With such a method it was inevitable that I should mar much of Dr. Land swork, but I trust that the gain exceeds the loss. The circumstances having precluded the submission of proofs to Dr. Lange, except in the case of the first thirty-two pages, he is not responsible for any errors. The aim of the book is pedagogical rather than scientific; hence the combination of system and no-system and the numerous repetitions. The pedagogical principle has been applied, for example, in the study of words. When it seems likely to aid the memory of the student to indicate the origin of a word, this is done; but when the etymology is disputed or apt to be confusing nothing is said about it and the student must learn the word as a whole. The repetitions in most cases are not accidental but designed; for the student must pass through three stages to become master of an idiom. First he needs to be thoroughly convinced that there is such an idiom; secondly, he must learn how to use it, and, thirdly, after he has entirely forgotten its existence he needs to be reminded that he cannot get along very well without it. The author of the most widely known colloquial grammar hitherto written in Japanese has seen fit to speak very disparagingly of the pioneer work done in this department of study by foreigners. He isright in thinking that a truly scientific grammar of the colloquial is yet to be written. But it must not be presumed that the foreign students of the colloquial have taken the methods of the compilers of nine out often of the English text-books which crowd the shelves of Japanese hookst every page of which reveals the fact that the English is derived from the inner consciousness of some one who did not think it worth while to consult an Englishman while the book wa in preparation. In this book the sentences have all been taken from the mouths of Japanese and they have be
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)