selection, was hailed by the teachers in the German gymnasia as an acceptable service. The public expectation has not been disappointed. The volume prepared by them is a collection of gems. A second edition, with a careful revision of the text and the orthography, appeared in 1843, from which all the selections here presented, except the last, are taken. At the suggestion of several distinguished teachers in Boston and vicinity, to whose inspection the work has been submitted, some further aid than was originally contemplated has been hesitatingly rendered to young teachers, by prefixing to the Latin selections a few pages of notes, or exercises, as illustrations of the manner of teaching. Those who do not need them will pass them by; and others, who cannot regard them as specimens, will accept them as hints. By the advice of the same gentlemen, a few simpler sentences from Cicero have been placed at the end of these notes, and before the other selections, for the benefit of younger pupils. An examination of the plan of instruction will show that a glossary, and complete body of notes, by way of commentary, to render the study easy, would, in a great measure, defeat the end proposed. The process of making out the meaning constitutes the most important part of the pupil's employment, as well as the teacher's. In languages, no less than in mathematics, those commentaries, which give to the student the result without the labor of the process, are ruinous to scholarship. NEWTON, May 1, 1844. B. S. |
