21 NOVEMBER 1908, Page 46

Latin Prose Composition. By W. R. Hardie. (Edward Arnold. 4s.

Gd. net.)—Macaulay said that there was a time in a man's life when writing good Latin prose was the most lucrative of occupa- tions. There is still some trutb in the remark, though times have altered for the worse. Whatever the accomplishment may be worth, here certainly is the best of all possible guides to it. Any one who will carefully study Professor Hardie's introduction, divided into "Notes on Grammar "and "Questions of Style," will find his equipment for the task sensibly improved and enlarged. Here, for instance, is a note on the use of quoque. It is an enclitics, and must be carefully attached to the word which it modifies. "With Antiochus, too, he came to terms" must be rendered, not by " rediit quoque cum Antioch° in gratiam," but

by "cum Antioch° quoque rediit in gratiam." This may seem but a trifle, and so, doubtless, would any other instance that we could choose. But the effect of the whole book, if really mastered, will be to give a precision and a force to the Latin which will be of the greatest value. To write Latin, indeed, that is not precise and forcible is simply to waste time. The introduction is succeeded by a number of graduated passages for translation into Latin.