Macmillan's Latin C•atrse.—First Year. By A. M. Cook, M.A. (Macmillan.)
—Mr. Cook thinks that the books naw in use err in three points,— that there are net enough exercises, too many words introduced at once, and more rules given than are required. The charge is a little too sweeping. There are manuals which are fairly satisfactory in these points. At the same time, Mr. Cook's volume is a useful one, and worthy of the attention of teachers. His method, indeed, is not quite logical. On p. 194, for instance, we get the paradigm of the first conjugation—or, rather, of part of it—and the second, third, and fourth follow in order. But verbs, of course, have had to be used throughout the book. The Latin sentences are not quite unexceptionable. We might object to stories told in short, detached sentences, which the learner will never find in actual Latin. That, however, may pass. But is it right to use the historic presnat in such a sentence as "Grrni seams: tern pastas nos a cursu Doan) in istam insulam dejicit" ? The two kinds of present do not agree, and this usage is hardly Latin as it stands. Will " jacit ad eartam" do for "dashes against a stone" ? Should not " gratissimi tibi," for "most grateful to you," be rather " gratissimi erga te," or "in to" ? Ulysses and his friends were " gratissiini" to the Cyclops, but not in this sense.
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