



Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer.




[Transcriber's Notes:
i) the text mixes 'littera' and 'līttera' (short/long 'i').
   Dictionaries generally consider 'littera' as more correct.
ii) it states 'lēctus, ī, m.' (=bed) in the original, but 'lĕctus' is correct.
    NB: the adjective 'lēctus, a, um' is indeed with 'long e'.
iii) it considers the Nom./Acc.Plural ending of the
     3rd declension/imparisyllabica ("-es", e.g. leōn-es) as short,
     whereas is it usually considered Grammars as long,
     cf. Allen & Greenough, New Latin Grammar, §§55ff.]

LINGUA LATĪNA
PRĪMUS ANNUS

BY W. L. PAINE
AND
C. L. MAINWARING

OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1912

PREFACE

THE book is the result of three years' experience in
teaching Latin on the Direct Method, during which
time we have used the proofs in various forms. In
a method, whose essential is spontaneity, it is intended
rather to be suggestive—to present one line along
which the principles of this method can be followed,
and it must rest with the individual teacher to modify
it, as his experience leads him. Further, it is still in
an experimental stage, and we shall be most happy to
receive suggestions both on the general scheme and on
the details of the book, from teachers using it. In
scope it includes practically all constructions which do
not involve the Subjunctive Mood or Oratio Obliqua,
and can be done in a year by an average class which
devotes an hour a day to Latin.

We wish to express our thanks to Mr. S. O. Andrew
for his great assistance in the scheme of the book and
the arrangement of the Grammar and Syntax; to Dr.
W. H. D. Rouse and Prof. E. V. Arnold for reading
the proofs and offering many valuable suggestions;
and to Mr. E. M. Carter for the picture of the Villa
Corneliana.

The need for accurate pronunciation, in a method
where the appeal is largely made to the ear, is obvious,
but a note of explanation may be necessary, of the
principle we have followed in marking the 'hidden
quantities.' We have marked the vowel long
(1) If there seems evidence of its length from its
derivation.
(2) If it precedes the combinations -ns, -nf, -gn, e.g.
īnsula, cōnferō, stāgnum; or the inceptive -sc
e.g. expergīscor.
N.B. — discō is an exception to this rule.
(3) If it precedes a hidden _g_, e. g. tāctum (tangō).
Diphthongs and short vowels have been left unmarked.

W. L. P.
C. L. M.
WHITGIFT SCHOOL, CROYDON.
July, 1912.

INTRODUCTION

THIS course is an attempt to apply the Direct
Method to the teaching of Latin. The method, when
used for modern language teaching, is based on a
psychological principle of imitation; the learner learns
by imitating his master, by saying what he says, the
grammar only coming in afterwards to explain practice.
In the teaching of Latin, this method is modified
in an essential particular by the character of the Latin
language itself; Latin is so highly inflected, and so
much of its syntax is strange to the learner, that the
grammar must form the basis throughout and determine
to some extent the arrangement of subject-matter.

In using the present book, the teacher will generally
find a certain sequence of treatment convenient, or even
necessary:

(1) Before a new exercise (or story) is touched, a new
point of grammar has to be explained. This is put
before the class by means of concrete examples, and
then elucidated by reference to Pure Grammar; it is
then applied by frequent and varied oral practice,
drawn not from the story but from the vocabulary
already possessed by the class; e.g. if the Accusative
of Extent is under consideration the oral practice will
consist of questions like the following: 'Quamdiū in
lūdō sumus cottīdiē?' 'Quam longe tū abes ā magistrō?'
'Quam longē tabula distat ā iānua?' and the like. In
this way faults will be prevented from taking root; the
oral practice should at any rate be continued until the
new point of grammar is thoroughly understood and
can be accurately applied.

(2) The story is now taken in hand, and is explained
in the first instance (with books closed) by the master,
in Latin, and driven home by repeated questions put
to the class. It is important, in this stage, that the
class shall not merely listen and understand but shall
also speak; where they cannot explain anything themselves
they must repeat the explanation given by the
master. When they have got on a little way in the
course they will begin to take down explanations of
important words in their notebooks and learn them by
heart.

(3) The story can now be read in class from the
book; this should never be done until