It would be well, perhaps, to extend this remark to those older than children, in years, but less in real practical knowledge.  The remark is of such general application, that no specification need be made, except to the case before us; to those affected proficients in grammar, whose only knowledge is the memory of words, which to them have no meanings, if, indeed, the writers themselves had any to express by them; a fact we regard as questionable, at best.  There is hardly a teacher of grammar, whose self-esteem is not enormous, who will not confess himself ignorant on many of the important principles of language; that he has never understood, and could never explain them.  He finds no difficulty in repeating what the books say, but if called upon to express an opinion of his own, he has none to give.  He has learned and used words without knowing their meaning.

Children should be taught language as they are taught music.  They should learn the simple tones on which the whole science depends.  Distinct impressions of sounds should be made on their minds, and the characters which represent them should be inseparably associated with them.  They will then learn tunes from the compositions of those sounds, as represented by notes.  By dint of application, they will soon become familiar with these principles, if possessed of a talent for song, and may soon pass the acme with ease, accuracy, and rapidity.  But there are those who may sing very prettily, and tolerably correct, who have never studied the first rudiments of music.  But such can never become adepts in the science.

So there are those who use language correctly, who never saw the inside of a grammar book, and who never examined the principles on which it depends.  But this, by no means, proves that it is better to sing by rote, than “with the understanding.”  These rudiments, however, should form the business of the nursery, rather than the grammar school.  Every mother should labor to give distinct and forcible impressions of such things as she learns her children to name.  She should carefully prevent them from employing words which have no meaning, and still more strictly should she guard them against attaching a wrong meaning to those they do use.  In this way, the foundation for future knowledge and eminence, would be laid broad and deep.  But I wander.

We attach names to imaginary things; as ghosts, genii, imps.

To this class belong the thirty thousand gods of the ancients, who were frequently represented by emblems significant of the characters attached to them.  We employ words to name these imaginary things, so that we read and converse about them understandingly, tho our ideas may be exceedingly various.