to trace these principles in their influence upon language.

As throwing light on the researches of history, language presents itself in another interesting feature. It is a pulse revealing the healthy or morbid, the active or languid condition of a nation's intellectual life. By exploring into its incipent principles and obscure arcana, philosophers have been able to reveal much that is interesting in ancient history; to trace the changes in nations, follow the migration of tribes, and supply a clue to guide inquiry in the labyrinth of national origin. The comparison of coincidences in the verbiage of different languages, and affinity of etymological formation, are interesting subjects of philological investigation. From an examination of the peculiarities of a single tongue, much is elicited to form ground of rational conjecture, respecting the impressions and notions, the mental condition and social character of the people who used it. Schlegel calls language "the corner-stone of man's history."

How different is the character of the Latin tongue from that of Greece; and how much is the genius of each correspondent to the genius of the people! How

naturally the high strains of hyperbole and floridity which characterizes the language of the great nations of the East, accords with the direction of the national genius necessitated by their circumstances! Constituted into enormous monarchies, knowing no distinction of relative rank and subordination but that of despot and slave,— looking upon their rulers as demi-gods, and addressing them with the most servile adulation,--heaping upon themselves every epithet expressive of the meanest abjection, the whole framework of their language, "the archetype of their genius," ran in the same current and was cast in the same mould.

In the course of these letters I shall have occasion to expatiate on the value of many pursuits, but I think I shall not have occasion to retract the opinion, that the most valuable attainment you can secure to your pupil will be a thorough acquaintance with her native tongue -"our own good English." I would have it acquired in all its copiousness, and mastered in all its peculiarities, its radical principles and structure comprehended, its refinements of distinctive application clearly understood, its full powers brought under tribute.

Grammar is confessedly the most difficult lesson a child takes in hand. It is necessarily so. There are few sciences in which a deeper and more refined logic is employed; or which, from the nature of the subject and the abstruse character of its governing principles, is more difficult of apprehension to a partially developed understanding. If the scientific principles on which an art is based be deep and difficult in proportion to the difficulty of achieving the purpose to which the art is directed, how difficult must those be which are applied to the exquisite art of language, which undertakes to