The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-20 00:00:00

THE LATIN GRAMMAR.

The day after my entry into this colossal institution, a
Latin grammar was placed into my hands, It was a bulky
hook of its kind : considering the diminutiveness of the new
student, a portentously bulky nook. It was bulky in con-
sequence of its comprehensiveness, It gave all imaginable
rules, and all imaginable exceptionS. It had providentially
stored within it the requisite gear for whatever casualty
might befall us. The syntax rules, in the edition presented
to me, were, for the first time, rendered mercifully in Eng-
lish : those for gender and quantity remained in the old
Latin ; and the Latin was communicated in a hideously
discordant rhythm. Over a space of years we went syste-
matically through and through that book ; page atter page,
chapter after chapter. It was all unintelligible; al, obscure;
but some spots were wrapt in more tnan ordinary gloom.
Oar chronic bewilderment was varied from time to
time by shooting pains, brought on by some
passage or expression unusually indigestible. We
read of creatures, happily few in number, that went about
in the Epiccene Gender. Were they fish, flesh, or fowl P
Would the breed be ever extinct ? Under certain despetate
circumstances, a participle and a noun together were bound
hand and foot, and put into the Ablative Absolute. What
had they done, to be treated in a manner thus peremptory,
unreasonable, crotchety ? Did they ever get out after being
once put in ? Then there were gerunds in 1)1, Do, and
Duni. How they recalled to us that old Fee, Fi, Fo,
Film, and the smell of English blood I And supines in
Um and U. What was the meaning of these cabalistic
nam.is ? I did not know then ; and I don't know now. And
yet 1 have been behind the scholastic curtain for twelve

long years.
Bewailing the fate of himself and his fellow-victims
ht: continues—
The round-shot of a Latin grammar had been, I belhve,
tied to our legs, to prevent our intellectually straying.
However, in course of time we became habituated to the
encumbrance, and ceased to feel it as a serious check upon
our movements. The hour at length arrived, in which it was
considered wise to attach another round-shot to our other
legs. This was done accordingly in the shape of a Greek
grammar, written entirely in Latin. This extra weight
answered the purpose effectually : we were all brought to
an immediate standstill.

A little later on the Schoolmc..ster tells us how he
would impart Latin and other learning after his
own fashion, by calling in aid the understanding
rather than the memory. A quaint humour per-
vades the whole series of meditations. In the one
chapter entitled " Teeth on edge and closed lips"
we have an amusing glimpse of university exami-
nations and school exhibitions, beginning—
The Cardinal of Westminster has the reputation of being

the best Latinist of all that now wear scarlet stockings.
What an interesting experiment it would be to kidnap his
Eminence with the ambassador from Athens into the Cam-
bridge senateA4',44o,iyhen the annual prize exercises were
,being Lea€l.o Latin'end Greek verse.
The very delightful chapter on " Nursery Reform"
is worthy of being read by all mothers and all
Governesses. The Schoolmaster premises that he
loves little children—

Aud I care not whether they be blonde or brown ; clean
or dirty; lordlings or chimney •sweepkins. Not a button,
I would rather they were not not too good ; or goody. Let
us have a little naughtiness, sprinkled in at intervals: it
gives a flavour to the insipidity of vegetable innocence.
A Pharisee is not a pleasant object, be he clad in swallow-
tails or cotton frock, And there is a social Pharisee as
well as a reiigions one. Clean face and glossy curls must
never frown up,na little, smutty, streetling Publican, No,
no : it is quite possible that this little sparrow-boy but
rarely washes his face ; more rarely says his prayers; and
never blows his nose : which practices are common
with genteel canary-children. But not a sparrow
falleth to the ground without our Father. Let
us all have a share of natural commoners; of whole-
some naughtiness ; of clean dirt. Let us stand
occasionally in the cotter of repentance; "outside of all
joy, like Neptune in the cold." Then will we promise to
be good ; we will throw tiny arms round papa's neck ; will
kiss him half way through his yellow beard ; we'll be happy
for ever, and ever, and ever, and live on teffey and almond
reek. 0 the bliss of making up I The rain after drought
the sunshine after rain I Yea: 'tis a sweet thing and a
pleasant to have been a little naughty.
Eliminate misloing from the world, and you annihilate
charity. The air is uninhabitable from a surplus of oxygen.
The good deed shines no longer that glistened like a glow
worm in a naughty world. Imagine, reader, the humiliat-
ing condition of a good parson who has overdone his
duty : the vestrymen are better than he ; the clerk is better
than the vestr3 men ; the pewopener is suspected of being
batter than them all. Why, the church is top-heavy :
another effort, and it will stand upon its spire. Come back
to the old ways, my friend. There must be degrees; there
must be degrees.
But while I can regard with complacency a little
naughtiness in children, I am grieved to the heart to see
their eyes dimmed ever so little, and their cheeks ever so
times,
so pale. 0 me, for the faces that one sees at
so wee, and wan, and old I for the little tiny Elders who
begin life at the wrong end I
then follows a very humorous description of the
horrors of rudimentary education—learning by
rote:—
- -

From dawn to eve, this summer's day, they are comtnit-
dug to memory all words that end in ock, as cock, knoek,
block, rock, stock, smock, flock—beginning with a cock that
must not crow; for the fowl is as yet unprovided
with verb, and Conjugation, and voice—most essential
this for crowing—and mood and ten,,e, and number
and person ; and ending with a flock that must neither
trolic nor bleat. To-morrow they will give undivided at-
tention to words that end in dom, as kingdom, beadlsdon ;
the day following, to words in ition, as deglutition, per-
dition; then to words in ration, as trituration, botheration;
and so on for a month or two, till the category of ordinary
words is exhausted,
But our schoolmaster can bo tender and pathetic
as well as sarcastic and humorous ; witness, in the
chapter on the education of girls, entitled "Place
dux Dames," the following touching and evidently
truthful recollection :