Sect. 7.—Particular Directionsfor the acquisition of a Language.
Having fixed the terminations of the declensions and conjugations, and observed the signs of the different cases, the student may proceed to the learning of a language. Supposing this to be the Latin language, an easy book must be first taken, for instance, a Latin Bible, and an English one, placed by the side of it. In the latter we read, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," etc. etc. In the Latin it is, In principio creavit Deus cælum et terram, etc.
The two versions having been compared, the first word is found to be the same in both; the second in the Latin (principium) does not resemble the English; its meaning may, however, be ascertained with tolerable accuracy from its situation; and as o is the sign of the ablative singular, there will not be much difficulty in discovering the translation of principium to be in the beginning.' The next word in Latin is creavit, this is found to be a verb by its termination; cre-a-vi-t is proved to be of the first conjugation by the character a; v shows it to be the preterperfect tense, and t gives the third person singular. It is impossible to err in assigning creavit its proper meaning; the word so nearly resembles the English created.
