THE

NEW LATIN READER,

CONTAINING

THE LATIN TEXT FOR THE PURPOSE OF RECITATION;

ACCOMPANIED WITH

A KEY,

CONTAINING

THE TEXT, A LITERAL AND FREE TRANSLATION,

ARRANGED

IN SUCH A MANNER AS TO POINT OUT THE DIFFERENCE BE-
TWEEN THE LATIN AND THE ENGLISH IDIOMS.

FOR THE USE OF BEGINNERS IN THE STUDY OF THE

Latin Language.

BY S. C. WALKER,

Philadelphia.

BOSTON,

RICHARDSON AND LORD.

1829.

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

GIFT OF

GEORGE ARTHUR PLIMPTON

JANUARY 15, 1924

DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, to wit:

·District Clerk's Office.

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the ninth day of June, A. D. 1829, in the fiftythird year of the Independence of the United States of America, MELVIN LORD, of the said district, has deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit:

"The New Latin Reader, containing the Latin Text for the purpose of recitation; accompanied with a Key, containing the text, a literal and free translation, arranged in such a manner as to point out the difference between the Latin and the English Idioms. For the use of beginners in the study of the Latin Language. By S. C. Walker, Philadelphia."

In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, 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 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." JNO. W. DAVIS, Clerk of the District of Massachusetts.

PREFACE.

THE number of branches esteemed necessary for a polite education has, of late years, greatly increased. Subjects connected with the more abstruse sciences have been classified and simplified, so as to be brought within the compass of a common intellect, and of the youthful period of life. The modern languages of Europe are daily claiming more and more of our attention.

These changes, though they have by no means diminished the usefulness of the ancient languages, have taken from youth a great portion of that time, which formerly was so liberally allotted to the study of them. A shorter method of learning the Latin language is needed to meet this new emergency. It is the object of this work to furnish a method by which the Latin may be learned at an early age, and the riper years of the pupil be reserved for the studies that belong to them. The difference between the Latin and the English idioms-the difficulty of remembering all the inflexions of the nouns, adjectives, and verbs-and the inverted order of words peculiar to the Romans-are obstacles too great to be encountered all at once. We must engage with them singly.

One of the most successful in obviating these difficulties was Du Marsais, Professor of languages at the University of Marseilles. He published in 1731 his lecture on Interlined Translations. His system has been confirmed by experience, and is now used in some of the first universities in Europe. An improvement upon the system of Du Marsais has been lately made by Mr. A. Bolmar, of Philadelphia, and it is on his improved system that the following work has been prepared. The merits which it claims are these.

1. It gives the pupil an exact knowledge of the literal meaning of each root in the original.

2. By means of the prepositions and auxiliaries, it gives the meaning of each root as modified by inflexion.

3. It gives a translation of phrases or idioms, by which the true import of the original, and the difference of the idioms are learned with precision.

4. The Latin words are arranged after the English order in the Key.

5. The pupil is required to recite from the pure Latin text, and is therefore obliged to prepare his lessons with care and diligence, and to compare together the Latin and English arrangements of words.

It is almost needless to mention, that the system of Hamilton furnishes only the first three of these advantages, and that the want of the other two renders his method completely inefficient, and frustrates the object he had proposed to himself.

The following method is usually pursued in teaching from interlined translations.

The pupil begins to translate and to study Latin Grammar at the same time. He is directed to study for each recitation, a small lesson in Grammar, and, by the aid of the Key, to prepare for translation a suitable portion of the Latin text. To assist him in learning to spell the Latin words and to remember their meaning, he is required to transcribe into a small copy book as much of the lesson as possible, writing first a Latin word, then its meaning in English, and so on. The Instructer examines the copy book from time to time to see that it is faithfully executed.

At recitation, the pupil is examined in the Latin Grammar-then he reads the pure Latin text with attention to pronunciation-then gives a literal translation of each word of the original, in the order of the Key-then gives a translation of the phrases and idioms, also prepared from the Key.

Observe that the pupil always recites from the pure Latin text, and uses the Key only in preparing his les

sons.

After the pupil has in this manner gone through the Grammar and perhaps half way through the Latin Reader, he is to have frequent exercises in the inflexions of nouns, adjectives, and verbs, to be prepared from the Grammar by the aid of a Dictionary or Vocabulary. Before he has finished the Latin Reader, he will be prepared for exercises in the application of the rules of Syntax.

To conclude, the author offers this little work to the public with the belief that it will help pupils of eight or ten years of age to acquire the rudiments of the Latin tongue with greater ease, rapidity, and precision, than they can be acquired by most of the ordinary methods.

Philadelphia, June 1, 1829.

NEW LATIN READER.

The Nominative and the Verb.