Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/372

 Latin can be learned in two years, Greek in one year, and Hebrew in six months.

11. (iii) All languages are easier to learn by practice than from rules.

That is to say, by hearing, reading, re-reading, copying, imitating with hand and tongue, and doing all these as frequently as is possible. Cf. the, canons i. and xi.

12. (iv) But rules assist and strengthen the knowledge derived from practice.

This we have treated of in the previous chapter, canon ii. We speak more especially of the learned languages which we are compelled to learn from books, though we do not exclude modern languages. For Italian, French, German, Bohemian, and Hungarian can be, and indeed have already been, reduced to rules.

13. (v) The rules to which languages are reduced should be grammatical and not philosophic.

That is to say, they should not inquire into the causes and antecedents of words, phrases, and sentences, or seek to find out why this or that construction is necessary, but should simply state what is correct and how the constructions should be made. The subtler investigation into the causes and connecting links, the similarities and dissimilarities, the analogies and anomalies that exist in things and in words, is the business of the philosopher, and does but delay the philologist.

14. (vi) In writing rules for the new language the one already known must be continually kept in mind, so that stress may be laid only on the points in which the languages differ.

To call attention to points that they possess in common is not merely useless, but actually harmful, since the mind is terrified by the semblance of greater prolixity and irregularity than really exist. For instance, in Greek grammar there is no need to repeat the definitions of nouns, verbs, cases, and tenses, or rules of syntax which convey nothing new, and which may be considered as