Unseen translation.Unseen translation should be commenced as early as possible, and form part of the regular work. Beginners can try some unprepared piece out of their reading book, which they must do on paper, and without help, except that they will use the vocabulary. As soon as the pupils are far enough on to use a dictionary, some special book of unseens should be taken, such as Jerram’s Anglice Reddenda. The use of helps can be gradually discontinued, until the pupil is weaned from them altogether. This can be done by forbidding dictionaries, and giving the meanings of the more unfamiliar words, fewer and fewer by degrees.
Repetition.As soon as the pupil has begun to read a verse author, repetition should be begun, and never afterwards discontinued. Verse is easier to learn, so with verse we begin; but pieces of prose for learning should be set later. It is useful to make the repetition a part of the terminal examination, and to have every word of it written out. A Greek play and a book of Virgil should be chosen (say the Medea, or the Œdipus Tyrannus, and the IVth or VIth Æneid), together with the Heroides of Ovid, and if time allows, one of the speeches against Catiline and a Philippic of Demosthenes. These can be divided into portions, a portion for each form or class, and it should be understood that this has to be learnt during the term and kept up afterwards. The examination will simply consist in writing out all the portion learnt during the term, and all the old work, if any. As the work will always be the same, the older pupils will soon get to know it perfectly. The system here recommended has been used in one great school for perhaps a quarter of a century, and the results have been excellent.
Methods of work more advanced.We will now suppose that the accidence and syntax are fairly well known, and that the pupil is ready to read a book of Virgil or a speech of Cicero, Euripides or Demosthenes, without serious difficulty. The methods followed will not change; they will merely be applied more widely. The grammar will need to be kept fresh by the same means as before, and the study will be made more intelligent by use of the comparative and historical methods;[9] construing will be done in the same order, but some style will be expected; composition will be worked by means of correction and fair copies, but the pieces chosen will be harder, and here, too, style will be more attended to; conversation will by this time have become easy and interesting, and will cover a wider range of ideas. What is to be aimed at.The aims of the teacher at this stage must be to teach self-reliance, and to direct the student more and more to illustrative reading. It is advisable at this stage to do part of the work without the aid of notes. The class is reading, we will suppose, a book of Horace’s Odes, and one of Cicero’s speeches. He should have a complete text of Horace, and the proper volume of Cicero’s works (or the whole), with no notes at all; from this he should prepare the work for the first time of doing. Difficulties he must make out as best he can, with the aid of grammar and dictionary, some dictionary of antiquities (Rich for beginners, Smith’s large one for older students), Gow’s Companion and the pictorial Atlas of Antiquities. What is to be aimed at.For revision, he should be given notes dictated by the teacher, or some edition with printed notes in it. The class work should be done with the utmost care and exactness, and parts of the author committed to memory: side by side with this should go more discursive reading, especially for the older students. They should be encouraged (and at last expected) to read more of the author by themselves, and to bring difficulties to the teacher, who ought now and again to test their progress. Thus the curriculum of the latter part of the school work will consist of a portion of all the chief authors to be read in school, and as much more as possible of the same authors read out of school.
[9] Lindsay’s Short Historical Latin Grammar. For Greek there is none such as yet, but notes may be given from Giles’ Manual, or King and Cookson (see [lists] below).
Illustrative works.The pupil should also be directed to illustrative works which will serve to quicken his interest in any author. The excellent series of Ancient Classics for English Readers contains an account of each author, with extracts translated; and well do I remember my interest in the Xenophon of this series, when quite a boy. Passages might be read to the class from some book of travels; On the Track of the Ten Thousand, if Xenophon be the author; Travels or Explorations in Egypt, if Herodotus; and so forth. The reader of Cicero could not fail to be interested in Boissier’s Cicero and his Friends; the Latin poets are well illustrated by Sellar’s Roman Poets of the Republic and of the Augustan Age. Symonds’ Greek Poets, Mahaffy’s literary and historical books, Champagny’s Les Césars, Girard’s Education Athénienne are only a few out of many books which make the old days live again, and add to the literary appreciation of a learner.
Translations.The elder pupils in their private reading must be taught the proper use of translations. It is not to be expected that they will do without them entirely; but they should have access to the best, in a school library or elsewhere, under some direction at first and afterwards at discretion. If they are clearly shown that it is their interest to use them only where their own honest efforts have failed, or as models in the case of books they have already done, most of them will be sensible enough not to abuse their liberty. The pupil will gain much, too, by reading some of the old translations of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. From North’s Plutarch, Hobbes’ Thucydides, Holland’s Livy, and other such, the learner will gain a new idea of what the English language can do, much to the advantage of his style. Nor is there the same danger in giving pupils these books as in allowing them the free use of modern translations. They reproduce the spirit rather than the letter, and are of little use as “cribs”.
Style.When the pupil has learnt how to write correct Latin or Greek, it will be time to pay some attention to style. The pieces chosen should at first be definitely historical, oratorical, philosophical, or dialogue, according to the author being at the time studied; in the last stage, these should be given one after the other, unless any weak point needs strengthening. Lectures and demonstrations.It is useful now and again to give lectures and demonstrations in composition to a class. Each will be provided with a copy of the English, and the teacher then will get to the heart of it, state its thoughts in the sequence and subordination as simply as possible, and finally translate it bit by bit, using the blackboard to record each step. Questions may be asked or anticipated, and the various renderings suggested should be weighed and discussed. In this manner the beginner sees how a trained mind works, and is helped to guide his own. Good examples of the method may be seen in Sidgwick’s Lectures on Greek Prose Composition, Postgate’s Sermo Latinus, and Sargent’s Primers.
Verse-writing.So far nothing has been said of verse composition. Much obloquy has been poured on this of late years; and it may be admitted that formerly too much time was given to it. But in spite of all that objectors can say, there is no manner of doubt that verse-writing is a practice of very great value. No one really pretends that it can make poets (the common sneer); all that is claimed for it is, that it is valuable as a mental gymnastic and in training the literary sense. Prose-writing can teach the power of words, but only verse their subtler associations; prose teaches the effect of position upon emphasis, but verse makes clear that there is such a thing as literary form. Most people never realise the rhythm of a piece of prose; its more striking faults may offend or its merits unconsciously please, but why these please or offend it would be beyond their power to say. Its value.But the dullest boy or girl who has learnt how to piece together an elegiac couplet, understands that this particular kind of composition is regulated by definite bounds, and cast in a form, the variations of which are limited. His ear becomes attuned more or less to rhythm, and this first step may be used to lead him on to the comprehension of literary form in other kinds. I do not say that he will never learn the lesson without writing verses, but that this is the easiest way to teach it; and I would apply the same principle to English or any other language. Some incidental advantages follow at the same time; not the least that the pupil understands the metre of the poets he reads. He will not learn this equally well by scanning. To have full effect the act of scanning must be unconscious; that is, the reader must take in words, meaning and rhythm at the same time without effort. So far as my experience goes, those who have not learnt how to write verses never read poetry in this way, but the scanning (if done) is done by a conscious effort, which draws off the mind from the poetry. Let the class, then, as soon as they begin to read a verse author, do a term’s work or two on elementary exercises in metre (I will not say verse-writing) from Penrose’s Latin Elegiac Verse Composition. The time will not be wasted, as has been shown, even if no more is done. Those who wish to go further in Latin verse cannot do without a skilled teacher, for no books exist which can help him much. Demonstrations on the blackboard can teach a great deal at this stage; but nothing can be done by the pupil without learning a great deal of Latin verse by heart. Greek verse is easier to compose than Latin, and may be begun quite late. Nearly all the elementary books on Greek verse are useless without a teacher, and need constant supervision and help; perhaps I may be pardoned for mentioning a little book called Damon, since this is the only one wherein the learner is led on by steps graduated close one after the other. Pupils may go straight from this book to the rendering of pieces of English verse, but both Sidgwick’s and Sargent’s books on Greek verse will always be found useful.
Pronunciation of Latin and Greek.It is necessary now to say something about the pronunciation of Latin and Greek. The reformed pronunciation is strongly to be recommended. This is simply set forth in a pamphlet published by the Cambridge University Press,[10] and for Latin is practically that given in the first pages of the Latin Primer. The sole advantage of pronouncing Latin and Greek words as if they were English, is that the learner need learn nothing new. But this is far outweighed by the disadvantages; and after all, the pupil has begun to learn French or German, and so is not struck dumb at being called upon to pronounce i as ee. The main disadvantages are these: (1) Confusion of s, c, and t, as Ceres with Seres, cedit with sedit; (2) Confusion of quantity, mensīs (abl. pl.) with mensĭs (gen. sing.), mālum (“evil”) with mălum (“apple”); (3) Difficulty of pronunciation in many words, especially in Greek, as παύω when the first syllable is made to rhyme with law; (4) Loss of much beauty in the sound of the languages.
[10] The Reformed Pronunciation of Greek and Latin: Arnold and Conway. 1895. IS.