tional practice of attempting everything at once is very discouraging; and it may well be that this policy has helped to foster the much-to-be-regretted tendency to drop Latin at the end of the second year.
In combating this tendency, no third-year book can afford to neglect the element of interest. At this point, too, the conventional program labors under a heavy handicap. Where classes are large and equipment adequate, some enthusiasm may be aroused by such expedients as organizing a “Roman Senate,” or the like; but this at best is costly in time and effort, and it is beyond the reach of most schools.
It is a real misfortune that no classical author has bequeathed to us a volume written for the instruction and entertainment of a youthful audience; but scattered here and there through Latin literature is an abundance of material suited to such a purpose; and it has been the task of the writer to bring some of this together and to adapt it to the end in view.
The use of such a compilation can hardly fail to open the eyes of the pupil to the richness and variety of Latin literature. Incidentally, a wealth of information is introduced on points of Roman history; and the thread of a simple story, which gives unity to the whole, makes it possible to bring in naturally frequent reference to Roman life and manners.
The narrative follows the fortunes of a family party traveling by sea from Ephesus to Brundisium, thence northward by the Appian Way to Rome, then onward to the Alps. As they journey, the elders narrate to the children interesting facts and stories suggested by the places visited.
Such a narrative, dealing often with somewhat familiar subject-matter, provides a context most favorable for quick apprehension of the meaning of individual words; and the short sentences, as well as the simplicity of thought and construction, cannot fail to encourage the habit of attacking Latin as Latin, and of taking in the thought of a passage in the order
