Preface
In the first year of Latin study simple prose is read, but as a rule there is little analysis of the process of translation, and few attempt to formulate a regular method of attack. Pupils entering the second year are still trying first to find a subject and a predicate, and then to piece together a mosaic of Latin words in the English order. This procedure makes it certain that the translation, even if intelligible, will miss the pith and point of the Latin sentence. But it is high time to correct mistaken habits, and adopt a uniform method, based upon the fact that the phrase and the clause, rather than single words, must command our attention, if we are to grasp the meaning of the sentence just as it stands. When we listen to a speaker or reader in English we expect as a matter of course to catch the sense in the larger units. And in learning a modern foreign language we try as fast as possible to handle whole groups of words, while by reading aloud we make constant connection with the spoken word. The case should be precisely the same in Latin.
Wherever the public reader before a large audience would make longer or shorter pauses, to mark clearly the framework of a clause, to set off a phrase, to accentuate a contrasted word, etc., there the pupil should pause for a moment, to observe what elements of the sentence have been given him already, what each group contributes to the development of the thought, what indications there may be of the probable outcome. Such is the method presented in this little book, which indicates minor pauses by additional punctuation. This suggestion of the viva vōx -- not mere simplification -- is the purpose of the unfamiliar pointing, which in the later pages of the text gradually yields the field to the common punctuation.
One should think of the phrases and clauses just as they come to the ear, with a limitation which ought not to embarrass any listener, namely, that one must remember what has been said, but can only imagine what is to come next. The reader who looks ahead and then comes back, is forming a habit fatal to any success in handling the Latin sentence. To remove temptation one may use the device long ago recommended by Professor Hale, -- a notched cardboard, concealing everything beyond the words which have just been reached.
The text consists of fifty fables from the French of La Fontaine. How much of their subtle charm is lost in the present rendering, the translator is painfully conscious. Not a few of them will be thought as easy as any of the selections read in the first year; but in applying the method outlined above it is necessary to begin with transparently simple material. The pupil must be held responsible, not for mere translation, but for the rationale of the entire process. And as reasoning at every turn requires more than most beginners are prepared to give, the book has been expressly planned for the second year.
The Introduction and Notes, written from the standpoint of the spoken word, aim to help the pupil in a logical plan of attack in every sentence, by treating clause and phrase as units, the importance of which completely overshadows the individual word, and by making sure that he has a complete thought before he begins to word it in English. Occasional notes in Latin provide further opportunity for practice in applying the method. In the Vocabulary pains have been taken to give the other common meanings, in addition to the senses in which the word may chance to occur in the fables; also to furnish approved etymologies, chiefly those of Walde.
Hidden quantities have been marked in the conservative spirit of my friends, Professors Bennett and Buck, to whom I am further indebted in matters of assimilation. It would be far easier to assimilate consistently everywhere, but evidence forbids so simple a course.
As the prompt recognition of the phrase presupposes a reader not indifferent to genders, an Appendix presents this rather unpalatable subject in a new application of a time-honored method, the history of which has been traced by the author in the Classical Weekly, VIII, 81-87.
To the late Mr. Gardiner M. Lane of Boston, and to the American Book Company, I am indebted for their kind permission to reproduce with some changes a list of exceptions given in Lane's Latin Grammar. Special thanks are due to Dr. Maurice W. Mather for his scholarly and vigilant reading of the proofs; but above all to my friend and colleague, Professor Nelson Glenn McCrea, who has given me much encouragement and many helpful criticisms.
F.G.M.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
Wherever the public reader before a large audience would make longer or shorter pauses, to mark clearly the framework of a clause, to set off a phrase, to accentuate a contrasted word, etc., there the pupil should pause for a moment, to observe what elements of the sentence have been given him already, what each group contributes to the development of the thought, what indications there may be of the probable outcome. Such is the method presented in this little book, which indicates minor pauses by additional punctuation. This suggestion of the viva vōx -- not mere simplification -- is the purpose of the unfamiliar pointing, which in the later pages of the text gradually yields the field to the common punctuation.
One should think of the phrases and clauses just as they come to the ear, with a limitation which ought not to embarrass any listener, namely, that one must remember what has been said, but can only imagine what is to come next. The reader who looks ahead and then comes back, is forming a habit fatal to any success in handling the Latin sentence. To remove temptation one may use the device long ago recommended by Professor Hale, -- a notched cardboard, concealing everything beyond the words which have just been reached.
The text consists of fifty fables from the French of La Fontaine. How much of their subtle charm is lost in the present rendering, the translator is painfully conscious. Not a few of them will be thought as easy as any of the selections read in the first year; but in applying the method outlined above it is necessary to begin with transparently simple material. The pupil must be held responsible, not for mere translation, but for the rationale of the entire process. And as reasoning at every turn requires more than most beginners are prepared to give, the book has been expressly planned for the second year.
The Introduction and Notes, written from the standpoint of the spoken word, aim to help the pupil in a logical plan of attack in every sentence, by treating clause and phrase as units, the importance of which completely overshadows the individual word, and by making sure that he has a complete thought before he begins to word it in English. Occasional notes in Latin provide further opportunity for practice in applying the method. In the Vocabulary pains have been taken to give the other common meanings, in addition to the senses in which the word may chance to occur in the fables; also to furnish approved etymologies, chiefly those of Walde.
Hidden quantities have been marked in the conservative spirit of my friends, Professors Bennett and Buck, to whom I am further indebted in matters of assimilation. It would be far easier to assimilate consistently everywhere, but evidence forbids so simple a course.
As the prompt recognition of the phrase presupposes a reader not indifferent to genders, an Appendix presents this rather unpalatable subject in a new application of a time-honored method, the history of which has been traced by the author in the Classical Weekly, VIII, 81-87.
To the late Mr. Gardiner M. Lane of Boston, and to the American Book Company, I am indebted for their kind permission to reproduce with some changes a list of exceptions given in Lane's Latin Grammar. Special thanks are due to Dr. Maurice W. Mather for his scholarly and vigilant reading of the proofs; but above all to my friend and colleague, Professor Nelson Glenn McCrea, who has given me much encouragement and many helpful criticisms.
F.G.M.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY