II.—FIFTY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON “PREPARATORY GREEK COURSE IN ENGLISH,” FROM COMMENCEMENT OF BOOK TO PAGE 87.
51. Q. What is the specific object of the “Preparatory Greek Course in English?” A. To put into the hands of readers the means of accomplishing, so far as this can be done in English, the same course of study in Greek as that prescribed for those who are preparing to enter college.
52. Q. Of what three most famous peoples in the world are the Greeks one? A. The Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans.
53. Q. By what name did the Greeks speak of themselves, and what was their name for the land in which they lived? A. Hellenes, and Hellas was their name for the land in which they lived.
54. Q. When trustworthy history begins, what were the three chief divisions of the Hellenic stock? A. The Dorians, the Æolians, and the Ionians.
55. Q. For what two things is the literature of Greece equally remarkable? A. For its matter and for its form.
56. Q. What is there remarkable about the form of Greek literature? A. There never has been elsewhere in the world so much written approaching so nearly to ideal perfection in form as among the Greeks.
57. Q. In what department of literature do we without reserve have to acknowledge the supremacy of the Greeks? A. In eloquence, and in the literature of rhetoric, of taste, and of criticism.
58. Q. What is the golden age of Greek literature, Greek art, and Greek arms? A. The age of Pericles.
59. Q. What do we know of the pronunciation of their language by the ancient Greeks? A. Nobody knows with certainty exactly how the ancient Greeks pronounced their language.
60. Q. What has been the general rule for scholars in the pronunciation of Greek? A. To pronounce somewhat according to the analogy of their own vernacular.
61. Q. What attempt, only partially successful, has recently been made to introduce uniformity in the pronunciation of Greek? A. To secure the common adoption of the pronunciation prevalent in Greece at the present day.
62. Q. What four Greek grammars are mentioned as perhaps the best? A. Hadley’s, Goodwin’s, Crosby’s and Sophocles’.
63. Q. To what source of Greek learning do all these manuals acknowledge their indebtedness? A. To German sources of Greek learning.
64. Q. Who is the most recent of the great German authorities in Greek grammar? A. Curtius.
65. Q. In what dialect are the books chiefly written from which the selections are taken in making up Greek readers? A. The Attic dialect.
66. Q. How many chief dialects were there of the Greek language, and how were they created? A. There were three—the Ionic, the Doric and the Attic—created in part by differences of age, and in part by difference of country.
67. Q. In whose writings is the Ionic dialect exemplified, and how is it characterized? A. In the writings of Homer and Herodotus, and is characterized by fluent sweetness to the ear.
68. Q. In what dialect were the most of the greatest works in Greek literature composed? A. The Attic.
69. Q. What are some of the distinguishing features of the Attic dialect? A. It is the neatest, most cultivated and most elegant of all the varieties of Greek speech.
70. Q. To whom are the fables commonly attributed that are generally found in Greek readers? A. To Æsop.
71. Q. Who made the collection of fables that go under Æsop’s name? A. They are mainly the collection of a monk of the fourteenth century.
72. Q. What are the names of some of the eminent persons about whom anecdotes are usually related in the collections found in Greek readers? A. Diogenes, Plato, Zeno, Solon, Alexander, and Philip of Macedon.
73. Q. What Greek writer of the second century after Christ is more or less quoted from in the ordinary Greek reader? A. Lucian.
74. Q. What famous dialogues did he write? A. Dialogues of the dead.
75. Q. Of what have these dialogues been the original? A. Of several justly admired imitations.
76. Q. In what direction did Lucian exercise his wit? A. In ridiculing paganism.
77. Q. What are some of the kinds of other matter that goes to make up the Greek reader? A. Bits of natural history and fragments of mythology.
78. Q. From what work of Xenophon do Greek readers often embrace extracts? A. His “Memorabilia of Socrates.”
79. Q. What was the design of this work? A. To vindicate the memory of Socrates from the charges of impiety and of corrupting influence exerted on the Athenian youth, under which he had suffered the penalty of death.
80. Q. What is the plan of the work largely? A. To relate what Socrates did actually teach.
81. Q. What work by a Christian writer did pagan Socrates in large part anticipate? A. “Natural Theology,” by Paley.
82. Q. What was the chief characteristic trait of the method of Socrates in teaching? A. His art in asking questions.
83. Q. What is the book usually adopted in sequel to the reader for giving students their Greek preparation to enter college? A. Xenophon’s “Anabasis.”
84. Q. In what two respects is this work highly interesting? A. First, as a specimen of literary art, and second, as strikingly illustrative of the Greek spirit and character.
85. Q. What is the meaning of the word “Anabasis?” A. “A march upward,” that is, from the sea.
86. Q. Of what is the book an account? A. Of an expedition by Cyrus the Younger into Central Asia, and the retreat of the Greek part of his army.
87. Q. Who accompanied Cyrus on this expedition? A. An oriental army of about 100,000, and a body of Greeks numbering about 13,000.
88. Q. What was the object of this invasion on the part of Cyrus? A. To obtain possession of the Persian throne, occupied by his brother, Artaxerxes.
89. Q. In what does the main interest of the Anabasis as a narrative lie? A. Rather in the retreat than in the advance.
90. Q. From what does the whole matter of the famous advance and retreat of the ten thousand derive grave secondary importance? A. From the fact that it resulted in revealing to Greece the essential weakness and vulnerability of the imposing Persian empire.
91. Q. When was Xenophon, the author, born, and with whom was he not far from contemporary? A. He was born about 431 B. C., being thus not far from contemporary with the Hebrew prophet Malachi.
92. Q. What did Xenophon’s presence of mind and practical wisdom give him in the retreat? A. A kind of leadership which he maintained until a prosperous issue was reached on the shores of Greece.
93. Q. Among the other chief works of Xenophon what one is prominent? A. The “Cyropædia.”
94. Q. What was the starting point of the expedition related in the Anabasis? A. Sardis.
95. Q. During the march what city did the army plunder where four hundred years later the Apostle Paul was born? A. Tarsus.
96. Q. When they reached the river Euphrates what did Cyrus openly tell the Greek captains as to the object of the expedition? A. That he was marching to Babylon against the great king Artaxerxes.
97. Q. What was the result of this disclosure when made to the men? A. They felt, or feigned, much displeasure, but by lavish promises the majority were prevailed upon to adhere to Cyrus.
98. Q. What Persian commander among the forces proved a traitor and met with a tragic death? A. Orentes.
99. Q. Where did the armies of Cyrus and Artaxerxes finally encounter each other? A. At Cunaxa.
100. Q. In what way did Cyrus meet with his death? A. While engaged in a personal contest with Artaxerxes Cyrus was struck with a javelin under the eye and slain.