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.

AUTHOR OF

99.66

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

NEW YORK:

D. APPLETON & COMPANY,

443 & 445 BROADWAY.

1866.

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

iii

author's First Latin Book, published fifteen years since, on the basis of Dr. Arnold's works, owed its origin. For the favor with which it was received, and for the generous interest with which it has so long been regarded, the author desires here to express his sincere thanks to the numerous classical instructors whose fidelity in its use has contributed so largely to its success. In the conviction, however, that it has now done its appointed work, he begs leave to offer them the present volume as its successor.

The great objection to most First Latin Books, that, however excellent they may be in themselves, they are not especially adapted to any particular Grammar, and that they accordingly fill the memory of the pupil with rules and statements which must, as far as possible, be unlearned as soon as he passes to his Grammar, is entirely obviated in this volume. All the grammatical portions of it, even to the numbering of the articles, arc introduced in the exact form and language of the author's Grammar. Indeed, the paradigms are not only the same as in the Grammar, but also occupy the same place on the page; so that even the local associations which the beginner so readily forms with the pages of his first book may be transferred directly to the Grammar.

This work is intended to be complete in itself. It comprises a distinct outline of Latin Grammar, Exercises for Double Translation, Suggestions to the Learner, Notes and Vocabularies. As an Introduction to the author's Grammar, Reader and Latin Composition, it discusses and illustrates precisely those points which are deemed most essential as a preparation for the course of study presented in those works.

PROVIDENCE, R.I., June, 1866.