the method taken in teaching the Greek tongue (to say nothing of French and other modern languages, where such helps are always used) should naturally have suggested to any one concerned in the education of youth; and yet, I know not how it is, we have blundered on in such a way of teaching the Latin tongue, as proves a very great misfortune to all boys, on account of that prodigious loss of time, it occasions, but especially to such as are not designed for the university, and therefore cannot stay long enough at school, to attain to the reading of a Latin author, in that tedious lingering way of proceeding observed in our schools. The six or seven years they frequently spend there, is time absolutely thrown away, since almost double the space is necessary for the attainment of but a moderate skill in that language, according to the common method of proceeding. Mr. LOCKE was a gentleman of too great sagacity, not to take notice of this defect in the vulgar method; and somebody, in pursuance of his advice in his book of Education, has published Esop's Fables with an interlineary version. But that way of printing them is not, I think, so proper for schools; and therefore I could wish we had a new edition of the book, with the Latin or English, each in their distinct pages or columns. For, whilst the Latin words are in the same order with the English, and the corresponding words in each language in the same character, the scholar is in no danger of falling into a mistake; the book will be made as easy for his use as any one could desire. This objection to which that edition of Æsop's Fables is liable, is here avoided by publishing the Latin and English in distinct columns. Nothing can be more egregiously trifling than the usual method of proceeding with beginners in the Latin tongue. When boys come into Corderius, they have two or three Lines construed to them by the master, once or twice over; these are thought sufficient to employ them for an hour or two: But as it is neither once nor twice, nor ten times construing over, which will be sufficient for the generality of boys, so they find they want more help still, and therefore must either sit doing of nothing, or be continually pacing it up and down the school to the master, or their school-fellows for assistance; and, after all, poor innocents, are frequently whipped for their master's folly. The truth of it is, it is im possible for any one man who has three or four, or (as is sometimes the case) seven or eight forms to take care of, to give such a due attendance to one form of boys, who cannot make a step without help, as is necessary to keep them employed; and therefore a literal translation is indispensably necessary to their easy and speedy progress in the language: For to put them upon getting their lessons by the dictionary, is still more ridiculous and intolerable: They not only want skill to use it, and to make choice of proper words, where there is any variety; but if they did not, the tumbling over the leaves of their dictionary would so devour their time, that much the greater part of it will be unavoidably lost that way. Translations, therefore, translations, I say, as literal as possible, are absolutely and indispensably necessary in our schools, for the ease both of master and scholar, and the speedy progress of the latter in his business; for whilst the boys have their words all ready at hand, and can, with one cast of their eye, set themselves agoing when they are at a stop, they will proceed with ease and delight, and make a much quicker progress than they would otherwise do. We are, it is true, already furnished with one edition of Corderius, to which is annexed a translation by Hool; but he so little understood the business he was about, that he never designed his translations as literal, and has therefore very wisely taken care to give us notice of it in the title page. The use of translations for beginners is not merely to inform them of the meaning of each sentence in gross; for when would they attain any tolerable knowledge of the language at that rate? But to teach them the precise and proper signification of words; without which, as no language can be understood or obtained, so it requires nothing but memory to attain it, and therefore ought to take place in the education of children, at least of the intricacies of grammar rules, the practice of which requires thought and reflection, and for that reason is much less suited to the capacity of a child, than what only employs the memory. The reader is here presented with the choicest of Corderius's Colloquies, being as many as are necessary for boys to read, AND A GREAT MANY MORE THAN THEY USUALLY DO READ; and to them is annexed a translation as literal as can be desired. In order likewise to render the reading of them still the more easy, I have placed the Latin words in their natural order; that is to say, in the same they have in the English; by which means one great obstacle to the improvement of beginners is removed. And for their further direction, as well as to prevent all possibility of error, the words which answer one another in the Latin and English are in the same character, the Roman and Italic being used alternately for that purpose. Of this the master must take care to inform his boys. Advertisement. THE following" Course of Latin Studies" is respectfully submitted to the judgment of American teachers. The celebrated Doctor Clark has justly remarked, that the common editions of Latin school books contain much more than is usually read in schools. Every instructor of this language in our country will readily subscribe to this remark; for it is well known that a very considerable portion of what is found in those books forms no part of the reading of our youth. With this fact in view, the Editor of the following course undertook to make a selection of all those parts, from the latin books usually read in American schools, and to exclude whatever is universally omitted. Upon this plan the present work has been accomplished; and therein it will be found, that for half the usual price of the common and necessary latin school books, the learner will find all which he will ever have occasion to use. As the advantages which are here proposed cannot be considered as unimportant, it is confidently hoped, that those who superintend the education of youth will feel an interest in encouraging this attempt to introduce improvement in the course of classical education. |