INTRODUCTION
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.
In using the present book, the teacher will generally find a certain sequence of treatment convenient, or even necessary:
(1) Before a new exercise (or story) is touched, a new point of grammar has to be explained. This is put before the class by means of concrete examples, and then elucidated by reference to Pure Grammar; it is then applied by frequent and varied oral practice, drawn not from the story but from the vocabulary already possessed by the class; e.g. if the Accusative of Extent is under consideration the oral practice will consist of questions like the following: 'Quamdiū in lūdō sumus cottīdiē?' 'Quam longe tū abes ā magistrō?' 'Quam longē tabula distat ā iānua?' and the like. In this way faults will be prevented from taking root; the oral practice should at any rate be continued until the new point of grammar is thoroughly understood and can be accurately applied.
(2) The story is now taken in hand, and is explained in the first instance (with books closed) by the master, in Latin, and driven home by repeated questions put to the class. It is important, in this stage, that the class shall not merely listen and understand but shall also speak; where they cannot explain anything themselves they must repeat the explanation given by the master. When they have got on a little way in the course they will begin to take down explanations of important words in their notebooks and learn them by heart.
(3) The story can now be read in class from the book; this should never be done until it can be attempted with confidence, and when it is done the teacher should insist upon intelligent expression. The subject-matter and vocabulary can now be set for homework; the hearing of it will usually lead to the story being reconstructed by means of question and answer, the questions being varied in every possible way to ensure plasticity and liveliness of mind.
Each teacher will use his own discretion about the 'pensa' bearing in mind the great principle that nothing is to be written down until it has been understood and practised.
It may be found difficult to apply the above rules at first, but they will become almost mechanical with the teacher as the work progresses; and as regards the first lessons of all in this book, it will be obvious that they are mere adumbrations, which leave the teacher scope for 'filling in'. It has been our experience that the use of the Direct Method in Latin awakens keen interest on the part of the learner. This interest is not necessarily an end in itself, but a good teacher will make it his business to take advantage of it in order to get out of the Latin lessons that exact and rigorous intellectual discipline which they ought to afford. One sometimes hears teachers say that the Direct Method makes a foreign language easy; such men betray themselves when they say so, for anybody who has seriously tried it knows that the new method is far more exacting, for teacher and learner alike, than the old. Yet boys take to it eagerly, for they cannot forget at any stage of it that they are occupied with something real.