Helps to Latin Translation at Sight

Produced by Louise Hope, Marcia Brooks, Steven Giacomelli
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
generously made available by Case Western Reserve University
Preservation Department Digital Library)





[Transcriber’s Note:

This e-text includes characters that require UTF-8 (Unicode) file
encoding. The most common are:

  ὠκύπτερος     [Greek, usually in word derivations]
  ĀĒĪŌŪ āēīōūȳ  [letters with macron or “long” mark]
  ĂĬŎŬ ăĕĭŏŭy̆   [letters with breve or “short” mark]
  √ ∴           [“root” and “therefore” symbols]

If any of these characters do not display properly--in particular, if
the diacritic does not appear directly above the letter--or if the
apostrophes and quotation marks in this paragraph appear as garbage,
make sure your text reader’s “character set” or “file encoding” is set
to Unicode (UTF-8). You may also need to change the default font. As
a last resort, use the latin-1 version of the file instead.

Except for [Linenotes] and [Footnotes], all single brackets [ ] are in
the original. Double brackets [[ ]] and braces { } were added by the
transcriber.

In some passages, individual letters or syllables within a word were
printed in boldface. These are shown with braces as f{a}cio. Elsewhere,
boldface is shown with +marks+. Other aspects of formatting, including
line numbers, are detailed at the end of the e-text.]




                    HELPS TO

           LATIN TRANSLATION AT SIGHT


                     by the
                REV. EDMUND LUCE


           With an Introductory Note
                     by the
        REV. THE HON. E. LYTTELTON, M.A.
               Headmaster of Eton


  ‘Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento;
  Hae tibi’erunt artes; pacisque imponere morem.
  Parcere subiectis, et debellare superbos.’

        VERGIL, _Aeneid_, vi. 851 3


  ‘Fecisti patriam diversis gentibus unam,
    Profuit iniustis te dominante capi.
  Dumque offers victis proprii consortia iuris,
    Urbem fecisti quod prius orbis erat.’

        RUTILIUS, i. 63-6


  ETON COLLEGE
  SPOTTISWOODE & CO., LIMITED
  1908

  All rights reserved




INTRODUCTORY NOTE


Whatever controversies may be astir as to the precise objects of a
classical training, it will hardly be disputed that if that teaching has
been successful the pupils will sooner or later be able to make out an
ordinary passage of ‘unseen’ Latin or Greek. It is a test to which the
purely linguistic teacher must obviously defer: while the master, who
aims at imparting knowledge of the subject-matter must acknowledge, if
his boys flounder helplessly in unprepared extracts, that they could
have learnt about ancient life better through translations.

In, addition to the value of unseen translation, as a test of teaching
it constitutes an admirable thinking exercise. But so numerous are the
various books of extracts already published that I should have seen
nothing to be gained from the appearance of a new one like the present
volume were it not, as far as I know, different in two important
respects from others. It contains six Demonstrations of _how_ sentences
are to be attacked: and further, the passages are chosen so that if a
boy works through the book he can hardly fail to gain some outline
knowledge of Roman Republican history.

As to the Demonstrations, their value will be evident if it is realised
that failure in this sort of translation means failure to analyse: to
split up, separate, distinguish the component parts of an apparently
jumbled but really ordered sentence. A beginner must learn to trust the
solvent with which we supply him; and the way to induce him to trust it
is to show it to him at work. That is what a Demonstration will do if
only the learner will give it a fair chance.

In regard to the historical teaching contained in the extracts, there
can be little doubt that the present tendency of classical teaching is
towards emphasising the subject-matter as well as the language. It is
felt that as training in political principles the reading of Greek and
Roman authors offers unique advantages, such as many English boys can
appreciate, who are deaf to the literary appeal. The choice therefore of
historical extracts in chronological order is an attempt to recognise
both the two great aims of classical teaching at once. At any rate there
is no reason to suppose that the linguistic exercise is in any way
impaired by being combined with a little history.

I should like to direct attention also to the notes given on the
extracts, and the purpose they are meant to serve. If no notes had
been given some of the passages which are important or interesting
historically would have been found too difficult for the boys for whom
they are intended. Moreover, most of the notes concern the historical
aspect of the extract to which they belong, and are part of the scheme
by which the subject-matter of the passage is emphasised.