Syntax pari passu with a thorough practice in the Accidence. The peculiarity, if such it be, of the method here adopted is, that it does not expect the pupil to be learning all the parts of speech at once, but one at a time; the Article, Substantive, Adjective, and Pronoun, each ordine suo. Thus, except Verbs, which are indispensable, few declinable words are used in the Exercises on the Substantives but Substantives themselves, in those on the Adjectives few but Adjectives and Substantives, and so on, step by step. To secure the greatest possible simplicity, the Exercises in each declension are at first confined (as far as declinable words are concerned) almost entirely to words of that declension, a plan which has increased the difficulty of making connected sentences, but which economises for the learner useless labour, though it does not spare him what is necessary. Thus each step of a boy's progress is marked, and the extent of his knowledge easily ascertained at a moment's notice, either by the tutor or the pupil himself. The Verbs, as above remarked, could not be omitted, if sentences were to be framed at all; yet, being the hardest part of the Accidence, their declension, inflexion, the formation of their tenses, &c., ought evidently to be postponed till the easier declinable parts of speech are thoroughly known. The Vocabula ries will therefore supply the exact Greek or English of any part of a Verb used in the Exercises; so that they will prove no impediment to progress in the more elementary portions, while their commonest forms are so often repeated that they will of necessity attach themselves to the memory without sensible effort. Tutors are consequently recommended to take no other notice of a Verb, the first time of going through the Exercises, than to remark whether it is transitive. or intransitive, or governs such or such a case; the pupil might then learn the Verbs, and go through the Exercises a second time, omitting nothing. But, for those tutors who prefer requiring Verbs to be parsed before they are learnt every facility is offered, as their pupils will find them all parsed in the Vocabularies, and may be instructed to get them up with the rest of the lesson. Thus the particular method recommended by the Author is forced upon none by the plan of the work, but ample scope afforded for every tutor to follow his own method. Some little difficulty may be experienced in the English exercises, owing to the difference between the English and the Greek sequence of words. This might be obviated by the insertion of small numerals under the English words, indicating the sequence required by the construction of the Greek language, but it was thought better to avoid the appearance of complication which the adoption of this plan might present. Prac tically, all trouble may be avoided by requiring the THE HILL, HARROW: |