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LATIN GRAMMAR;

SIMPLIFIED,

BY MEANS OF AN

INTRODUCTION:

DESIGNED TO FACILITATE THE STUDY OF

Latin Grammar,

BY SPREADING BEFORE THE STUDENT,

IN THE COMPASS OF A FEW PAGES, WHAT IS MOST ESSENTIALLY NECESSARY TO BE
REMEMBERED:

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Educ 7 968.27.

Educ 7918.223

Educe 3918,29

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW-YORK, ss.

(L. S.)

BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the 12th day of April, in the forty-sixth year of the Independence of the United States of America, CHARLES STARR, of the said District, hath deposited in this office the title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as pro.

prietor, in the words following, to wit:

Adam's Latin Grammar; Simplified, by means of an Introduction: designed to facilitate the study of Latin Grammar, by spreading before the student, in the compass of a few pages, what is most essentially necessary to be remembered: with appropriate exercises, to impress on the memory the declensions and inflections of the Parts of Speech, and to exemplify and illustrate the Rules of Syntax. By Allen Fisk.

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In conformity to the Act of Congress of the United States, entitled "An Act for the encourage. ment of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the time herein mentioned." And also to an Act, entitled “an Act, supplementary to an Act, entitled an Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints."

JAMES DILL,

Clerk of the Southern District of New-York.

1

THE Grammar of ALEXANDER ADAM, LL. D. Rector of the High School in Edinburgh, first published in 1772, is too well known, and too generally approved, to need, at the present day, either advertisement or encomium. In 1799, it was adopted by the University at Cambridge, (Mass.) and publickly recommended to be used by those intended for that Seminary," as a book singularly calculated for the improvement of students in the Latin Language." It has passed through numerous editions, both in Europe and in this country; and is, unquestionably, the most complete Grammar of the Latin tongue, especially in its Syntax, that has ever yet been published. The great variety of notes and observations annexed to the Rules, the frequent and comprehensive lists of exceptions, and the numerous explications of anomalous and intricate constructions, discover an intimate acquaintance with the Latin classics, and give a clue to the resolution of the most difficult passages.

But, as an elementary school-book, the Grammar of Dr. Adam has one fault; a fault, however, by no means peculiar, but common, it is believed, to all the Latin Grammars hitherto published. Its arrangement is better suited to a book of reference, for the use of those who have already studied the language, than for the inexperienced tyro, who knows nothing of the subject. The student is obliged to commit his whole book to memory, or at least the principal parts, Etymology and Syntax, before he understands a word of it. This, at best, is a most odious and disgusting task. To crowd the memory with page after page of unintelligible matter, to wade through a whole volume without any apparent design or utility, and be required to repeat a multitude of rules and definitions of no obvious meaning or application, blunts the curiosity of youth, disheartens their ambition, and not unfrequently leads to fatal discouragement. Nor are the difficulties of the student at an end when he has got through his Grammar. To prove his skill and try the fidelity of his memory, he is then set to parsing in promiscuous exercises, in long and intricate sentences, to resolve which requires a knowledge of the Grammar and of the idioms of the language, to be acquired only by practical illustration and patient research. However apt, therefore, he may have been in conning by rote, when the learner comes to apply the rules and definitions promiscuously, he finds himself in a labyrinth; his judgment is bewildered; his memory, in many instances, fails him; and thus he is often compelled to begin with his Grammar anew.

To remedy these inconveniences, to relieve the student from the irksome and unprofitable task of committing to memory what he does not understand, and to furnish easy exercises adapted to the illustration of the several parts of speech and rules of syntax, in progressive detail; presenting, at one view, the example of declension, the lesson for parsing, and the appropriate rules, to the eye of the student, have been the Compiler's aim in this publication. And these facilities he has endeavoured to afford with as little innovation upon the usual arrangement of the several parts of Grammar as was deemed consistent with the design of the undertaking, and the nature of the subject; thus attempting to render the book suitable for the young beginner, without rendering it inconvenient for the more advanced scholars. In conformity with these views, Dr. Adam's Grammar has, in general, been left unaltered; and an introduction, containing examples of the various declensions and conjugations of the Parts of Speech, and the Rules of Syntax, with appropriate exercises successively adapted tc those rules and examples, has been prefixed to his work. In a few instances, indeed the order and phraseology of the rules have been altered, with a view to render them more convenient for parsing, and more conformable with the arrangement of the introduction; and that part of Dr. Adam's work, relating exclusively to English Grammar, has been entirely omitted, as being superseded by later and more popular treatises; and, (if it were not) as being generally useless to scholars, in this country at least, on account of their having studied English Grammar before they commence the study of the Latin

This work, in its present arrangement, will be found to combine the following advantages:

1. Exclusive of the Introduction, and considered merely as a book of reference, it is indusputably superior to any preceding edition of Adam's Latin Grammar, on account of its typographical neatness and accuracy. The Publishers, have spared neither pains nor expense to render the work correct, and worthy of general patronage.

2. The Exercises and Excerpta Latinè, in the Introduction, will supersede the necessity of purchasing, and putting into the hands of boys, larger and more expensive books. To the student the Exercises will serve as an introduction to the Grammar, and the Excerpta as an introduction to the classics. To render these the more valuable, examples of all the different kinds of verse have been selected from Horace, and the scanning marked according to the best authorities.

3. The Introduction will enable the student to commence his task with parsing, and thus lead him to understand the definitions of Etymology and the Rules of Syntax, previous to his committing them to memory. These parts of Grammar should always be studied simultaneously, because they mutually explain and illustrate each other; and parsing, which exemplifies the meaning and application of the definitions and rules, is an exercise of the utmost importance to the pupil, and should accompany, pari passu, his progress through Etymology and Syntax. The declensions of Adjectives, Nouns, and Pronouns, the conjugation of Verbs, the nature and use of Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Interjections, are more easily learned and more readily understood by parsing, than by committing to memory the various rules and explications of the Parts of Speech. The best method, for instance, to make the pupil understand, and consequently remember, the declensions of Adjectives and Substantives, is to place before him an example of those declensions, and set him to parsing Adjectives and Substantives. He will then readily see the distinctive properties of these two parts of speech, and also the meaning of the rule, " Adjectives agree with their Substantives in number, case, and gender." It is parsing, therefore, which illustrates Etymology and Syntax, and which indelibly impresses these two parts of Grammar on the memory of the pupil; and, consequently, the sooner he begins parsing, the easier will his task be, and the more profitable his labours.

4. By means of the Introduction, not only the understanding, but the eye also, is rendered subservient to the memory. It is undoubtedly true, that we commit to memory with more facility, and retain, for a greater length of time, what we understand, than what we do not understand; and it is equally true, that impressions received through the eye are more vivid and permanent than any others.

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"Those things forcibly affect the mind which are submitted to the faithful eyes, and which the spectator delivers to, or teaches himself." This doctrine will hardly be questioned by any one who has ever studied geography, and observed how much brighter and more durable are the impressions of what he learned from the map, than of what he learned from the book. The comparative size, course, situation, and importance of the principal rivers, lakes, mountains, and cities, are remembered, and easily called to mind long after the description and account of those rivers, lakes, mountains, and cities are totally obliterated from the memory. To take advantage of this hint, and yet not render the size of the book unwieldy, the octavo form has been preferred, as combining the greatest utility with the least inconvenience. Page 10th presents a map of all the regular declensions of Substantives, and page 11th of the declension and comparison of Adjectives. The declensions of Pronouns, and the conjugations of Verbs, are exhibited in the same manner in subsequent pages. All the principal rules are placed on the margin, in a body by themselves; and, after they have been once exhibited in detached views, they are repeatedly exhibited at a single view, in order to make the impression more distinct and connected.

ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE

SECOND EDITION.

IN presenting the second edition of "Adam's Latin Grammar Simplified" to the world, the publisher would observe, that no pains have been spared to have it correct, deserving of public patronage, and a credit to himself as publisher.

Owing to the carelessness or ignorance of printers and proof-readers, in copying, in each succeeding edition, the errors of its predecessor, and adding thereto a long catalogue of new ones, when the first edition of this work was about to be put to press, there could not be found a copy of Adam's Latin Grammar sufficiently correct to print from. It became necessary, therefore, to employ a person, (Mr. Fisk being out of the city,) of sufficient leisure and ability, to undertake its correction. Mr. Joseph Osborn, of this city, a gentleman well known as combining in himself, with a cultivated education, the advantages of many years' experience in proof-reading, was therefore engaged; and to him the publick is, in a good degree, indebted for a tolerably correct copy of a Latin Grammar. The proof sheets, after being read and corrected by Mr. Osborn, were sent to the author, at Troy, to be read and revised by him, which was done in order to divest the work, if possible, of every error, even the most trifling. To secure for the succeeding editions the corrections thus obtained, by this immense labour, and at this great expense; and, in order to provide for the correction of any errors which might afterwards be discovered, without the possibility of creating new ones, it was found necessary to stereotype the work.

In addition to the pains thus taken to have the first edition comparatively correct, and in order, if possible, to have the second entirely free from errors, a copy has been carefully preserved, in which have been recorded, from time to time, such errors as have been discovered by the proof-reader, by the author, and by such teachers as have had the goodness to favour me with a list of the errors that they have discovered while using the book, (for which they have my grateful acknowledgments.)

The publisher conceives that, to say nothing of the improvements in this edition, by possessing a Latin Grammar comparatively correct, and that can easily be read, instead of one so erroneously and slovenly printed, as to be scarcely legible to the young and vigorous eye, whose every nerve must be strained to its utmost powers, to store the mind with erroneous words and sentences, the publick will be amply remunerated for the trifling difference in the cost of this and the common editions.

How far the author may have succeeded in facilitating the attainment of the highly important and ornamental branch of a refined education, designed to be taught by the use of this work, and in rendering the study pleasing and interesting to the pupil, I am not prepared to say, never having witnessed it in operation; but, judging from the effects produced by the use of " Greenleaf's [English] Grammar Simplified," to which, in a considerable degree, it is conformed in its arrangement, I cannot but entertain very sanguine hopes of its ultimate success in the hands of judicious and able instructers One thing, however, is certain, viz. that nothing will be lost by giving it a trial; for, should the introductory part fail of accomplishing the object contemplated by the author, the purchaser will still have by far the best copy of Adam's Latin Grammar, (com

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