Richmond daily Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1842-1861, 1856-12-27
LATIN vERsrrrcArroy FOR THE MILLION

The following article appeared a few years since In
Chamber Edinburg Review An surprise the compo-
ston Of poetry" by machinery win when the
der has acquainted himself with the mode OF producing
Latin phrases ad h6it'n, prescribed below:
Amusing myseli lately by examining old arithmeti-
cal schoobook while wondering and bordering the
very great pains taken by the school authors and domnies
OF the oden time to make the acquisition OF knowledge
difficult possible TO the youth Of those days found in
a that a certain John Peters Sept 20, 1917 had
Distributed the letters OF Latin words into tables
and entitled the piece Artificial Versifyng; whereby any
Of ordinary capacity, though he understands
word of atm may be taught Immediately TO make hexa-
meter and penameter versestrue Latin, true verse; aud
good sensel' Who or what John Peters was do not
know neither have met with any of his writings but
from the clue obtained l. with little trouble, succeeded
in arranging the following tables by which any who
merely knows the letters Of the alphabet and reckon
far nine, make good and correct Latin hexame
ter and pentameter verses
HKxAxxwR.
Td6kS l.
T II A NJ l. Euge saauf srpr
rrfbes rotbieis iirisdr d M a
zaSls H.
+ bvsesta ae iaeet lnsso |
ann ie''f'as asn. III aa''
s tdpPpfe oauoauae limit |
rui eoauis- NM -.
Table ".
q mr. mtd nm tiaunttn c
r u u n r X n " n ID q z I N n
u N N 1T TIT
Table Y.
tppv acseore 6 | m @ m IN
i pa bic meol nrnirrasra
n .'.a
dsqaP dnsu@aer i~rp.
& vac d nv tara b aa- m
PESrANErKR.
7a6le l.
s 7 \ ere m IN T
p r1rufr d spi ia i o iatiac. i
zaue H.
ppc ppccs r 80 n
G ossc d sgnc tic - i ia m
o { r b / d u / m m au b unuace {
n nrsttnt' ttan.- mt.
Table III
d AVID flaauc 10 aarsrt rec b m
ttrar- -.
Table II
p m m u a o I
u n loe tae i sne 6
Table T.
t m m v m o c a " b r
i al hiiiio.i ei-s
The rule for composing hexameer pentameter
from .her respective tables is simply this Select any
OF the first nine (cdpitd letters in table the letter
chosen, with every subsequent ninth letter in the table,
will form the first word then take any Of the first
nine letters in Table H. and every subsequent ninth
in the same table TO form the second word proceed in
like through the tables Table VI in the Hexam
ter aud Table in the Pentameter furnishing the last
word OF the line verse asterisks where they occur
must be counted well the letters. For example, sup
pose take the first letter in Table Hexameter-name-
y, 1.-THE ninth letter from it, counting from left right
is %; the next the next aud proceeding form
the word Ibidd Suppose then take the first letter
of Table 1lnamcy f-snd by the addition OF every
sequeut ninth letter in that table VIC form the word f
and by taking the first letter Of EACH and proceeding
in the same manner through the remaining tables OBJ
tain the line
Turbda faia seoul pr:emonstrant tempora dura
In ust the same manner the first letters take from each
of the five pentameteI tables give
Tetrica prestabunt dura dolosa novi.
Again, suppose take the fourth letter in each table
which makes la heXameter-
Horrida bella tuis protendunt verbera acerba;
Improba pradicunt verba nefahda viris
think, from these examples the reader will find no
difficulty in extracting the Persons unacquantcd
with the OF numbers may be surprised to learn how
many different verses be obtained by the permuauns
aud combinations OF the letters in the above tables As
any OF the first nine letters combined with their subse
quent ninth letters, in each table, form word and as
there six tables Tor heEamters find by short cal
culation-9 9NsN X = 9-53l, 449, the number of
different that be extracted from the table
The Latin scholar still more vary the lines for as
he will readily perceive most Of the words in the first aud
sixth may be ansposed with those OF the fifth and second
tables. Again there nine words in each OF the
i've pentameter tables by similar calculation find
that they contlin different lines that be
tanned from the two OF tables The writings OF Vr-
gil number not than 500 lines, these tables
could furnish ortydye volumes each large the CON-
pete works of Virgil aud 4774 lines fancy can
hear the reader e1cam "Ci JoHo$"-"What is the use
OF all this. can only reply that the construction Of
these tables helped 10 vile away from some tedious
hours OF asude and i'll health perhaps their present
form they may afford similar benefit to another.
TINS PARTING Horn The honr IA Gamma, anil :, :; q