A LATIN GRAMMAR FOR SCHOOLS BY HENRY JOHN ROBY, AUTHOR OF 'A GRAMMAR OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE Dicta sunt omnia antequam præciperentur: mox ea scriptores London: MACMILLAN AND CO. 1885 [All Rights reserved.] STEREOTYPED EDITION,. 10 VIMU AIMBOLIAD Cambridge: PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. AND SON, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. R65 1885 MAIN PREFACE. THIS book is in the main an abridgment for school purposes of my larger Latin Grammar, but the abridgment is very unequal, some parts being reproduced with slight omissions, some parts being largely reduced, and others again being rewritten. Under the last head fall especially chaps. i and ii of Book I, and chap. vi of Book II. Of the last-named chapter, part, particularly § 132, contains an analysis which is, I think, new and interesting. I have added an English translation of the Examples in almost the whole of the Syntax. It will be found that in some cases I have given the ordinary English equivalent, whilst in others I have aimed rather at explaining the Latin construction. Three Appendices are new, viz. those on Metre, on Grammatical and Rhetorical terms, and on Latin authors. Some changes in arrangement have been made (e.g. as regards degrees of comparison, and Numerals) to suit ordinary usage. The Index has been made fuller than is usual in a book of this class-so full, that it may not be unimportant to observe that the book is really intended not for reference, but for study. The lists are not exhaustive, the statements of occurrence or non-occurrence of forms or expressions must not be taken too literally, but only as approximations to the truth, with especial regard to the classical authors and usages of recognized authority in schools; and many of the rarer usages are not noticed at all, but left to be picked up in the student's own reading, or obtained, when needed, from a dictionary. I have given Greek nouns in considerable detail, partly because some of my readers may not be Greek scholars, and partly because a certain mass of examples is necessary to stamp on the mind the general treatment of Greek nouns by Latin writers. Chaps. xix, xxi, and xxii should be studied, because they group the verbs according to their natural relations, but in my judgment the best way of getting up the (so-called) irregular verbs is learning them, by sheer memory, as given in the list in chap. xxiv. They are not reducible to very definite rules, and a page of mixed verbs tests the student far better than small sorted packets. The number of Examples in the Syntax has purposely been kept small in order that the main lines of the analysis may be more clearly seen than was possible in the larger work. If a student once gets the classification fairly into his head, he will not find much difficulty in increasing the number of specimens from his daily reading of authors or in assigning the new ones to their proper classes. The sectional numbering has been carried throughout the book, including the Appendices. It is merely for the purpose of reference, and is sometimes quite independent of the internal division of the matter. Prof. A. S. Wilkins of Owens College has kindly looked over several of the proof sheets. Had I submitted them all to him, my readers would, doubtless, have been spared some errors of author and printer which I have, and possibly more which I have not, noticed. I shall be much obliged for any corrections or suggestions (addressed to the publishers). 24 July, 1880. In this third edition a few corrections have been made and the translation of the Examples in the Syntax has been completed. October, 1885. H. J. R. |