THE SECOND BOOK, TEACHING THE READY WAY TO THE LATIN TONGUE. [FTER that your scholar, as I said before, shall come indeed, first to a ready perfectness in translating, then to a ripe and skilful choice in marking out his six points; as, 1. Proprium. 2. Translatum. Then take this order with him: Read daily unto him some book of Tully; as the third book of Epistles, chosen out by Sturmius, de Amicitia, de Senectute, or that excellent epistle, containing almost the whole first book, ad Quintum Fratrem; some comedy of Terence or Plautus. But in Plautus, skilful choice must be used by the master, to train his scholar to a judgment, in cutting out perfectly over-old and unproper words. Cæsar's Commentaries are to be read with all curio sity, wherein especially (without all exception to be made either by friend or foe) is seen the unspotted propriety of the Latin tongue, even when it was, as the Grecians say, in άkun, that is, at the highest pitch of all perfectness; or some Orations of Titus Livius, such as be both longest and plainest. These books I would have him read now, a good deal at every lecture; for he shall not now use daily translation, but only construe again, and parse, where ye suspect is any need: yet let him not omit in these books his former exercise, in marking diligently, and writing orderly out his six points; and for translating, use you yourself, every second or third day, to choose out some Epistle ad Atticum, some notable common place out of his Orations, or some other part of Tully, by your discretion, which your scholar may not know where to find; and translate it you yourself into plain natural English, and then give it him to translate into Latin again, allowing him good space and time, to do it both with diligent heed and good advisement. Here his wit shall be new set on work; his judgment, for right choice, truly tried; his memory, for sure retaining, better exercised, than by learning any thing without the book; and here, how much he hath profited shall plainly appear. When he bringeth it translated unto you, bring you forth the place of Tully; lay them together, compare the one with the other; commend his good choice and right placing of words; show his faults gently, but blame them not over-sharply; for of such missings, gently admonished of, proceedeth glad and good heed-taking; of good heed-taking, springeth chiefly knowledge, which after groweth to perfectness, if this order be diligently used by the scholar and gently handled by the master. For here shall all the hard points of grammar, both easily and surely be learned up; which scholars, in common schools, by making of Latin, be groping at with care and fear, and yet in many years they scarce can reach unto them. I remember, when I was young, in the North they went to the grammar school little children; they came from thence great lubbers, always learning and little profiting; learning without book every thing, understanding within the book little or nothing. Their whole knowledge by learning without the book was tied only to their tongue and lips, and never ascended up to the brain and head, and therefore was soon spit out of the mouth again. They were as men always going, but ever out of the way. And why? For their whole labour, or rather great toil without order, was even vain idleness without profit. Indeed they took great pains about learning, but employed small labour in learning; when by this way prescribed in this book, being straight, plain, and easy, the scholar is always labouring with pleasure, and ever going right on forward with profit. Always labouring, I say; for, or [ere] he have construed, parsed, twice translated over by good advisement, marked out his six points by skilful judgment, he shall have necessary occasion to read over every lecture a dozen times at the least. Which because he shall do always in order, he shall do it always with pleasure. And pleasure allureth love, love hath lust to labour, labour always obtaineth his purpose; as most truly both Aristotle* in his Rhetoric, and Edipus in Sophocles do teach, saying, πᾶν γὰρ ἐκπονούμενον ἅλισκε, † &c. And this oft readAris. Rhet. 2, 19, § 13. 18. 19. † τὸ δὲ ζητούμενον ἁλωτόν· Soph. (Ed. Tyr. 110. ing is the very right following of that good counsel, which Pliny doth give to his friend Fuscus, saying, Multum, non multa. But to my purpose again : When by this diligent and speedy reading over those forenamed good books of Tully, Terence, Cæsar, and Livy, and by this second kind of translating out of your English, time shall breed skill, and use shall bring perfection; then ye may try, if you will, your scholar with the third kind of translation; although the two first ways, by mine opinion, be not only sufficient of themselves, but also surer both for the master's teaching and scholar's learning, than this third way is; which is thus: Write you in English some letter, as it were from him to his father, or to some other friend, naturally, according to the disposition of the child; or some tale, or fable, or plain narration, according as Aphthonius beginneth his Exercises of Learning; and let him translate it into Latin again, abiding in such place where no other scholar may prompt him. But yet, use you yourself such discretion for choice therein, as the matter may be within the compass, both for words and sentences, of his former learning and reading. And now take heed, lest your scholar do not better in some point than you yourself, except ye have been diligently exercised in these kinds of translating before. I had once a proof hereof, tried by good experience, by a dear friend of mine, when I came first from Cambridge to serve the Queen's Majesty, then Lady Elizabeth, lying at worthy Sir Anthony Deny's in Cheston. * The sentence in Pliny's Epistles here referred to, is this: "Tu memineris, sui cujusque generis auctores diligenter eligere. Aiunt enim, multum legendum esse, non multa." John Whitney, a young gentleman, was my bedfellow; who, willing by good nature, and provoked by mine advice, began to learn the Latin tongue, after the order declared in this book. We began after Christmas; I read unto him Tully de Amicitia, which he did every day twice translate, out of Latin into English, and out of English into Latin again. About St. Laurence tide after, to prove how he profited, I did choose out Torquatus' talk de Amicitia, in the latter end of the first book de Finibus; because that place was the same in matter, like in words and phrases, nigh to the form and fashion of sentences, as he had learned before in de Amicitia. I did translate it myself into plain English, and gave it him to turn into Latin; which he did so choicely, so orderly, so without any great miss in the hardest points of grammar, that some in seven year in grammar schools, yea, and some in the university too, cannot do half so well. This worthy young gentleman, to my greatest grief, to the great lamentation of that whole house, and especially to that most noble lady, now Queen Elizabeth herself, departed within few days out of this world. And if in any cause a man may without offence of God speak somewhat ungodly, surely it was some grief unto me to see him hie so hastily to God as he did. A court full of such young gentlemen, were rather a paradise than a court upon earth. And though I had never poetical head to make any verse in any tongue, yet either love, or sorrow, or both, did wring out of me then, certain careful thoughts of my good will towards him; which, in my mourning for him, fell forth more by chance than either by skill or use, into this kind of misorderly metre: |