PREFACE.

THESE memorials, originally composed as a relief from graver occupations, at odd moments, and for the most part at long intervals, without the remotest thought of publication, were subsequently collected "ex situ chartei pulveris," and transcribed, with the design of rendering them accessible to those pupils of the grammar-school who are still locally associated with its traditions. It has been thought, however, that if presented in a more durable and tangible form, they might be found to diffuse wider circles of interest, and possibly to awaken the sympathies, and add a few grains to the experience of other schools and other teachers.

In opposition to the cuckoo-cry which rolls so glibly off the tongue of the idle, the uninitiated, and the incompetent, in depreciation of the art of Latin verse-making, the author would fain raise his humble protest; and if so be that aught which he can say or do might contribute a few drops of aliment to the languishing flame of its present fitful, struggling life, he cannot contentedly allow his pen to be otiose, or his tongue silent. He would wish, if possible, to strengthen the hands, and corroborate the testimony of other grammarschool masters by avowing his conviction that the composition

of Latin verse, even in its initiatory processes, is a most valuable instrument of mental discipline. The veriest tyro in the art is 'pro tanto' benefited, as in geometrical studies, by the rigid demand of accuracy which it imposes; the necessity involved in it of bringing every word to the test of artificial rules; while at the same time, as in some of the exacter departments of school-work, it offers the means of selfverification. In the rudimentary stage of the art, otherwise than in the oratio soluta' of prose, the Aristotelian maxim applies in full force-" truth is simple, error manifold ;" and few persons who have had to do with boys can fail to be aware of the vivid sense of enjoyment which they experience, when, after an obstinate conflict with some seemingly insuperable difficulty, they at last realize the consciousness of having surmounted it. On the other hand, in prose composition the maxim is only partially applicable. Ofttimes there is a diversity of ways in which the same sentiment may be expressed with almost equal precision and elegance; and the blunders to which he is liable being so much less obvious to the eye and ear than in a metrical arrangement of words, the boy can never feel quite sure that he has performed his task to his own and his master's satisfaction.

In the more advanced votaries of the art, it helps largely to develope refined sensibilities, a critical taste, a nice appreciation of beauty in style and felicity in expression; while it insensibly fosters, as it imperiously demands, an ever deepening and expanding familiarity with the models of antiquity. It further tends to educe and afford free scope for the faculties of imagination, comparison, and

judgment; prompting its cultivators to utilize and arrange, to concentrate and apply, to assimilate and (proprie communia) to individualize the resources of memory and the products of taste: operations which, in special cases, it performs with a tact and an adroitness which while they invigorate intensely gratify the mind. In a word, it braces the muscles of the intellect, and by rendering what would otherwise remain in the memory an inert and chaotic mass instinct with life, imparts an animating interest to the studies of youth.

Not to dwell on the obvious use of verse composition as a help to the acquisition of language, resulting from the exhaustive efforts to meet the exigencies of taste and metre which it so often demands, one other advantage may be named as likely to have weight with objectors in the present day. As soon as the mechanical difficulty has been surmounted and a fondness for the pursuit developed as soon, in short, as the art has become a hobby-the productions of our national muse are sought after with renewed avidity and read with a fresher and more appreciative interest: while if carefully studied, as they must needs be for the purposes of translation, to grasp their sense and transfuse their spirit, a much more intelligent handling of them is ensured than if taken up without any definite aim.

Other and weightier arguments in defence of the art as an instrument of education may have occurred to other teachers, and those which are here advanced may have been anticipated in other publications: the author, however, has had no opportunity of reading more than the titles of the various

essays and reviews which have lately appeared on either side of the question, and consequently his testimony, for all that it is worth, is the result, "pure and simple,” of individual experience.

He will only add that in his special case the classical element in his school is overlaid by its popular and rudimentary requirements, and that in his whole career he has had but one pupil-two at most-that has ever advanced beyond the vestibule of the Classic Muse. He has consequently had little occasion himself to practise his hand, and the specimens put forth, he is well aware, possess very inferior merit to those which many other grammar-school masters might, if they pleased, extract from their portfolios or elaborate on their anvils. He is not without hope, however, that his humble effort may secure to him the merit of a "cotis vice fungentis,” if he should fail to obtain that of an accomplished professor of the art.

T. R. M.