The foundations of Latin: book for beginners
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| The foundations of Latin |
From the introduction:
Twenty years ago the beginner's Latin books published in this country followed the plan of orderly development, first of the forms, and then the syntax, of the language. Since that time a different practice has been inaugurated, and most books for beginners now present no connected and systematic development either of forms or of syntax.
The conjugation of the verb, for example, is not given connectedly and continuously but is variously dismembered and scattered throughout the book. So in the syntax, the different constructions of a case or a mood are not presented in connection with each other, but are mutually detached and introduced one by one, here and there.
This plan has long seemed to me pedagogically unsound, and in practice, I fear that it has not enabled us to realize the best results in our elementary Latin instruction. To me, no principle of teaching seems more vital and fundamental than that of presenting together to the pupil those things that naturally belong together.
This conviction is not merely founded in theory but has been steadily forced upon me by actual experience. Hence it has appeared to me psychologically more natural in elementary Latin teaching to present in conjunction with each other the different declensions of nouns, the several conjugations of the verb, the various constructions of the accusative, the genitive, the ablative, etc.
That these different categories which I have just enumerated do naturally belong together and have an organic connection seems to be recognized by the universal custom of so presenting them in our Latin grammar. iv Preface. Again, it is of great importance that the pupil should, in his first introduction to Latin, learn in conjunction with each other those facts that he is ultimately to associate together. This is impossible with the method of arrangement which I am criticising. Pupils spend a part of the first year, or possibly the whole of it, on the beginner's book.
They then, in connection with their reading of Latin authors, make a systematic study of the grammar for the next three years. Is there not an unreasonable waste of energy, if the order of presentation in one book is made to deviate widely from that followed in the other? And is there not a corresponding economy of time and effort, if the pupil becomes familiar in the beginner's book with the arrangement which must ultimately be followed in the grammar?
As justification for the prevalent custom of dismembering the declensions and conjugations in our beginner's books, it is doubtless urged that the acquisition of the forms is difficult and that the plan of gradual presentation is intended to facilitate the process of learning them. But is it not a fallacy to imagine that any such hesitating, timid policy is likely to be successful in guiding the pupil to a mastery of his inflexions?
Is not the plan of resolute, systematic, sustained attack upon the declensions and conjugations the more logical, and has any other ever yielded as good results in actual experience? Certainly, to me Latin pupils today seem to know their forms less accurately than did the pupils of twenty years ago, and this impression I find entertained by teachers of prominence in our best institutions.
The sentences, in the great majority of cases, are taken directly from Caesar's Commentaries. Often a word has been added or omitted, or a tense has been changed, but the Latin will be recognized as essentially Caesar's. The number of sentences given in each exercise is intentionally limited ' to ten or a dozen, which ought to be entirely adequate.
The Selections for Reading which follow the lessons are the traditional fables along with the Roman history originally prepared by Professor Jacobs, from whose Latin Reader I have taken them. They are sufficiently easy, are interesting, and the Latin is in the main correct. In a few cases, where Jacob's text shows inconsistency with classical usage, I have ventured to make the necessary changes.