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��THE USE, MISUSE AND ABUSE OF TEXT BOOKS.
��three o'clock brother William read lec- tures on Tully's Rhetoric and Quintil- ian's Institutes. But Master Gislebert, be- ing ignorant of English, but very expert in Latin and French, preached to the peo- ple on Sundays and holidays." Think of the absurdity of attempting to en- lighten the illiterate men of that age by Latin homilies. The painted windows, pictures, statues, and the miracles and moralities of the infant drama were all introduced to aid the people in under- standing the priest, who spoke in an un- known tongue. Often, when the dis- course was upon a parable or a portion of the sacred history of the Bible, a neo- phyte stood before the pulpit and held up a banner to the people on which the scene which was the text of the day was por- trayed, so that some gleams of knowl- edge might enter the eye when the ear was closed.
What a harvest for a modern book agent would Oxford of the thirteenth century present, where 30,000 students were con- gregated, and where there was neither horn-book nor primer, key nor chart, translation nor commentary on which these young men, thirsting for knowledge, could fasten their eager eyes! But without helps they became mentally great, for " there were giants in those days." Be it remembered, also, that the founders of English literature and science, such men as Spenser and Shakespeare, Raleigh and Hooker, Bacon and Hobbes, Sidney and Milton, were educated by the study of classic authors, with very imperfect helps. The thoughts which they origi- nated require dilution to make them pal- atable to a modern student. All these men presented the best models of pure, vigorous and elegant English, without a dictionary of the language they used and perfected. There existed in the Elizabe- than age some Latin and English, some Greek and Latin lexicons, but no com- plete vocabulary of the English tongue. Some attempts were made, from time to time, to define the "hard words" and explain technical terms in English; but the majority of English terms remained without explanation till Bailey's Com- prehensive Dictionary appeared, about the year 1720. Prior to the publication
��of Johnson's great work, in 1755, about sixty lexicons of all languages studied in England had appeared; but few of these attempted to define common English words. " The object of the first lexi- ogriphal labor in England was to facilitate the study of the Latin lan- guage; afterwards, that of the Greek, and also of foreign modern languag- es, and it was in these bi-lingual dic- tionaries that the common English words were first collected." The great excellency of Johnson's Dictionary was the historical illustrations of the lan- guage which he furnished by quoting, from the best English authors, passages to show how every important word in the language was used. He thus made his dictionary a store-house of the best thoughts of standard writers and a very readable and instructive book apart from its definitions. Since the publication of Johnson's Dictionary more than one hun- dred English dictionaries have appeared, and nearly two hundred others, which are styled glossaries, encyclopaedias, pro- fessional, technical and artistic dictiona- ries. During the same period other text- books have multiplied in a similar ra- tio. The Germans have investigated and copiously illustrated every department of archaeology. The classics have re- ceived special attention. Every author of antiquity, every chapter, sentence, word and letter of every author, has been carefully examined, criticised and ex- plained. We have lexicons which give the history of every word in the lan- guage, illustrated by quotations from successive authors who lived through the entire period in which the language was used in composition. We have grammars explaining every anomaly, exception and deviation from the best usage, with philosophical analyses of every particle, including its etymology, distinctive meaning, and both its regular and exceptional use during the whole history of the language. An entire vol- ume has been written upon a single Greek particle, and its contents have been quite well mastered by English students who could not give the etymology of a single particle of their native tongue, and who would not dare to affirm that our con-
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