1869, July 8. Gift of of Arenicilan & Co. of London.

OXFORD:

BY T. COMBE, M.A., E. PICKARD HALL, AND H. LATHAM, M. A.

INTRODUCTION

ΤΟ

THE TEMPEST.

To impart an accurate knowledge of the principles of language ought to be the primary object of all education; because language is not only the means of communicating our thoughts to others, but it is the very instrument of thought itself. When we think of anything, we think of it by the name by which we are used to call it. If we are very vehemently affected by the matter of our thoughts, we often actually think aloud, and clothe our thoughts in words, though there be no one present to hear them. It follows from this, that if our use of language be inaccurate, our thoughts must be inaccurate too, and that in acquiring a

knowledge of the true meaning and power of words and sentences we are preparing for ourselves the tools and instruments, as it were, of right reason; we are forming our minds for any intellectual work which they may afterwards be called upon to do. Prospero is not liable to the charge of blundering or exaggeration when he tells Caliban that before Caliban knew the use of words he did not know his own meaning.

Why has the study of Greek and Latin been for ages made the foundation of all the higher intellectual training of Europe? Because a thorough knowledge of the principles of grammar, that is, of the structure of language itself, is supposed to be best attained through the medium of them. We learn our mother tongue by practice and almost intuitively, and may speak with tolerable correctness upon ordinary subjects without knowing anything of its structure. But when we come to speak or write a foreign language, we must know the reason why the same word assumes different forms in different connections; we must gather the general laws by which these changes are governed; we must observe the slight shades of distinction which make it expedient to choose one word in preference to another of nearly the same signification in our own language as an equivalent for

a word in the foreign language which we are construing; and by this laborious process we at length acquire, more or less, not only accuracy in expressing our meaning, but accuracy of thought. Greek and Latin are peculiarly adapted for being the materials of this process, because, from some peculiar mental conformation of the persons who spoke them, their structure is extremely subtle, expressing by the changes of the words. themselves every shade of distinction in the relation in which those words stand to each other. There are many other reasons indeed why the study of Greek and Latin is considered of paramount importance as an instrument of education; as, for instance, because of the excellence of the works written in those languages, and because almost all the tongues of modern Europe are founded upon them, so that he who knows Latin finds it comparatively easy to learn French, Italian, or Spanish. But the real and most important reason is, that Greek and Latin are the best and readiest medium for learning language itself. Some of the finest and simplest pieces of writing in the English language have been elaborated by the diligent study of Demosthenes and Cicero.

The thorough grammatical education, however, which is founded upon the study of the dead

languages, is expensive, and requires years of patient labour, whereas in these busy times youths are expected to begin to earn a livelihood before they are twenty. For the benefit of such it is important to find some substitute for classical study; and it is believed that such a substitute may be found in the Plays of Shakespeare. Their extraordinary excellence as works of art fits them for forming the taste of the student. Their language is slightly obsolete, and the construction of the sentences sometimes intricate; and in order to follow their meaning, it is often necessary to trace the words to their original derivation, to consider every word in its grammatical relation to the rest, and by patient attention to unravel the tangled skein of thought which was in the poet's mind when he wrote. Shakespeare's plays cannot be read and understood by the light of that almost intuitive knowledge of our mother tongue which we gather from common conversation. Each sentence becomes, like a sentence in Thucydides or Cicero, a lesson in the origin and derivation of words, and in the fundamental rules of grammatical con

struction.

Of the thirty-seven extant Plays of Shakespeare, the Tempest has been chosen for the present purpose for several reasons. In the first place,