OF PROFESSOR HADLEY TO THE FIRST EDITION, 1860.

THE grammar which is here submitted to the public is founded on the Griechische Schulgrammatik of GEORG CURTIUS, Professor in the University of Kiel. The work of Professor Curtius was first published in 1852, and was received in Germany with marked favor: a second edition was called for in 1855, a third in 1857, and a fourth in 1859. Having been led, soon after it appeared, to study it with some care, I became satisfied that it possessed important advantages of plan and execution; and I was therefore easily induced, more than three years ago, to undertake the task of bringing it before the American public. My first thought went no further than to reproduce it in an English version, with only such changes as might seem necessary to adapt it to the wants and habits of instructors in our country. But in carrying out this purpose, it happened, by what is probably a common experience in such cases, that one change led on to another, until at length the alterations had assumed an extent out of all proportion to the original design. To give the book, as it stands here, the name of Curtius, would be to make him responsible in appearance for many things which he has not said, and might perhaps fail to approve. Under these circumstances, it has seemed to be the only proper course, that I should assume the responsibility of the work, while making, as I cheerfully do, the fullest acknowl edgments of obligation to the German scholar. Should this volume prove to be of service in the work of classical instruction, the result will be perhaps mainly due to his broad and thoughtful scholarship, and his sound, practical judgment.

It may be proper for me here to follow the example of Professor Curtius, by calling attention, at the outset, to some features in the plan and arrangement of this Grammar.

It is a fact generally understood, that the Greek, in common with the

other Indo-European languages, has of late received, and is still receiving, much light from the scientific comparative study of the whole class to which it belongs. The new views of Greek etymology and structure, developed and established by that study, have been made the object of special attention in the preparation of this work; and have been taken up into it, as far as seemed to be consistent with the practical ends which must always be paramount in an elementary grammar.

The multiplicity of forms presented by the different Greek dialects is the occasion of considerable embarrassment to the grammarian. Scattered through the sections which describe the Attic language, they interfere seriously with the unity of exhibition and impression which it is important to secure: but when thrown together by themselves at the end of the book, they lose in clearness and significance, by being severed from those common facts and principles with which they are naturally associated. In this Grammar will be found a sort of compromise between the opposite difficulties. The peculiarities of euphony and inflection, which belong to the other dialects, are given in smaller type at the foot of each page, under the corresponding Attic forms, so as to be kept clearly distinct from the latter, while yet presented with them in the same view.

It is hardly necessary to say that a complete exhibition of the dialects is not attempted in these pages. The multitude of forms which appear only in lyric fragments, or in ancient inscriptions, or in the writings of grammarians, are passed over without notice. The object has been simply to supply what is necessary in this respect for a proper reading of the classic authors, and particularly Homer, Herodotus, Pindar, and Theocritus. For the language of Homer, I have derived much assistance from the Homeric Grammar of Ahrens (Griechische Formenlehre des Homerischen und Attischen Dialektes: Göttingen, 1852); and for that of Herodotus, from the careful and thorough investigations of Bredow (Quaestiones Criticae de Dialecto Herodotea: Lipsiae, 1846).

In the sections on the verb, the forms of voice, mode, and tense are reduced to a small number of groups, called "tense-systems." Under this arrangement, which is similar to those already adopted by Ahrens and Curtius, the inflection of the verb is represented as the inflection of a few tense-stems, which are formed, each in its own way, from the common verb

stem. It is hoped that the arrangement may commend itself in use, not only as consistent with the obvious analogies of verb-formation, but also as calculated to make the structure of the verb simpler and more intelligible to the learner.

Among these tense-systems, the most prominent is that which includes the present and imperfect, the tenses of continued action; and it is also the one which shows the greatest variety of formation. Hence the formation of the present is taken as the basis of a new classification, the whole mass of verbs being divided into nine classes, according as the stem of this tense coincides with that of the verb, or varies from it by different changes.

The special formation of particular verbs-" anomalous" formation, as it has been generally, but to a great extent inappropriately, termed—is exhibited with considerable fulness, and according to a uniform method, intended to assist the apprehension and memory of the learner.

In the Syntax, the leading aim has been-not to construct a philosophical system of human expression, with Greek sentences for illustrations—but to represent, as fully and clearly as possible within the prescribed limits, the actual usage and idiom of the Greek language. It has also been an object to accompany the full statement of rules and principles with brief phrases, describing their substance, and convenient for use in the recitation-room.

In regard to the examples by which the Syntax is illustrated, it has not been thought necessary to give for each one the name of the author from whom it is cited. Only those taken from non-Attic sources, as Homer and Herodotus, are credited to their authors: those which come from Attic poets are marked simply as poetic: while those which come from Attic prosewriters, and constitute perhaps nine-tenths of the whole number, are given without any indication of their source. The examples are translated throughout, untranslated examples being (if I may trust my own observation) of but little use, in general, even to the better class of students. Regarded as illustrations, they are imperfect, since it is only with difficulty, and perhaps with uncertainty, that the learner recognizes their relation to the rule or principle to be illustrated. And if we view them as exercises in translation, it may be questioned whether detached sentences, torn from the connections in which they stood, and involving often peculiar difficulties of language and construction, are best suited for this purpose. A similar rule has been fol