sions, conjugations, and rules of syntax, which, under the common system, he is obliged to do before he can translate an English sentence into Latin; and, at the same time, it gives him an interest in the subject, which is the best guaranty for his progress. No form is required to be learned till it is actually wanted in the composition of a sentence; and the examples, which are given under each rule, are so numerous that the pupil will find it difficult, even if he wishes, to for get the lesson he has been taught.-It may, perhaps, be thought by some teachers that there are too many examples given under each rule, and that the same words are repeated too frequently. It should, however, be recollected, that since boys usually begin to learn Latin at an early age, it is necessary to make the exercises as simple and easy as possible; and if I have erred in this respect, most teachers will allow that I have at least erred on the safe side."-P. 4.

Allen's Greek Delectus is founded on Kuhner's Elementary Grammar; indeed, its selections are taken wholly from that work. As it loses sight almost entirely of the great principle of constant repetition, and presents too many forms at once to be learned by the pupil, we cannot class it among the new elementary books, although, like everything of Kuhner's, it is excellent in its kind.

Most of the London University books adopt the crude form theory, and employ it, ab initio, in elementary instruction. We are not insensible of the value of this theory in explaining the formation of the languages to which it is applied, and regard its complete development as one of the most beautiful and perfect results of modern etymological research; but after long and careful observation, we are compelled to believe it not only inappropriate to an early stage of instruction, but certainly embarrassing to the beginner. To take one instance out of many, the formation of masculine nouns in us, commonly said to be of the second declension, but which, in this system, are crude forms in o; e. g. dominus. The pupil is told that the crude form is domino, and that to form the nominative and accusative, o must be changed into u; to form the vocative, into e; the genitive, into i. How much more simple is it to tell the boy that the word, in each case, consists of two parts, the stem, which remains unaltered, domin, and the caseending, us, i, or o, as it may be, which needs only to be affixed to the stem? In this matter, and others of the same kind, we incline, after all that has been written upon the subject, to follow the opinion of Zumpt, whose excellent practical judgment cannot be disputed: "In regard to etymology, it ought not to be forgotten that the

Elementargrammatik der Griechischen Sprache, nebst eingereihten Übungsaufgaben zum Übersetzen aus dem Grieschischen ins Deutsche, und aus dem Deutschen ins Grieschische.

Latin language is something which has been handed down to us in a given form, and which is to be learned in this given form. It would have been easy to go back to certain primitive forms which constitute the first elements in the formation of the language, and thereby to explain many an irregularity in the mixture of forms; but in teaching a language which is learned not only for the purpose of training the intellect, but of speaking and writing it, the eye and memory of the pupil ought not to be troubled with hypothetical or assumed forms, which he is expected to forget, and which he is rather apt to take for real forms."*

This last sentence states a principle which ought to characterize every elementary book in languages :-it should lay nothing before the pupil which he is expected to forget. How few of our grammars are constructed on this principle! Instead of presenting only the ordinary forms of the language, they give, almost without exception, both in etymology and syntax, forms which the student will hardly meet with in ten years of reading, making no distinction whatever between the common and the rare. Until this defect is remedied in the books themselves, "the teacher will need to exercise great care and judgment in selecting for young students only that which essentially belongs to the common forms of speech."t

But, on the other hand, we are fully convinced that everything which the student ought to remember should be communicated to him at as early a period of his course as practicable; and that all the doctrines of etymology, which will assist him in catching the spirit of the language, and in forming habits of comparison, analysis, and generalization for himself, should be learned as fast as opportunities occur. Science should go hand in hand with practice, in the acquisition of a dead language especially. Of how many words, for instance, is a boy made master at once, when he learns the value of the formative endings, tas, tus, io, ilis, bilis, &c.; and how rapidly his power of analysis and generalization grows in the practice of word-building when the materials are once placed in his hands! Yet the very opposite doctrine is maintained, not merely by Hamilton and his school, but by advocates of what we have called the orthodox method, on theoretical as well as practical grounds. Some years ago, an able writer (who, although one of the Pharisees, seems to have imbibed a good deal of the classical spirit) uttered the following oracular wisdom :-"A boy, beginning the study of the Latin language, with the variations of the different cases, if he is bright, will ask, What is the origin of * Preface to Grammar, Ed Schmitz, 1845, p. 8. † Introduction to Ciceronian, B. Sears, p. 22.

these cases? what relation they have to each other? A judicious instructor, instead of entering into a part of the philosophy of language, thence to prove the necessity of the existence of cases, will tell him to wait a short time, receive merely this fact, the existence of cases, and hope for a fuller understanding with the progress of his knowledge."* A judicious instructor will do no such thing: but will rather seize with eagerness the opportunity of fixing in the mind of such a "bright boy" a clew to the whole difference between English and Latin on the score of inflections; he will give him the value of a case-ending, and tell him that he can apply it not merely to the one word which he has learned, but to hundreds besides. What "judicious teacher" has not seen the eyes of a "bright boy" light up with kindling enthusiasm as such a comprehensive truth has, for the first time, flashed upon his mind? It is the profound remark of Goethe, that "education consists in observing wants, and satisfying them;" and the supply should be afforded just when the want is observed.

We are happy to find these views confirmed by a high authority in our own country. In the plan of instruction prefixed to the "Ciceronian," the doctrine of constant imitation and repetition is constantly insisted upon; but the necessity of fixing accurate etymological notions in the pupil's mind at the outset of his course is enforced with equal earnestness. We know not where we could find a greater amount of practical wisdom on the subject of elementary teaching than is compressed into the Introduction to this little volume; and we are persuaded that if its methods could be generally pursued in our schools, a few years would show a great improvement in our classical training. The character of the system may be seen from the following passage::

"A moderate quantity of the purest and best Latin prose, in selections, is made the basis of the pupil's knowledge of the language. The selections are arranged systematically, both with reference to the subjects and to the construction of sentences. The study of these is to commence simultaneously with that of the grammar, and to be carried on, first, by an ordinary preparation on them, then by committing them to memory; and, finally, by very frequent reviews. What is thus learned is to be made the life and soul of all grammatical instruction, the germ of all future acquisitions in the language. It is believed that not far from a hundred pages can be selected, mostly in short and perfect sentences, from the works of Cicero, which shall contain the

American Quarterly Review, No. xii.

Taken from Meiring and Remacly's Lateinisches Memorirbuch, oder Stellen, &c., aus Cicero. There is a larger selection adapted to Ruthardt's plan, the Loci Memoriales of Gossrau, Kallenbach, and Pfau.

substance of the ordinary forms of the Latin language. The perfect mastery of all the principles involved in these, would not only secure the most exact mental discipline, but lay the most solid foundations for future attainments in philology. It would place one, as it were, in the capital of a country, and render it easy for him to make excursions in any direction, at pleasure.”—Pp. 2—4.

As the editor remarks, this plan is only in a modified sense original; even the radical principle itself seems to be only a modification of Jacotot's Epitome; but its development in a form at once scholarlike, and very convenient for practice, is its great merit. We hope the book will get into extensive use.

The suggestions given in pages 34 and 35 of the Introduction, in regard to extemporary constructions on model sentences, bring the plan of the Ciceronian within the scope of the system of instruction advocated in this article. But we are satisfied, that in the present state of our American schools, a preliminary grammar, presenting only the ordinary forms of the language, and well furnished with models of good Latinity, and with English sentences to be turned into Latin, on the basis of the models thus furnished, is absolutely necessary. With the objections of Mr. Sears to the practice of boys "writing Latin without a model of Latinity in their minds," we fully concur; and, therefore, we abominate those elementary books which give exercises full of modern and barbarous words, and fill the minds of pupils with bad Latin. Yet we are not sure but that there is danger of running to an extreme of carefulness, in permitting the pupil to write no exercises, until he can "be placed within the language." Within the language, at the beginning, he cannot be; and it seems to us that the only way in which he can acquire such an interior position is by constant practice; and we believe, too, with Zumpt, that at first "it is advisable to pay attention to variety of expression, rather than to particular neatness or elegance."* Indeed, we should, if it were possible, be willing to bring back the old custom (which is still preserved, to some extent, in the German schools) of causing the recitations of students to be carried on in Latin, just as soon as they learn enough of the language to begin its colloquial use; not having before our eyes the fear of bad Latinity, which caused the Bembos and the Manutii of a former age to reject, in writing, every word or phrase for which they could not find authority in Cicero, and to eschew all Latin speech, for fear of corrupting their taste. and debasing their style. We may yet need another Ciceronianus†

Grammar, ninth edition, p. 10.

Awork of Erasmus, principally directed against the purism of Italian scholars.

if Italian purism is again to be revived under Teutonic auspices. While we admit, then, that the pupil should be furnished only with classical models, he should be trained, by imitating them from the beginning, both orally and in writing, to freedom in the use of words.

One great defect in the ordinary books of exercises is, the absence of all rules, or even examples, illustrative of the arrangement of words in Latin; there are, indeed, some dozen of these books lying before us, in which the matter does not appear to have been thought of at all, and some of them even claim it as a merit that the lessons to be construed are arranged precisely according to the English idiom. The method of study proposed in the Ciceronian would remedy this evil; and the little works of Messrs. Pinnock and Arnold attempt to provide against it, by furnishing simple rules of position adapted to the successive stages of the pupil's progress. There is an admirable chapter on the subject in Krebs s Guide, but it belongs to a very late period of the course; and the same remark will apply to the extract from Crombie's Gymnasium, (much less just and accurate than the article in Krebs,) which is affixed to Dr. Anthon's Latin Prose Composition; besides these, no American book that we know of affords any really available assistance of the kind to the student. The evil is kept up by the practice pursued in many schools of construing, as it is called,-which means, picking out the words of a Latin or Greek sentence in the order of the English, fixing the attention of the learner on "Englished Latin and inelegant English," and doing as much as possible to prevent him from catching the foreign idiom and mastering it. The experience of years has shown us the advantage of causing beginners to translate Latin or Greek in the order of the original, observing, at the same time, all idiomatic phrases, and giving them an idiomatic turn in the rendering. After such a direct translation, the pupil should be required to make a free version of the entire sentence of the original into an entire sentence of the vernacular. The advantage of this last exercise is admirably set forth by Dr. Arnold in an article in the Quarterly Journal of Education,† from which we select the following passage:

"Every lesson in Greek and Latin may, and ought to be, made a lesson in English. The translation of every sentence in Demosthenes or Tacitus is properly an exercise in extemporaneous English composition; a problem, how to express with equal * Of Rugby, not the author of the classical school books.

† No. vii. Reprinted in Appleton's edition of Arnold's Miscellanous Works.