to me at this moment, is due to a Mr. Key, who has furnished the London Philological Society with many derivations of a distressing or ludicrous-character. I learn from the Classical Museum (No. xix., p. 65), for I have not seen his book, that he has published a Latin Grammar, in which discors is derived from dis and corda (sic) 'a string,' and made to signify ' of a different note!' To say nothing of the fact that discors belongs to a large family of words confessedly derived from cor, 'the heart,' as signifying the seat of the mind, such as con-cors = Suóvous, ve-cors = Tapá-vous, se-cors = vous, and that the application of discors and concors to music is as natural a metaphor as the converse application of words denoting musical harmony to mental agreement, the author of this blunder has violated every principle of scientific philology by supposing that discors, even if it were an isolated word, could have been formed from dis and chorda. The prefix dis or di is used only with Latin words, and chorde is a Greek term, equivalent to the Latin nervi and fides, which, in this sense, would have required the Greek prefix para. Virgil's words (Eneid, ix., 776):- Cui carmina semper et citharæ cordi, numerosque intendere nervis,' ought to have prevented this absurd confusion between cor and chorda = nervus.

A knowledge of the differences of construction and meaning, with which the same verb is occasionally found, may be considered as belonging to this part of the subject. At least, this information would be sought in the dictionary rather than in the grammar. Such differences are soon learned and easily remembered by the student; for instance, if he knows the inherent signification of the cases, he has not to be told twice that cavere or consulere alicui means 'to take care or make provision for the interests of some party,' but that cavere aliquem means 'to guard against some one,' or 'to make some one the object of our caution,' and that while consulere aliquem is 'to consult some one,' consulere in aliquem is to take measures against some one.' Similarly, curare alicui rei is 'to

take thought for some thing,' but curare aliquam rem is 'to take care of some thing;' and while vacare philosophiæ is 'to be at leisure for, to occupy oneself with, philosophy,' vacare culpá or a culpá is to be without,' 'or free from blame.'

The general rules for the structure of sentences and for the arrangement of words in a period are given in most elementary treatises. (See Complete Latin Grammar, p. 115.) But these rules depend so much for their application on the nature of the clause, the number and length of the words of which it is made up, and indeed upon the intentions of the writer, that little good is done by long and minute directions in a case where practice and a natural sense of rhythm can alone lead to any excellence. Some general principles must of course be inculcated, and the Englishman, who composes in Latin, must always bear in mind, that, while we write in detached sentences, a page of Latin prose is a continuous chain in which there is no broken link, and that a relative pronoun, not only, as in English, furnishes an additional definition in the same sentence, but even commences a fresh sentence after a full stop. The best of all rules for breaking the English ear from its subjection to the idiomatic structure of our own language is to prescribe the continuous perusal of nothing but good Latin prose for a few days before we undertake to express our own thoughts in Latin. I have met with a good confession respecting the advantages of this practice. Dr. A. J. Paulssen, in the Supplement to Jacob's Anthologia Palatina (Prooem. p. xi.) says-‘In tantâ festinatione, eâ etiam linguâ utendum erat, quâ per integrum annum et eo diutius plane usus non eram. Pristinam enim scribendi facultatem, quâ nunc me sentio validum atque pollentem, non recepi nisi per tres continentes dies nihil fere præterquam Ciceronem legendo.' But although I would recommend the sustained perusal of good classical Latin as the best means of familiarising the ear to the rhythm of the Latin period, I would dissuade all

Latinists from the futile attempt to imitate more than the general colour and tone of the great models. One of the main objects of this book is to present an easier type of excellence; and those, who examine the specimens of modern Latin, which are here collected, will see that all the best of them, varying in this and other respects with the character of the writers, still agree in generally preferring short and simple sentencesto the complicated machinery of diction, which came naturally to the hands of the ancient Romans. No modern Latin is good, if it is not easy. This is a rule which must never be forgotten; and the student will find that, in proportion as he writes with ease to himself, in the same proportion will he produce a style, which scholars in all countries may read with satisfaction.

The following pages are confined to exercises in translation from English into Latin. Those who can manage this with success, will of course be able to perform the easier task of expressing their own thoughts in the language of the Romans. With regard to original composition in Latin prose, I think we may safely rely on one general principle, that no one will write well in Latin any more than in English, if he is not adequately acquainted with the subject which he undertakes to discuss. It has long been the custom at classical schools to set 'themes' on general, chiefly moral, topics, which sometimes involve little more than truisms, and students are told, in the older exercise-books, to be careful in dividing the exercise into its seven parts; (1.) The proposition or statement of the subject; (2.) The reason; (3.) The confirmation; (4.) The similitude or illustration; (5.) The example from history; (6.) The testimony or quotation from some ancient authority; and (7.) The conclusion or general inference. This may be very well for English themes, in which the young pupil is learning to write before he has learned to think. But no one ought to be trusted with the work of writing original Latin until his education has made him independent

of these leading-strings. If a comprehensive subject is proposed in the school-room for a Latin essay by the elder boys, the master's business should be to direct them to the proper sources of information, or to give them orally the specific knowledge, which they might be unable to procure for themselves. But the best exercise, next to translation, is the expression in Latin of the thoughts which spontaneously suggest themselves; and those, who are destined to acquire excellence in this department of scholarship, must learn sooner or later to think in Latin.

LATIN EXERCISES.

Exercise I.

The Latin Scholarship of Ruhnken.

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SCHOLARS' are citizens of two commonwealths, the popular, in which each man lives, and the literary, which is spread and scattered through all the popular communities. The literary commonwealth has one common language the Latin. To be master3 of this language, so that the bond of this commonwealth, however widely extended, may be kept up, so that all citizens may both understand you and read or hear you with pleasure, with interest," and with moral and intellectual profit, is not this in some sense an admirable endowment? Now to write Latin well, as the phrase itself implies, we must both write Latin and write well; the meanings of the former is that our language should be pure, unadulterated,' free from blunders, not corrupted by modern terms," correct both in idiom" and grammar; the latter requirement implies that we should be thoroughly and accurately acquainted" with our subject, and should write upon it in that pure and unadulterated Latin in a manner suited and adapted to the triple office of eloquence-namely, perspicuously, so as to teachagreeably, so as to please forcibly, so as to impress. Both to write Latin and to write well are obtained by labour and ability, so indeed, that the former depends more upon labour, the latter more upon talent. Very few have excelled in both." Thus, to take an example, John Frederick Gronovius, a man of great ability and unequalled in Latin scholarship, wrote with purity, but did not write well, for he is somewhat deficient" in perspicuity and facility of style, and very much

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