[ INTRODUCTORY NOTE]
Whatever controversies may be astir as to the precise objects of a classical training, it will hardly be disputed that if that teaching has been successful the pupils will sooner or later be able to make out an ordinary passage of ‘unseen’ Latin or Greek. It is a test to which the purely linguistic teacher must obviously defer: while the master, who aims at imparting knowledge of the subject-matter must acknowledge, if his boys flounder helplessly in unprepared extracts, that they could have learnt about ancient life better through translations.
In, addition to the value of unseen translation, as a test of teaching it constitutes an admirable thinking exercise. But so numerous are the various books of extracts already published that I should have seen nothing to be gained from the appearance of a new one like the present volume were it not, as far as I know, different in two important respects from others. It contains six Demonstrations of how sentences are to be attacked: and further, the passages are chosen so that if a boy works through the book he can hardly fail to gain some outline knowledge of Roman Republican history.
As to the Demonstrations, their value will be evident if it is realised that failure in this sort of translation means failure to analyse: to split up, separate, distinguish the component parts of an apparently jumbled but really ordered sentence. A beginner must learn to trust the solvent with which we supply him; and the way to induce him to trust it is to show it to him at work. That is what a Demonstration will do if only the learner will give it a fair chance.
In regard to the historical teaching contained in the extracts, there can be little doubt that the present tendency of classical teaching is towards emphasising the subject-matter as well as the language. It is felt that as training in political principles the reading of Greek and Roman authors offers unique advantages, such as many English boys can appreciate, who are deaf to the literary appeal. The choice therefore of historical extracts in chronological order is an attempt to recognise both the two great aims of classical teaching at once. At any rate there is no reason to suppose that the linguistic exercise is in any way impaired by being combined with a little history.
I should like to direct attention also to the notes given on the extracts, and the purpose they are meant to serve. If no notes had been given some of the passages which are important or interesting historically would have been found too difficult for the boys for whom they are intended. Moreover, most of the notes concern the historical aspect of the extract to which they belong, and are part of the scheme by which the subject-matter of the passage is emphasised. Although the passages themselves are not strictly graduated, the help given in translation becomes less and less as the boy goes through the book; and it is obvious that those extracts which illustrate the later periods of Roman History will be found more difficult than the legends and stories which belong to an earlier age. In cases where no help at all is desired, the Miscellaneous Passages (which are without notes) may be used.
E. LYTTELTON.
Eton: April 1908.