AN INTRODUCTION ΤΟ LATIN SYNTAX: CONTAINING 1. THE RULES OF SYNTAX, AS DELIVERED IN MR RUDDIMAN'S RUDIMENTS, To which is subjoined, AN EPITOME OF ANCIENT HISTORY, FROM THE CREATION TO THE BIRTH OF QUESTIONS. BY JOHN MAIR, A. M. A New Edition; WITH IMPROVED ENGLISH READINGS, ADDITIONAL NOTES, BY THE REV. ALEXANDER STEWAR EDINBURGH; PUBLISHED BY OLIVER & BOYD, TWEEDDALE-COURT; AND SIMPKIN & MARSHALL, LONDON. 1831. [Price Three Shillings, or without Vocabularies Two Shillings, bound.] EDITOR'S PREFACE. THE plan of this Introduction to Latin Syntax is sufficiently detailed in the Author's Preface; and its merits have long been recognised. In the present edition, it has been the Editor's endeavour to render it still more deserving of its established popularity, by replacing some of its antiquated or vulgar phrases with others more adapted to the refinement of modern taste;-by introducing corrections of several errors discovered on tracing the sentences to their original authors ;-by adding a few Notes, illustrative of particular remarks, or peculiarities of construction; and by compiling an English and Latin Vocabulary, for the assistance of the pupil in translating into Latin the English Exercises on each Rule ;-with a Vocabulary of Proper Names, explanatory of every word that occurs in the work connected with Ancient History, Geography, and Mythology. These additions will be received, it is hoped, as considerable improvements. They can scarcely fail to facilitate materially the labours of the scholar; and it is hoped they may likewise be found of some use in assisting the exertions of the teacher. DOUGLAS MANBE, December 16, 1830. AUTHOR'S PREFACE. THE general approbation the following Essay met with on its first publication, having encouraged the author to turn his thoughts on that subject a second time, the whole has been revised with great care, several alterations made, considerable additions interspersed, and no pains spared to rectify every mistake, supply every defect, and retrench every superfluity, in order to render the performance still more useful, by its being made, in all respects, as complete as possible. What seems further necessary, by way of preface, is to give the reader, in a few words, a more particular account of this Introduction as it now stands; which is as follows: The rules of syntax, hère exemplified, are taken from the Rudiments, composed and published by Mr Thomas Ruddiman, being generally allowed to be the most accurate and best system of that kind, and used, not only in most of the schools in this kingdom, but translated into a foreign language, and taught in several places abroad. And as the rules are of two kinds, viz. primary or fundamental, to which all the rest are reducible; and secondary, or elliptical, which are by far the most numerous; these latter rules are distinguished from the former by an asterisk on the margin. To make the young scholar comprehend the meaning and extent of the rules with greater ease, each of them is illustrated with one or more examples of construed Latin: and where it is necessary, grammatical terms are explained, and lists, or catalogues of the words belonging to the rules, given. To which is subjoined, a pretty large collection of explanatory notes, exhibiting the exceptions, the varieties, the elegant phrases and modes of expression that occur in authors, and pointing out the method of supplying the elliptical constructions, and reducing them to the primary or fundamental rules. Some few of the notes are exemplified; the proper time of teaching the rest is left to the discretion of the master. |