Neo Eboraci,
Sub Nro 37°, Via Wall
New York City
37 Wall Street
Copyright By
E. Parmalee Prentice
1914
Latin Press Printing Co., 336 West Girard Ave., Philadelphia, Pa.
Introduction.
The easiest way to learn a language is by its use and in this respect
Latin is like other languages,—it should be studied with use, and
used with study. In teaching Latin, however, schools follow no such
simple methods. Latin is taught with hardly any effort at its use and
in most cases with no effort to add to the classical text any reading
in Latin which would attract the interest of the young and which they
could take up out of class for its own sake. The student begins by
committing to memory the many forms and rules of an inflected
language—no small task to undertake at the age of twelve or thirteen
years,—and through this laborious drudgery is introduced to a small
amount of text selected from Cæsar, Nepos, Sallust, Cicero and
Virgil—excellent texts for the class-room, but not likely to be read
at home for pleasure, except by those children, if such there be, who
find entertainment out of school in reading Webster, Burke and
Milton.
For children who like fairy stories and romance, who like to read of
sea-fights and adventure, this account of “The Adventures of Captain
Mago” has been translated into excellent Latin by Dr. Arcadius
Avellanus, and my advice to those who take the book up, is—don't turn
the reading into work. The Latin is not very difficult. Some of the
descriptions may not be easy, but descriptions can be passed over and
the action is not hard to follow. After reading a few pages in this
manner you will be surprised to find that the book can be read for
the sake of the story; go a little further and forms and rules which
were hard to learn from the grammar will have concrete meaning and a
familiar air. Long before the end you will like Latin and will begin
to find class-room work much easier.
This book is one of several stories which Dr. Avellanus has
translated into Latin and which in their manuscript form have
together been called the Mount Hope Classics. One of the short
stories in this series, Mr. Ruskin's “King of the Golden River” was
recently published in pamphlet form under the title “Rex Aurei Rivi”
and met with such demand that the small edition was soon exhausted.
The present volume which is the first book to be published from the
Mount Hope Classics is printed primarily for my own children, but a
somewhat larger edition has been published than was ventured when Rex
Aurei Rivi was printed, and while this edition holds out copies may
be purchased at the address given below.