SUGGESTIONS ON EXERCISES IN LATIN COMPOSITION.

No exercises for Translation into Latin are given in connection with these passages of connected narrative, but it is not intended that this important subject should be neglected. The pupil may now begin Part II. of the "Introduction to Latin Composition"; but an exercise as often as once a week or once a fortnight is recommended, to be prepared by the teacher, and based upon some passage of the Latin which the pupils have read. At first the pupils may be permitted to make their translation with the aid of the Latin, but the plan should be adopted early, of assigning the passage to be committed to memory by the pupil, and then requiring the translation into Latin within the hour assigned for the exercise, with no aid but the pupil's memory and the knowledge that he has acquired of the language. The following exercise, based upon paragraph II., page 282, is given simply as an illustration.

Translate into Latin.

Caesar says that in the consulship of Messala, Orgetorix, a chieftain (princeps 1) of very high birth and of great wealth, persuaded the Helvetii to emigrate from their country. The territory of this tribe (gens) was very limited for its population, and it was separated from the adjacent countries (terra) by high mountains and deep rivers. The Rhine hemmed them in on one side, Mount Jura on another, and on a third the Lake of Geneva and the Rhone. Thus (itaque) the warlike (bellicōsus) Helvetii were not able readily to carry on war against their neighbors.

1 Words not occurring in the Latin passage may be furnished to the pupil, but in general he should be expected to give familiar words without aid.

SUGGESTIONS TO THE LEARNER.

I. The preparation of a reading lesson in Latin involves: 1. An exact comprehension of the thought expressed in the original.

2. An appropriate expression of that thought in an English translation.

MEANING OF THE LATIN.

II. In preparing your lessons take special note, from the outset, of the more obvious difference between the Latin and the English.

III. The Latin gives new names to persons and things already familiar to you. Therefore store your memory as rapidly as possible with these new names. Learn the vocabularies so thoroughly that you will be able, not only to give with promptness either the English for the Latin or the Latin for the English, but also, what is of supreme importance, to recognize the full meaning in the Latin word itself, without any thought of the English. It is not enough. to find English equivalents for Latin words. In your vocabulary, Latin nouns must represent not mere words, but real persons and things; AGRICOLA, not the English WORD husbandman, but the husbandman himself, not the name, but the man.

IV. Remember that the full meaning of an inflected word can seldom be ascertained from the dictionary alone. Every word of this kind has a significant ending, which

gives it an important part of its meaning. Therefore make yourself so familiar with all the endings of inflection, whether in declension or conjugation, that you will readily distinguish not only the different parts of speech, but also the different forms of the same word.

V. But these endings of inflection should not only enable you to distinguish the parts of speech, should not only tell you the cases of nouns, and the voices, moods, tenses, numbers, and persons of verbs, but they should also give you the exact meaning of all these forms. The meaning is what you must have. It will be of little use to you to know that a verb is in the Imperfect tense, for instance, unless you also know what that tense really means, what it really tells you about the action of the verb.

VI. Again, the dictionary and the grammar combined often fail to meet the needs of the student. If I tell you that rēgēs is the first word in a sentence, and then ask you to give me its full and exact meaning, I require an absolute impossibility. The most learned Roman that ever lived could not answer the question. The dictionary can only tell you that the general idea is that designated by our word king, while the grammar informs you that règes is in the plural number, and that the form may be found in the Nominative, Accusative or Vocative. It will also tell you that, if it is in the Nominative, it may be the subject of an action, an appositive, or a predicate Nominative; that if it is in the Accusative, it may be the object of an action, an appostive, a predicate Accusative, or the subject of an infinitive; and that, if it is in the Vocative, it is used as a form of address; but neither the dictionary nor the grammar can tell you which case it is, or which one of these numerous meanings it actually has. How, then, can you ever ascertain what it really means? Simply by the light which the subsequent words in the sentence will cast upon it.

I now give you the second word in the sentence, sententiam, and you have rēgēs sententiam. Can you tell the meaning of these words, or of either of them? Sententiam must be an Accusative, but as that case may be variously used, its special force in this sentence is still uncertain. The Accusative sententiam, however, makes it probable that rēgēs is not an Accusative, but either a Nominative or a Vocative. I add probant and thus complete the thought: Règes sententiam probant. Notice now the effect of this last word upon the meaning of the sentence. It shows that the Accusative sententiam, which of itself might have various meanings, is here simply the object of the action and that rēgēs, which at first covered such a variety of cases is simply the subject of the action. We are now prepared to translate. The kings approve the opinion.

VII. From the example just given, observe to what an extent the meaning of a word is determined by the connection in which it is used. Standing alone it may perhaps be any one of three or four cases but as soon as it is combined with other words in a sentence, it stands revealed in the clearest light as a single case with a definite and distinct meaning. Accordingly, in all your reading, as each successive word meets your eye, let it be your unfailing rule to study its effect upon the meaning of the sentence, to observe the light which it throws upon the words that precede it and the light which it in turn will derive from those which are to follow; to observe, in fine, how the thought is gradually unfolded.

VIII. In taking up a Latin sentence remember that your object is not primarily to translate it, but to understand and appreciate the thought in the original. This should be done, not only without translating it, but even without thinking of the corresponding English words. To this end, you will find it helpful to read over your Latin exercises,

especially the longer passages, somewhat frequently, with the special purpose of appreciating and enjoying the thought in its original form. Under this treatment, the Latin constructions so strange to the beginner, will soon be found to be entirely simple and natural, and the language will in time become a second vernacular, and you will then enjoy fine thoughts in Latin as you enjoy them in English.

IX. But if you would fully appreciate the thoughts of a Latin writer, you must take his words in the order in which he wrote them. The arrangement of the words is an essential part of a Latin sentence and one of the means by which its meaning may be most successfuly reached. The Latin order, more flexible than the English, allows a much larger scope for emphasis, and thus shows the relative importance of the several words. In general the subject and its verb, so essential to the thought, are assigned important places, the former at the beginning and the latter at the end of the sentence, yet other words when especially emphatic may occupy either of these positions.

X. Finally, never attempt to translate a Latin sentence. until you clearly comprehend the exact thought in the original. The habit of starting off blindly to render separate words without any conception of the thought which they are intended to express is fatal to all high scholarship. Therefore, make it your first and chief object to ascertain the exact thought contained in the sentence. To accomplish this object, you will need to attend to the following particulars:

1. The general meaning of the several words as given in the vocabulary.

2. Their more definite meaning as determined by their endings.

3. The exact sense which they assume in consequence of the connection in which they are used.