AN

INTRODUCTORY

LATIN BOOK,

INTENDED AS AN

ELEMENTARY DRILL-BOOK,

ON THE

INFLECTIONS AND PRINCIPLES OF THE LANGUAGE,

AND AS AN

INTRODUCTION

TO THE

AUTHOR'S GRAMMAR, READER AND LATIN COMPOSITION.

BY

ALBERT HARKNESS,

Professor in Brown University.

A LATIN GRAMMAR,"
""A LATIN READER," "A FIRST GREEK BOOK," ETC.

NEW YORK:

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,

90, 92 & 94 GRAND STREET.

1869.
Minis

THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY

650402

ASTOR, LENOX AND
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS,

R 1913 L

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by ALBERT HARKNESS,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Rhode Island.

PREFACE.

As an Ele

THE volume now offered to the public is intended to furnish the pupil his first lessons in Latin. mentary Drill-book, it aims to supply a want long felt in our schools. In no stage of a course of classical study is judicious instruction of more vital importance than in that which deals with the forms and elements of the Latin language. To the beginner, every thing is new, and requires minute and careful illustration. He must at the very outset become so familiar with all the grammatical inflections, with their exact form and force, that he will recognize them with promptness and certainty wherever they occur. He must not lose time in uncertain conjecture, where positive knowledge alone will be of any real value. Improvement on this point is one of the pressing needs of our schools. This volume is intended as a contribution to classical education in aid of this particular work. * It aims to lighten the burden of the teacher in elementary drill, and to aid him in grounding his pupils in the first elements of the Latin language.

It is the unmistakable verdict of the class-room, that theory and practice must not be separated in the study of language. The true method of instruction will make ample provision for both. On the one hand, the pupil must, by a vigorous use of the memory, become master of all the grammatical forms and rules; while, on the other hand, he must not be denied the luxury of using the knowledge which he is so laboriously acquiring.

To this just and urgent demand of the class-room, the

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