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Latin Composition

F. R. PARKER, CORTLAND, N. Y.

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S to the purpose of Latin composition, there can be little difference of opinion. There is substantial agreement that it is a means and not an end; that the aim is to strengthen the student's grasp of syntax and incidentally to impress vocabulary; to give a keener insight into the structure. of the language, a surer hold on the meanings of case, mood and tense. While we do not urge that discipline is the motive, still we believe that the best kind of mental discipline is got by the practice of composition, more particularly in continuous passages, if proper selection is made and the task assigned is not a more or less servile imitation. To take a piece of Englishmore or less figurative and abstract in expression to ponder over it till one has resolved it into simple concrete terms, and to express it in its Latin equivalent, is an exercise which brings into play judgment, reflection, nice discrimination — an cise tonic in its effect on minds unduly given to purely memory work. It will not be contended that composition in itself will enable one to read rapidly and accurately, but certainly one who has faithfully pursued a three or four years' course will feel himself on firmer ground when he attacks an author, and will be saved from grievous and ridiculous errors errors in interpretation, though he may not be able to express himself in literary English or to seize upon the finer shades of meaning in Vergil. But to be able to express even a simple English sentence in Latin, one must have a surer grasp of forms, syntax and vocabulary than is required to make a fair translation from Latin into English. The author of the "Upton Letters" says: "I would teach boys to write Latin prose because it

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is a tough subject, and it initiates them into the process of disentangling the real sense of the English copy."

The syllabus of 1905 issued by the department of education will presumably be a guide for the schools of the State during the next five years. We believe the directions in regard to composition there given are well-considered and reasonable. And if these are followed faithfully, under reasonably good instruction, the students who enter the universities ought to be free from the criticism, heard almost everywhere, of inadequate preparation.

Of the work of the first year little need be said. The lessons in beginner's books call for a sufficient amount of Latin writing each day. Whatever fault is found with these books lies in the fact that they emphasize other features to the neglect of forms, or that they present the facts of grammar in a scrappy and incoherent way. In marked contrast to this procedure is the practice in the German gymnasien, a practice to which we might well pay more heed, although of course the conditions are quite different.

At the end of the second year, according to the syllabus, the student should show "the ability to translate simple English sentences into Latin, illustrating any of the forms or rules required for this year." Presumably this ability will be secured by giving one period a week entirely to composition, and by following the advice of the syllabus that "a fractional part of each recitation period should be given to oral and written exercises wherein sentences of gradually increasing length and complexity shall be translated from English into Latin." This is sound advice. Regular

daily practice is the one thing that will give anything like facility.

In the first part of the year these exercises should consist of simple drill on individual verb forms, for we know how easily these slip from the memory, especially during the long vacation. Moreover, constant practice for a considerable period of time is needed to fix meanings, and to enable the student to give promptly and accurately the Latin for the English or the English for the Latin equivalent. Since the forms commonly occurring in Caesar constitute so small a part of the whole system of inflection, one ought to select these as a basis for drill work. All the first and second persons may be eliminated (leaving these for the end of this year or the beginning of the third year) and the stress put on the third person of indicatives and subjunctives, the particles, infinitives, gerund and supines. No amount of practice in merely reciting paradigms will give the desired command of the verb. The drill should consist of translation, from English into Latin and Latin into English. After some weeks' drill on the verb alone, regular practice in short sentences should be begun. The oral work at first should be of a very simple character, as turning ablative absolutes into clauses, cum clauses into ablative absolute, and abundant exercises on the accusative and infinitive construction, in which all the infinitives, active and passive, of a given verb should be used - verbs that occur most commonly being selected. The written work should provide as many examples as possible of a given construction. For instance, in an exercise of a dozen or more sentences on the dative case two examples of the dative with compounds are not sufficient to impress this idiom. Those case constructions which occur but seldom or not at all in Caesar should be omitted from practice at this stage, likewise the more difficult features of indirect discourse, and possibly conditional sentences. These may with advantage be reserved till later.

A valuable exercise for occasional use is the assignment of a special chapter of Caesar for careful study of the Latin, to be written in class, phrase by phrase, sentence by sentence as the English is dictated. Students like this exercise and do it well. Of course, this is practically simple memorization; but, besides being a drill in vocabulary and syntax, it gives a good opportunity of studying Latin word order and the use of connectives. Chapters should be selected in which the vocabulary is of a general character. I believe this exercise is much better than the translation of the connected passages found in some text books-passages resembling the original so closely that little independent effort is called for.

In the third year the requirements are: "The ability to write simple and connected Latin prose with a fair degree of ease and accuracy. The writing of Latin should be carried on throughout the year concurrently with the study of the text." This last remark is aimed evidently at a practice, which was too common in the schools under the former syllabus, of getting through the Cicero in the first thirty weeks of the year, without doing any composition, and of spending the remaining weeks entirely. on prose writing in preparation for the Regents' June examination in that subject. Such a practice exalts composition from a means to an end, and that not a very lofty one. Besides, students resent this method and regard it as a bore. They enjoy a weekly exercise on prose quite as much as reading an author; they see its application to the work of translation.

During the first part of this year the work may very well consist of detached sentences, continuous passages being reserved for the latter part. These sentences, besides being more difficult than those of the second year and involving the use of a richer vocabulary, should give practice in idioms which were not treated fully enough or were omitted altogether in the previous

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words outside the student's range of reading. The following is a passage, taken almost haphazard, from the Conspiracy of Pontiac, vol. II, p. 212:

"Bouquet was in the heart of the enemy's country. Their villages, except some remoter settlements of the Shawanoes, all lay within a few days' march, and no other choice was left them than to sue for peace, or risk the desperate chances of battle against a commander who, a year before, with a third of his present force, had routed them at the fight of Bushy Run The vigorous and active among them, might, it is true, escape by flight; but in doing so, they must abandon to the victors their dwellings, and their secret hordes of corn."

The following passage is from Mommsen's Rome, vol. IV, p. 216:

"On the following day (8 Nov.) Cicero convoked the senate. Even now Catiline ventured to appear and to attempt a defense against the indignant attacks of the consul, who unveiled before his face the events of the last few days, but men no longer listened to him, and in the neigh borhood of the place where he sat the benches became empty. He left the sitting, and proceeded, as he doubtless would have done even apart from this_incident, in accordance with the agrement, to Etruria. Here he proclaimed himself consul, and assumed a position of readiness to put his troops in motion against the capital at the first announcement of the outbreak of the insurrection."

What kind of text book shall be used? If we judge by what the publishers offer, we have gone back to the older idea of a systematic presentation of principles. A few years ago, employing the same. criterion, we might suppose that the texts in which topics were presented in no particular order, but taken up as the model chapter of Caesar or Cicero might suggest, were what teachers of Latin desired. The whole matter is fully and ably discussed in Bennett and Bristol's "The Teaching of Latin and Greek." I judge that this sort of text represented only a passing phase, an experiment, and time has decided against it. The publishers of Jones' Latin Composition, arranged on the topical plan, first published in 1879, claim a wider use of their text than ever. The book has defects; it exaggerates the importance of some topics and does not treat others fully enough; yet it is on the whole a very good text.

There are three others that are well thought of and widely used in this State, each differing in detail, but all following the same general plan, a systematic presentation of the chief construction, with model sentences and exercises consisting of short sentences.

The first, published in 1896, presents the subject in forty-four chapters. It has a great many model sentences-fifteen to twenty with each exercise-excellent as a table of idioms, and has special vocabularies for memorization. It is a very useful book for third year work, being based largely on Cicero's vocabulary. If it has a defect, it is the postponement of the treatment of participles, infinitives, gerund and gerundive till the last four or five chapters. Topics so important should be presented much earlier, so that they may recur again and again through succeeding exercises.

A second text, published in 1903, consists of three parts. The first presents the whole syntax of noun, pronoun and verb in twenty-three chapters, some of which are reviews. It gives a statement of syntactical rules, so that no reference to the grammar is imperative, although references are given. The objection to this part is that too much matter is crowded into a single chapter, and the sentences for practice are too few, though of course these can easily be supplemented by the teacher. The second section gives short sentences based on each chapter of three books of Caesar, prefaced by a few model sentences, and a series of connected passages on the fourth book. The third section is based on Cicero's orations, those on the first two Catiline speeches being short sentences, on the remaining speeches continuous passages. The latter are rather close imitations of the original. The book is finding much favor.

The third text under consideration was issued in 1904-5, in two small volumes, three sections in all. In this an effort is made to combine the two methods; for while there is a systematic presentation of

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ercise is preceded by syntactical notes and the most useful and carefully prepared tables of idioms we have ever seen. The book contains more material than can be 'used in most schools, but this is not an evil.

Any one of these three books, which you will easily identify although I have not named them, ought to be sufficient fully to satisfy our needs. Individual tastes will govern the choice.

What should be the character of the examinations in composition given by the de partment? It would seem that those prepared by the college entrance board in June, 1905, set a reasonable standard. The elementary paper is a short connected passage of less than six lines, for which thirty minutes are allowed. The constructions and vocabulary are every-day affairs for students reading Caesar.

This is the selection:

"Caesar would have learned nothing about the Nervii, if he had not inquired. When he was marching through their territory, he was informed by his scouts that the Nervii were waiting for him on the further side of the river, and that they were not more than ten miles away. Learning this, he sent forward centurions to pick out a place fit for a camp."

The advanced composition paper is based on the Manilian law, ten lines in length, time allowed one hour. It is as follows:

"Do you not think, fellow citizens, that Pompey ought to be choosen commander by you? Where can you find a man more experienced in military affairs? Whom have we seen at Rome in these last twenty years in whom the people had more confidence? Besides this our allies declare that there is no one who surpasses him in manliness, honor or self-restraint.

You know that this war, which the King is waging against the Roman people, is full of dangers. You know that Mithridates himself has very great resources, innumerable troops, and prompt allies."

The following are some statistics relative to these examinations, taken from the No

vember School Review: Eight hundred and fifty-seven (857) tried the elementary paper; 5.8% reached a standing of 90 or over; 29% had over 75; 58% had over 60; nearly 25% of the candidates fell below 40. In the advanced examination, of the five hundred and seventy-six (576) who tried, 2% got 90 or over; 9% over 75; 36% 60 or over; while 46% fell below 40. The editorial comment is: "Latin prose composition had its usual large number of victims." Those who desire comfort may perhaps find it in the fact that in English. French, advanced German and advanced algebra the number of failures was still greater, the editorial comment on these being "slaughter," "greatest disaster," etc.

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These results are not encouraging, but the cause would probably turn out to be that insufficient time was devoted to the work, for there is a feeling more or less prevalent that it is a side issue. It is not a side issue. The student who cannot turn simple English into Latin cannot do accurate work in translation.

In conclusion, let me quote a passage from the "Upton Letters," written by a classical teacher in one of the great English public schools; one, however, who is inclined to be cynical as to the value of classical education, at least in its extreme place. It offers a little encouragement to those who sometimes doubt the value of their handiwork. He says, in speaking of Herbert Spencer's Autobiography: "He criticizes the classics from the standpoint of a fourth form boy. He sits like a dry old spider, spinning his philosophical web, with a dozen avenues of the soul closed to him, and denying that such avenues exist." * * * "The book is the strongest argument I have ever yet read against a rational" (as opposed to the traditional) "education. I, who despair of the public school classical system, am reluctantly forced to confess that it can sow the seeds of fairer flowers than ever blossomed in the soul of Herbert Spencer."

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