An Exposure of the Fallacy of the Hamiltonian System.

First edition, 32pp., title-page and terminal leaf a little soiled, disbound. James Hamilton (1769-1829) was an English educationalist. He introduced the Hamilton System, a method of teaching languages. The basic principle is that words are learned on a word-for-word translation basis before tackling grammar. In September 1816 he went to Philadelphia, where he gave his first lecture on the 'Hamiltonian System', and printed his first reading-book, chapters 1 to 3 of St John's gospel, in French, with an interlinear and analytical translation. He undertook to teach adults in fifteen lessons to translate the Gospel of St. John from French into English, but found, we are told, ten lessons sufficient. He returned to England in 1823 and visited the major cities, teaching his system, although it was being denounced by many as quackery. He died in Dublin in 1831.