THE CHILD'S LATIN PRIMER; OR, FIRST LATIN LESSONS, EXTRACTED (WITH MODEL QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES) FROM AN ELEMENTARY LATIN GRAMMAR BY BENJAMIN HALL KENNEDY, D.D. PREBENDARY OF LICHFIELD. LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1848. PREFACE. THE "Child's Latin Primer is, what its title imports, a book of first lessons in Latin, introductory to the Elementary Latin Grammar. Before using it, children should be able to read fluently, and write legibly; and they should have some slight acquaintance with English grammar, for which purpose Allen and Cornwell's Grammar for Beginners is recom mended. A The forty-seven first pages of the Primer must be gradually committed to memory, the forms of nouns and verbs, especially in §§ 6-18, being repeated and exemplified again and again, until thoroughly mastered by the learner. judicious master will easily discover, at each step, how much help, in the way of explanation and illustration, is necessary for steady and safe progress; and he will take care to give no more than is really necessary for this purpose.* He will also determine from his own experience better than from any general rule, at what point the course of questions, examples, and exercises, suggested in the Second Part of the Primer, may most usefully be commenced. As far as any * A child should never be allowed to go on learning by rote matter to which he attaches either no meaning or a wrong meaning; but it is not necessary for him to know the full meaning of all he commits to memory. Thus he may safely learn the forms of Nouns and Verbs, without knowing more of Cases, Moods, Tenses, &c., than that they are changes in form representing certain changes in meaning, which he will gather from the equivalent English. general opinion can be given, it seems advisable to begin this course when the first twenty sections have been learnt twice or thrice, and the boys are engaged in construing and repeating the Memorial Rules (§§ 21, 22.), and the Syntaxis Minima (§§ 23-32.) After this, the learner's daily work in Latin will be of five kinds; namely 1. Memorial repetition of some part of the Primer. 2. Answering, vivâ voce, questions on some other part of it. 3. Construing, vivâ voce, into English, Latin examples,. given out by the master, and written down by the boys. 4. Construing, vivâ voce, into Latin, English examples, given out by the master, and written down by the boys. 5. Composing phrases or sentences, after models, and with words, given out by the master, and written down by the boys. By this plan the important faculties of attention, memory, judgment, and invention, are kept in constant and harmonious exercise, the learner's acquirements are tested, his ground is made good from day to day, and the steadiness of his progress insured. A First Latin Construing Book, and a First Vocabulary, in connection with the Primer, will soon be published; and it is confidently hoped that children, well grounded in these little books, will commence with great advantage a higher course of reading and composition*, in connection with the use of the Elementary Latin Grammar. At the same time they may usefully proceed from Allen and Cornwell's English " Grammar for Beginners" to the "School Grammar" and "Young Composer" of the same authors; with which may be associated the third "Daily Lesson Book" of Messrs. Dunn and Crossley, and the " Comprehensive Class-Book," with Questions, of the latter writer. For first instruction in Latin verse composition, the Rev. E. Walford's "Series of Progressive Exercises in Latin Verse" is recommended. It will be observed, that the examples given in this book under the head of Model Questions and Exercises are intended as suggestive only. The master is supposed to furnish new ones for the daily work of his pupils. He will find it no very difficult task to form a manuscript book of suitable examples, which he may increase from time to time as occasion requires. The slight trouble thus taken, and the few minutes spent in dictation and writing down (itself an exercise, and a very useful one), will be more than compensated by the superior interest, vigour, and originality of the daily work, it being supposed that the construing lessons are learnt, and the exercises done, in the master's presence, and without communication between the learners. Although it is an easy matter to invent phrases and sentences, or to select them from Cicero and other authors; yet, for the convenience of masters, the titles of a few cheap works are subjoined, in which ample materials will be found for dictation. Keim's Formenlehre der Lateinischen Sprache. K. J. Hoffmann's Methodische Anleitung zum übersetzen aus dem Lateinischen. Lucas, Anleitung zur Erlernung der Latein. Formenlehre. 1 et 2 Cursus. Stichert's Wegweiser in das Gebiet der Latein. Sprache. Reuss, Lateinisch-Deutsche Elementar-Uebungen. Ludwig's Vorschule der Latein. Sprache. Doll's Elementarbuch der Latein. Sprache. Mühlmann's Elementarbuch der Latein. Sprache. Pycroft's Latin Grammar Practice. Burtt's Exempla Necessaria. Leverett's Latin Tutor (American). With the well-known Exercise-books of Arnold, Turner, Ellis, Mair, Howard, &c. November 15th, 1847. |