HANDBOOK OF LATIN WRITING. BY HENRY PREBLE AND CHARLES P. PARKER, TUTORS OF GREEK AND LATIN IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY. BOSTON, U.S.A.: PUBLISHED BY GINN & COMPANY. 1889. EducT 918.89.712 THE WT OF H. C G. v TOLGANN JANUARY 10, 1936 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884, by TYPOGRAPHY BY J. S. CUSHING & Co., BOSTON, U.S.A PRESSWORK BY GINN & Co., Boston, U.S.A. PREFACE. IN N preparing this handbook it has not been our object to write an exhaustive work upon Latin composition, but merely to make the labor of both pupil and teacher easier, by putting into compact form various points which we have found it necessary constantly to reiterate to our pupils. A knowledge of forms and of syntax, and some practice in turning easy narrative prose into Latin, has been presupposed. Feeling that ill success in Latin writing is largely due to the habit of translating the words rather than the thought, we have aimed in the Introductory Remarks and the Suggestions at fastening attention upon the thought, and have tried to show the learner how to express in Latin form the ideas which he has grasped from the English words. We have endeavored to make our suggestions as concise as possible, and have purposely used examples rather sparingly, in the hope of encouraging close attention on the part of pupils. We have tried to choose exercises which seemed to us to be of more general application, and less like Chinese puzzles than those commonly used, many of which, even when satisfactorily worked out, do not, in a degree at all proportionate to the labor involved, increase the pupil's power to deal with the next exercise. We have graded the work in a general way, but have not considered it necessary to do so very minutely. We wish to acknowledge our indebtedness on various points to the excellent works of J. E. Nixon, A. W. Potts, G. L. Bennett, and Allen & Greenough. We would further express our sincerest thanks to Professors G. M. Lane, F. D. Allen, J. B. Greenough, and C. L. Smith of Harvard University, for their kindness in looking over proof, and for many valuable suggestions. CAMBRIDGE, June 8, 1884. PART I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. IN translating from English into Latin, the first thing to do is to find out exactly what the English means. The next thing is to put the thought (not the words) thus grasped into Latin form. There is one fundamental difference between the ways of expressing thought in English and Latin. Roughly speaking, in English each of the main ideas which contribute to the thought as a whole, is put into a sentence by itself. These sentences are sometimes loosely joined together by words like "or," "but," "and"; sometimes succeed each other without any connective. In Latin, on the other hand, some one idea is seized as a central point and expressed in the main sentence, while all the other ideas are grouped about it in more or less subordinate relations. The most common ways of expressing these subordinate relations are the Ablative Absolute, the Participles of Deponent Verbs, the Secondary Tenses of the Subjunctive with cum, the Perfect Indicative with ubi or postquam, and the Present Indicative with dum. The differences in these constructions are too subtle to be profitably discussed here. Practically the student may be recommended to choose, in any given case, the construction which makes the sentence smoothest, not forgetting that variety is an excellent thing. |