Primus Annus

Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer.
OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1912
THE book is the result of three years' experience in teaching Latin on the Direct Method, during which time we have used the proofs in various forms. In a method, whose essential is spontaneity, it is intended rather to be suggestive—to present one line along which the principles of this method can be followed, and it must rest with the individual teacher to modify it, as his experience leads him. Further, it is still in an experimental stage, and we shall be most happy to receive suggestions both on the general scheme and on the details of the book, from teachers using it. In scope it includes practically all constructions which do not involve the Subjunctive Mood or Oratio Obliqua, and can be done in a year by an average class which devotes an hour a day to Latin.
We wish to express our thanks to Mr. S. O. Andrew for his great assistance in the scheme of the book and the arrangement of the Grammar and Syntax; to Dr. W. H. D. Rouse and Prof. E. V. Arnold for reading the proofs and offering many valuable suggestions; and to Mr. E. M. Carter for the picture of the Villa Corneliana.
The need for accurate pronunciation, in a method where the appeal is largely made to the ear, is obvious, but a note of explanation may be necessary, of the principle we have followed in marking the 'hidden quantities.' We have marked the vowel long (1) If there seems evidence of its length from its derivation. (2) If it precedes the combinations -ns, -nf, -gn, e.g. īnsula, cōnferō, stāgnum; or the inceptive -sc e.g. expergīscor. N.B. — discō is an exception to this rule. (3) If it precedes a hidden g , e. g. tāctum (tangō). Diphthongs and short vowels have been left unmarked.
W. L. P. C. L. M. WHITGIFT SCHOOL, CROYDON. July, 1912.
THIS course is an attempt to apply the Direct Method to the teaching of Latin. The method, when used for modern language teaching, is based on a psychological principle of imitation; the learner learns by imitating his master, by saying what he says, the grammar only coming in afterwards to explain practice. In the teaching of Latin, this method is modified in an essential particular by the character of the Latin language itself; Latin is so highly inflected, and so much of its syntax is strange to the learner, that the grammar must form the basis throughout and determine to some extent the arrangement of subject-matter.