About the Book
Published in 1922, the Junior Latin Reader is an excellent source for stories on the early history of Rome. In the 1990s, these stories were republished as the "Fabulae Romanae" textbook by Gilbert Lawall and David Perry. Here, though, we have the original stories with the original grammar and vocabulary notes from Sanford and Scott.
Preface
The purpose of this book is to furnish sufficiently easy leading material for pupils in the second year of their Latin study, and also to provide the opportunity for drill on forms which have not been a part of the work of the first year.
Children demand an early introduction to connected dis- course, which is the purpose of language. It is important that their earlier Latin readings shall be well within their powers. Not all difficulties can be eliminated. Difficulties are inherent in a highly inflected language. Not all should be eliminated. But the difficulties should be sur- mountable, with a view to the pupil's legitimate satisfaction from day to day. It happens that no Latin author saw fit to write simple Latin stories for children. The best substitute for such material seems to be a simplified form of narrative based more or less directly on ancient authors. This volume aims to serve the purpose indicated. Its plan is as follows:
I. Ten review lessons are given, dealing with forms and constructions from the work of the first year. These lessons (pages 301 ff.) follow the text of Caesar, and they may be omitted by teachers who prefer to do so. But many teachers will find it worth while to spend the time necessary to cover them. Summer vacations have a well-known power to dim the knowledge acquired the preceding year.
II. All forms and uses of the subjunctive are omitted from the first-year book of this series. In order that pupils may have the opportunity to apply in the most effective way knowledge already gained before attacking new modal forms and uses, a number of pages of simple reading matter have been provided. These consist of the stories of Perseus and Hercules from Ritchie's Fabulae Faciles, a book published in England, but well known and much used in this country. The Latin is simple, the stories are interestingly told, the vocabulary is well selected. As here presented, neither storj^ contains subjunctives, a fact which has made alterations necessary in certain parts of the Hercules.
III. The inflections and principles of syntax which were postponed from the first book are next given in a series of thirty-five lessons. The number of subjunctive constructions has been kept within reasonable limits. If pupils carry Latin but two years, elaborate study of the subjunctive is inappro- priate. If they go further, other uses are best taken up in connection with the reading of more advanced Latin. These lessons include a number of case uses, together with some pronouns, adjectives, and irregular verbs which are commonly given in the first year's work of the four-year high school, but which many teachers prefer to postpone to a later part of the course.
IV. A third story from Fabulae Faciles follows, that of the Argonauts. Only minor changes from the original form are made in this story. The pupil here finds subjunctive constructions amply illustrated.
V. The stories from Roman history contain, first of all, legends of early Rome recounted in the first book of Livy. They are given in a greatly simplified form in respect to vocabulary, constructions, sentence length, and order of words. The same ground was covered by the French teacher Lhomond in the eighteenth century In this book, however, all the stories of the kings and several of the earlier biographical sketches of notables of the republic have been written anew from the sources without reference to Lhomond's work and in much simpler form than his sketches. The later biographies have been adapted from his Urbis Romae Viri Illustres, considerably simplified and shortened.
VI. The reading matter concludes with the first book of Caesar's Gallic War in simplified form. In altering the text the authors have intended to smooth away the more serious difficulties and yet to leave the essential Caesarean qualities intact. Involved sentences have been simplified by being broken up into shorter sentences. All but very brief passages in indirect discourse have been converted to the direct form. The second part of the book, beginning with the thirtieth chapter, and weighted in the original text with indirect dis- course, is thus reduced to a fairly easy narrative. It is one of the most attractive portions of the Gallic War. Its graphic account of Caesar's dealings with the German king Ariovistus, who had come into Alsace to stay, but did not stay, commands the unflagging attention of any pupil, if the difficulties of the language are not beyond his powers of mastery. The authors hope that the reading of a portion of Caesar's narrative in simplified form may serve to give some knowledge of the character of this work which has so long held its place among the masterpieces of prose narrative.
VII. To the end of the Roman stories the text is furnished with page vocabularies, a feature of long standing in the Lake Classical Series. At the place of first occurrence the definition of each word, except proper nouns and adjectives, is presented on the same page with the text. This plan causes a saving of the pupil's time and makes possible effective vocabulary drill. In making up this page vocabulary, however, many of the words appearing in the first-year book of this series have been omitted, and words in the vocabularies of the thirty-five lessons have not been repeated in the page vocabularies attached to the stories following the Lessons. The final vocabulary contains all words in the selections for reading and the exercises, including proper nouns and adjectives.
VIII. Exercises in composition are given, one for each week of the time likely to be available after the Lessons are completed. An English-Latin vocabulary accompanies the composition section.
IX. In keeping with the present practice in high-school textbooks, a Grammatical Appendix displays the declensions and conjugations and the leading principles of syntax for convenient reference. The authors believe that it contains all the grammatical material essential at this stage of the pupil's studies.
X. A capable teacher finds in each day's reading lesson ample material for the study of English derivatives. As a supplement to such work, this book contains connected lists of English derivatives from Latin to be found in the terminologies of elementary science, grammar, geography, and elementary mathematics. No device serves better to demonstrate the debt that our own language owes to Latin.
XI. In the preparation of notes the authors have intended not to smother the student with unnecessary erudition. The reading matter of the book is not difficult. The notes, accordingly, are brief. The aim has been to give apt and typical translations, stimulating suggestions, and, where necessary, adequate explanations.
As in the first-year book, consonant i has been represented by j. The uncontracted genitive of nouns in -ius and -ium has also been used. In expecto, existo, and other compounds of ex with words beginning with s, the later spelling, without s, has been employed. The advantage of the use of these forms for pupils who take but two years of Latin is obvious, and for others the change to slightly different forms, if necessary, need cause no difficulty.
While the reading of Cicero or Vergil may be taken up directly after this book, some teachers may prefer to give a half year to the reading of Caesar as the next element of the course. With a five-year course a full year can be given to Caesar or to Caesar and Nepos after the reading of a reason- ably large amount of text from this book.
Frederick Warren
Sanford Harry Fletcher Scott
Children demand an early introduction to connected dis- course, which is the purpose of language. It is important that their earlier Latin readings shall be well within their powers. Not all difficulties can be eliminated. Difficulties are inherent in a highly inflected language. Not all should be eliminated. But the difficulties should be sur- mountable, with a view to the pupil's legitimate satisfaction from day to day. It happens that no Latin author saw fit to write simple Latin stories for children. The best substitute for such material seems to be a simplified form of narrative based more or less directly on ancient authors. This volume aims to serve the purpose indicated. Its plan is as follows:
I. Ten review lessons are given, dealing with forms and constructions from the work of the first year. These lessons (pages 301 ff.) follow the text of Caesar, and they may be omitted by teachers who prefer to do so. But many teachers will find it worth while to spend the time necessary to cover them. Summer vacations have a well-known power to dim the knowledge acquired the preceding year.
II. All forms and uses of the subjunctive are omitted from the first-year book of this series. In order that pupils may have the opportunity to apply in the most effective way knowledge already gained before attacking new modal forms and uses, a number of pages of simple reading matter have been provided. These consist of the stories of Perseus and Hercules from Ritchie's Fabulae Faciles, a book published in England, but well known and much used in this country. The Latin is simple, the stories are interestingly told, the vocabulary is well selected. As here presented, neither storj^ contains subjunctives, a fact which has made alterations necessary in certain parts of the Hercules.
III. The inflections and principles of syntax which were postponed from the first book are next given in a series of thirty-five lessons. The number of subjunctive constructions has been kept within reasonable limits. If pupils carry Latin but two years, elaborate study of the subjunctive is inappro- priate. If they go further, other uses are best taken up in connection with the reading of more advanced Latin. These lessons include a number of case uses, together with some pronouns, adjectives, and irregular verbs which are commonly given in the first year's work of the four-year high school, but which many teachers prefer to postpone to a later part of the course.
IV. A third story from Fabulae Faciles follows, that of the Argonauts. Only minor changes from the original form are made in this story. The pupil here finds subjunctive constructions amply illustrated.
V. The stories from Roman history contain, first of all, legends of early Rome recounted in the first book of Livy. They are given in a greatly simplified form in respect to vocabulary, constructions, sentence length, and order of words. The same ground was covered by the French teacher Lhomond in the eighteenth century In this book, however, all the stories of the kings and several of the earlier biographical sketches of notables of the republic have been written anew from the sources without reference to Lhomond's work and in much simpler form than his sketches. The later biographies have been adapted from his Urbis Romae Viri Illustres, considerably simplified and shortened.
VI. The reading matter concludes with the first book of Caesar's Gallic War in simplified form. In altering the text the authors have intended to smooth away the more serious difficulties and yet to leave the essential Caesarean qualities intact. Involved sentences have been simplified by being broken up into shorter sentences. All but very brief passages in indirect discourse have been converted to the direct form. The second part of the book, beginning with the thirtieth chapter, and weighted in the original text with indirect dis- course, is thus reduced to a fairly easy narrative. It is one of the most attractive portions of the Gallic War. Its graphic account of Caesar's dealings with the German king Ariovistus, who had come into Alsace to stay, but did not stay, commands the unflagging attention of any pupil, if the difficulties of the language are not beyond his powers of mastery. The authors hope that the reading of a portion of Caesar's narrative in simplified form may serve to give some knowledge of the character of this work which has so long held its place among the masterpieces of prose narrative.
VII. To the end of the Roman stories the text is furnished with page vocabularies, a feature of long standing in the Lake Classical Series. At the place of first occurrence the definition of each word, except proper nouns and adjectives, is presented on the same page with the text. This plan causes a saving of the pupil's time and makes possible effective vocabulary drill. In making up this page vocabulary, however, many of the words appearing in the first-year book of this series have been omitted, and words in the vocabularies of the thirty-five lessons have not been repeated in the page vocabularies attached to the stories following the Lessons. The final vocabulary contains all words in the selections for reading and the exercises, including proper nouns and adjectives.
VIII. Exercises in composition are given, one for each week of the time likely to be available after the Lessons are completed. An English-Latin vocabulary accompanies the composition section.
IX. In keeping with the present practice in high-school textbooks, a Grammatical Appendix displays the declensions and conjugations and the leading principles of syntax for convenient reference. The authors believe that it contains all the grammatical material essential at this stage of the pupil's studies.
X. A capable teacher finds in each day's reading lesson ample material for the study of English derivatives. As a supplement to such work, this book contains connected lists of English derivatives from Latin to be found in the terminologies of elementary science, grammar, geography, and elementary mathematics. No device serves better to demonstrate the debt that our own language owes to Latin.
XI. In the preparation of notes the authors have intended not to smother the student with unnecessary erudition. The reading matter of the book is not difficult. The notes, accordingly, are brief. The aim has been to give apt and typical translations, stimulating suggestions, and, where necessary, adequate explanations.
As in the first-year book, consonant i has been represented by j. The uncontracted genitive of nouns in -ius and -ium has also been used. In expecto, existo, and other compounds of ex with words beginning with s, the later spelling, without s, has been employed. The advantage of the use of these forms for pupils who take but two years of Latin is obvious, and for others the change to slightly different forms, if necessary, need cause no difficulty.
While the reading of Cicero or Vergil may be taken up directly after this book, some teachers may prefer to give a half year to the reading of Caesar as the next element of the course. With a five-year course a full year can be given to Caesar or to Caesar and Nepos after the reading of a reason- ably large amount of text from this book.
Frederick Warren
Sanford Harry Fletcher Scott