agricolā, “by or with a farmer”both of them impossible Latin for the English in its natural sense; mensae meaning strictly "to a table" is almost impossible in any elementary context. Yet the pupil necessarily supposes that in some context or other they must have those meanings; it is often years before he discovers that he has been the victim of a practical joke. Some boys never see the fun to the bitter end; in other words, they never learn the syntax of the Cases at all. And where are the counterbalancing advantages of this method? The pupil is introduced at an early stage to the reading of selections from Latin authors. But what if the interest and stimulus of reading consecutive passages could be secured without the sacrifice of clearness and grasp which is involved in the method of preliminary grammar? The advantages would seem in that case to be all on one side. Each new grammatical feature of the language would be presented as it is wanted, in an interesting context, and would be firmly grasped by the mind; at convenient points the knowledge acquired would be summed up in a table (the declension of a noun or the forms of a tense). The foundations of grammar would thus be securely laid; there would be no traps for the understanding, because each new feature would be presented in concrete form, that is in a context which explained it. For example, instead of mensā, “by or with a table,” etc., we should have in mensā, “on a table,” cum agricolā, “with a farmer,” ab agricolā, “by a farmer”; ad mensam, “to a table” or sometimes “by (i.e. near) a table;” agricolae dat, but not mensae dat. After one declension had been caught in this way, the others would not need so elaborate a treatment. But still the old rule of “festina lente” would warn the teacher not to impose too great a burden on the young or even the adult beginner; it is no light task to learn simultaneously forms and their meanings, vocabulary, and the fundamental facts of syntax. It must be admitted that the method which I am advocating is a slow one at first; but it is sure, and binds fast. The method of pre-
