PRINTED BY A. J. VALPY, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET, SOLD BY MESSRS. LONGMANS; BALDWINS; WHITTAKERS; 1821. Price 4s. 6d. Bound. BODLEIAN 10 APR 1961 LIBRARY Advertisement to the Third Edition. It has been my principal care to simplify, or wholly to remove from this edition, those difficult passages, which, notwithstanding the general approbation with which this work has been received, must be acknowledged to have existed in the former editions. When therefore the Scholar is first introduced into this book of exercises, he should be allowed to omit the sentences, which are marked with an asterisk, and confine himself to the easier and less intricate examples. The second time he travels over the same field, he will then be equal to the more difficult passages, to which the asterisk is prefixed, and to the whole range of Latin composition. When a boy has gone through these exercises a second time, he may be safely presumed to have made no small proficiency in writing Latin. I have witnessed the most pleasing proofs of this assertion. It is presumed that this edition embraces every thing within the scope of research, which was likely to contribute to the elegant formation of style, every thing by which a sentence spargatur, irrigetur, perfundatur. As the rules for the structure of a regular Period, which is so essential to good Latinity, could not be so easily reduced to practical illustration, an acquaintance with them will chiefly rest upon the scholar's own study and observation, aided by the master's direction and superintendence; but a close examination of the rules and the few examples which accompany them, will be sufficient to imprint them on his miud. E. V. PREFACE. DURING the many years, in which I have been engaged in the arduous but important task of teaching the Classics, it has never failed to excite my wonder and concern, that in the many attempts, which have been made to smooth the difficulties, with which the road to classical excellence is attended, no method tending to facilitate Latin composition has been successively pursued from the first introduction of Youth into the Elementary Exercises, to his arrival into the flowery fields of correct elegance and dignity of style. The greatest care is usually taken in conducting him to a certain point: when he understands the plain application of his rules of Syntax, he is then thrown upon the wide world of elegant Latinity, in which the range he is to take, though stripped of the thorns of grammatical analysis, is still very precarious; his progress is still ascensu difficilis. For unless the Master is at liberty to point out very minutely the particular words or arrangement of words which constitute elegance, he must greatly depend upon his own judgment and observation for the knowledge of them. And there is as great a difference between the mere grammatical structure of a sentence, and the elegant usage and collocation of words, as between the rude sketch of an imperfect outline, and the fine coloring of a finished painting. Numerous are the books, both in this and other countries, which have been published upon the elegance of Latin style. But none do I know at all calculated to be put into the hands of Youth. Philologists have displayed IV PREFACE. much critical knowledge in their learned dissertations upon the style and the beauties of the Latin Language. But that knowledge and those researches were neither intended, nor calculated, to be useful to young beginners. A pleasant little book, (Les Délices de la Langue Latine,) was published many years ago; and in imitation of it, or rather compiled from it, appeared one or two in this country by De Burcy and others. But besides their incorrectness, and too great conciseness, their inutility will immediately appear, when it is considered that the Examples, being all in Latin, and that not of the purest, can neither exercise the labor nor excite the industry of the scholar. This observation may be applied, with equal propriety, to Walker's Phrases, and especially to Willymott's Particles, which, though very useful and valuable, yet as they give the Latin of the English idiom, thus preclude the necessity of research; and as they give no general rules for the use or the application of them, the advantage which the Scholar is to derive from them, must rest wholly upon his memory, and mechanical retention.-The perusal of Scheller's valuable work upon the elegance of Latin style first suggested the idea that something might be attempted, which, with care and attention, night be adapted to the use of our Classical Schools. Heineccius, though so severely lashed by his countryman, contains much sterling sense, and was also instrumental both in the determination and the execution of this work. With what degree of accuracy and judgment it has been performed, it now rests with the public to determine. If I have been mistaken in some points, I shall hope to have the error candidly pointed out: "Nihil enim mihi suavius est, quàm corrigi; omnis " enim correctio, à magnis viris profecta, est via ad discen"dum; nec is ego profectò sum qui vituperari nolim, modò "vituperatio sit justa." Some of the practical observations, those that relate to the structure of the Period for instance, may at first appear intricate and not so necessary as others. To a young beginner perhaps they might. It would be as difficult a task, and might retard him as much in his acquisition of a pure Latin style, if he bestowed too minute a labor upon them; as if he attempted to collect the scattered limbs of the dissected Absyrtus. But, as it is presumed the Scholar has already made some progress in Latin, before he is introduced to these Exercises, the study of those rules, as the knowledge of anatomy to a proficient in surgery, which makes him admire the more the wonderful structure of the body, will make the profi cient Scholar see and taste the beauty and order of the style the more, from the dissection of the several parts. Some rules, especially those that relate to the use of qui, qua, quod, may carry the appearance of a repetition, but as they come in illustration of different heads, they only tend to show in how extensive and various a manner the same may be used. It may likewise be observed that the particular method, which the rule points out, is not always more elegant than another, but it is often merely to show the variation and the manner in which one phrase or expression may be changed into another. EDWARD VALPY. |