The Teaching of Latin. 323 



time when aiul time how long are expressed by the same cases as tlie 

 corresponding ideas of space. 



One case, it will be observed, has not yet been mentioned, the 

 Genitive. It is adjectival in nature, not adverbial ; that is, it ex- 

 presses association not between a thing and an action, but between 

 two things. The English designation for it — possessive — is a good 

 name, one of the most important associations being that recognised 

 between owner and property. 



We are now in a position to apply the results of oui- analysis to 

 teaching. The fundamental question concerning aTiy language is, In 

 what maimer does it express these fundamental relationships ? 



Latin is an inflected language ; and, if the ablative be treated as 

 a, composite case, comprising the instrument, the true ablative, and the 

 locative (the two latter being distinguished by the prepositions ah, ex 

 and in), the Latin case system can be made to correspond completely 

 with the primitive Tndo-Germanic. 



English, on the other hand, has become an unintlected language. 

 The man killed the beai-. The bear killed the man. Though there 

 is such a vast difference in meaning between these two sentences, yet 

 the words in both are identical. The difference in meaning is shown 

 by the order onl}'. 8uch a method of distinguishing the difference in 

 meaning would have seemed miserabh' inade([uate to one accustomed 

 to the use of inflected speech. When the words for " man " and 

 " bear " changed their forms to suit the different mental images of 

 killing and of being killed, the meaning was borne in upon the hearer's 

 mind with more feeling and in a more vivid and convincing manner. 



The difference between inflected Latin and unintlected English 

 ■will be best exhibited if we endeavour t<» represent, as f<jllows, in an 

 English sentence the force of inflections. 



The following sentence has been constructed to contain examples 

 of all the fundamental terms : " In the evening on the bank of the 

 river the hunter with his arrows killed a stag for his wife and 

 children." 



The force of Latin inflections might be thus represented in 

 English : Evening the time, the bank of the river the place, hunter 

 the agent, his arrows the instrument, his wife and children the 

 persons interested, stag the object, killed the action. 



It will be observed, in the first place, that in an inflected 

 language the order of the terms is free. In the sentence given 

 above we might jjlace the terms in any order without altering the 

 sense. We might have begun with the action, or with the instru- 

 ment, or with the object, and proceeded to arrange the others in 

 the succession that seemed to us the most striking. Order affects 

 the emphasis, but not the general meaning of the sentence. 



In the second place, the movement of the sentence is slower, 

 but the meaning comes more impressively. The Latin words rex and 

 reyeni are both translated by English " king," but they signify much 

 more than the woi'd " king " df)es. In addition to the bai'e idea of 

 king they also convey the idea of the king's attitude, his relationship 



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