PART II.

GENERAL SUGGESTIONS.

1. Do not use an English-Latin Dictionary unless absolutely forced to do so. Sometimes, for instance, it is the quickest way to find the name of an uncommon animal or vegetable; but Latin is a language of comparatively poor vocabulary, and the individual words coincide much less with individual English words than do those of almost any other tongue. Therefore, preeminently, in translating from English into Latin, ideas and not words are to be considered; though, of course, in the few cases where the exact construction can be retained, the opportunity may be gratefully seized. This want of coincidence between the words of the two languages renders it very difficult, if not impossible, to make a good English-Latin Dictionary. It is better always to change the form into one more familiar to you, than to run to a dictionary in order to keep the English form. In fact, dictionaries of all kinds should be used as little as possible, for they have a tendency to call away the mind from the spirit of the Latin and to direct the attention unduly to phrases. The best possible way to get a vocabulary in Latin is to read pieces of classical prose WITHOUT TRANSLATING, EVEN IN THE MIND, and carefully to note the varieties of ideas expressed by the LATIN words. Accustom yourself as soon as possible to thinking in Latin.

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II. A good test whether your Latin is in the Roman spirit is to make yourself as impersonal as possible, and without a thought of the English, to see whether you can thoroughly understand the Latin, and whether anything in it would strike you as a mild monstrosity if you met it in another writer.

III. The first requisite of Latin style (as of any other) is to say what you mean clearly.

IV. A love of simple, direct statement is one of the most marked characteristics of Latin style.

v. Use as subjects persons rather than things or clauses; and, on the same principle, prefer the active to the passive.

VI. Keep the subject in successive co-ordinate clauses as much as possible the same.

VII. When the subject must change, as in dialogue, indicate at once that the change has been made.

VIII. Keep the same substantive so far as possible in the same case throughout a period.

IX. Translate the TIME, and not the TENSE, of English participles and verb-forms in general. For instance, if an English present participle really denotes past time, it must be translated by a past time expression. So, too, the English present used for the future is future in Latin; the English aorist imperfect is perfect; and so on.

x. In determining the tense of your subordinate verbs and participles, be careful to make your standard of time, not the moment at which you are writing, nor the hour or day at which the events of the general narrative took or will take place, but the time denoted by THE VERB ON WHICH THE SUBORDINATE VERB OR

PARTICIPLE DEPENDS.

ORDER OF WORDS.

I. In expressions consisting of two words, put first the word which in English you would utter with the greater stress of voice. Thus: "a great poet," MAGNUS POETA; "a great poet," POETA MAGNUS; "the girl laughed," PUELLA RISIT; "the girl laughed," RISIT

PUELLA.

II. In expressions consisting of more than two words, put the most important word first, then consider the remaining words by themselves, and put next the most important of these, and so on. Thus if you are speaking about some foot-soldiers fighting desperately, and wish to emphasize the fighting especially, you put PUGNARUNT first, then you say ACRITER PEDITES, or PEDITES ACRITER, according as you wish to make more prominent the kind of people who fought or the way they fought. Of course, the Romans did not have to go through any such process. They did not think out their whole sentence first and arrange it afterwards, but uttered their words in the order required by the thought just as unconsciously as we do our English words.

III. If the sentence contains phrases which themselves consist of two or more words, arrange the separate words in such phrases as directed, and then treat the whole phrase as a single word, in relation to the other words of the sentence. Thus: "Caesar-equitatu praemisso-prima luce-ipse - cum duabus legionibus-profectus est," or "Praemisso equitatu- Caesar - cum legionibus duabus-luce prima- est ipse profectus," etc. The same principle applies to clauses which make up a period.

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IV. In the arrangement of words, phrases, and clauses, the student should also bear in mind the periodic construction; that is to say, he should keep the sentence obviously incomplete till the last word, and not add one or more loosely connected afterthoughts. An opportunity to vary the monotony of successive periods, in which the main verb is the last word, arises whenever any phrase or clause is so related to the main verb that it can be foreshadowed by some other word and then left until after the main verb; because this foreshadowing in itself counteracts the tendency of the main verb to complete the sense, and thus close the period. Thus the object of an evidently transitive verb, or a subject which must be expressed for clearness, will often be the last word of a period, the verb standing just before it. So, especially, may clauses of result be foreshadowed by words like adeo, ita, tantum, or clauses of purpose by hoc consilio, or the like; and then left till after the main verb without destroying the periodic arrangement. It should be observed that while, of course, a slight difference of emphasis exists, according as the verb occupies the last place or the last but one, the difference in the thought is often so small that it is outweighed by the desire for variety and euphony of expression. If, however, in any case, a real difference in the logic of the thought is produced, by advancing the verb from its natural last position, this must never be done.

v. The awkward heaping of verbs at the end of a period by putting just before the main verb one or two subordinate verbs, with the meritorious design of having them at the end of their respective clauses, should be carefully avoided. The fault is frequently caused by making too emphatic, and placing early in the sentence

an infinitive, an object, or an adverb, which belongs so closely with the main verb that its proper place is just before that verb.

VI. In the effort for periodic structure do not fall into long, overloaded, and therefore obscure sentences. Sift out some of the ideas into short, crisp sentences, and thus add the effectiveness of variety to your periodic composition.

VII. The most emphatic or important word in a sentence is often suggested by the previous sentence. The thought, which naturally and logically comes first into the mind after the thoughts of that previous sentence, should, in its own sentence, be first expressed. No unnatural and mechanical construction of a sentence should be allowed, nor should any sentence be considered in isolation from its neighbors, when we look for its emphatic idea.

VIII. Certain rhetorical arrangements require notice. When the corresponding parts of two (or more) phrases or clauses are placed in the same order, the arrangement is called Anaphora. Thus: quod si ita est, cedat, opinor,

FORUM CASTRIS, OTIUM MILITIAE, STILUS GLADIO, UMBRA SOLI. When such corresponding parts are placed in opposite orders, the arrangement is called Chiasmus or the Chiastic Arrangement. Thus: nam NE SUFFICIATUR CONSUL NON TIMENT; VIDENT IN TUORUM POTESTATE CONLEGARUM FORE. The rhetorical effect is not infrequently heightened by certain other details of arrangement; e.g. a word is sometimes made very emphatic indeed by being placed even before the particle which introduces a clause; as, HAEC cum Caesari nuntiata essent, legatos domum abire iussit; or again, the words of a phrase or other expression which forms a logical whole

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