The sun., 1903-10-18
Old and New Latin Grammar.

10 those brought up on Andrews ana
Stoddard's' or 4Harknesss" it may seem
strange to desciib, ALLEN and Greenough's g
Latin Grammar" as old, but old it Is In the
mad rush Of modern textbooks. the first
copyright noted in the new edition dating
seventeen years back. Both authors are
now dead, the reviser. James Bradstreet
Greenough. living to almost complete the
edition now before us, New Latin Gram
mar (Ciinn d Co.. which some Of his as
sociates and former pupils, Profs. George
l.. Kittridge, A. A. Howard and B. D'Oogs
have completed.
Prof. Greenough's career at Harvard
was strange in many ways. Nobody who
came under him but recognized In him
the most inspiring teacher of Latin in Har-
ward University. His versatility and in
terest in many other directions, his in
terest in the student rather than the rules
of administration helped the Brahmins
Of Harvard to keep him down in tutor
ship for an unconscionabe number Of
years. They came near letting him 60.
Yet he was the best Latin scholar In the
university, though overshadowed all his
life by the spectre Of famous grammar
that was never published till the author
died. and he lost caste for joining Mr.. Allen
in compiling is useful a school grammar
and series OF Latin texts as have bee
turned out. He was never appreciated by
the governing powers Of the university, but
the affection Of his pupils and colleagues
made up for that.
The New Latin Grammar" is a grammar
on the old lines and with the old nomen-
clature retained, but revised in the light of
the latest scholarly investigation in so far as
that is ada pied to the use of youth. 1t is
the grammar with which American youth,
unless its schoolboard prefers Harknes $,
fits itself for college as 1t has for twenty
years past.
OF wholly different nature is "A Latin
Grammar, by Profs. William Gardner
Haze and Carl Darling Buck Of the Uni
versity of Chicago (Ginn d Co.., an excel
lent piece of work in it's way but utterly
beyond the comprehension of the High
School students for whom it processes to be
intended, we should imagine Prof Hale
long ago tackled the Latin subjunctive in
his own original way; in fact, his reputa-
ton as a Latin scholar is built up on a
pamphlet about the subjunctive with
"quum,' though we believe they call it
cum" nowadays. The grammar in its
elementary part makes no concessions to
the youth Of the learner: it is scientific and
concise, but by no means clear in its defini-
tions. When it comes to the syntax, the
best and most original part, it scars COM
pletey above the heads of the High School
boys and girls. Ingenious as the tabular
analyses OF the cases and the moods are,
they can only help the teacher, not the
pupil. The question arises, too, whether
there is any point in abandoning the old
style nomenclature for new philosophic
terminology. There was u convenience
for teachers and pupils alike in the old
names for genitives and ablatives and sub
junctives, and especially In the fact that
most grammars used the same terminology.
II Prof Hale and Prof Buck hope to sub
stitute theirs for the old, they will have to
submit to watering their condensed penn
mican. II is now in admirable shape for
those who know Latin well, but is unin-
tellgible TO those who are trying to learn
Latin
That IL the fault not uncommon in the
newer, more scientific school books. They
refuse to make distinction between mature
minds and those in process of formation
which require guidance. Unless the
youthful intellect has changed since the
time when we prepared for college, md we
see no signs Of such a change, tbs Latin
grammar will be Il great help to Latin
teachers and bugbear to young students
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