Thk Ti;achin(; <jf IjAtin. 325 



Tliese are two of those primitive verbless sentences, to wliidi 

 reference lias been matle ; bnt wliy is the preiHcate /''i^i.'- in tlie fiist, 

 ami /i'fi<'f))i in the second! Because (jni jiotnit in the first gives the 

 idea of pei'sonal agency and power ; while Xiobe, t<a.cna facta suggests 

 the idea of a victim, motionless and insensible. 



A word will now be said on the practical application of the fore- 

 going theory of the teaching of Latin grammai'. Of late years there 

 has been an immense improvement in the method of teaching Latin 

 accidence. The doctrine of stem and inflection has firmly established 

 itself. The anatA)my oi the language is now well taught. The next 

 step foi'ward will be to improve the teaching of the i)hysiology — that is, 

 the life and use of the inflections. 



To do this fully, two cases should be added to the present list, 

 namely, the instrumental and the locative. 



]l. The Complex Sentence. 



We now pass to the complex sentence. Man, Shakespeare t&lls 

 us, is a ci'eature of " large discourse." Logicians have defined him as 

 the reasoning animal. His interest is not limited simply to an event 

 in itself. He looks before it to the circumstances from which it sprang, 

 and he looks after it to the consequences that flow from it. The 

 simple sentence does not sutlice him, therefore, as a vehicle of thought. 

 He constructs complex sentences in which expression is given to the 

 logical connection subsisting between different actions. An easy 

 example will show what is meant. Take the four following simple 

 sentences : The soldier saw his enemy. He drew his sword. He 

 struck him a violent blow. The man fell dead. They can be com- 

 bined into one complex sentence as follows : When the soldier saw his 

 enemy, drawing his sword, he struck him a violent blow, so that the 

 man fell dead. Here we have a complex sentence containing two 

 adverbial clauses and a participial phrase, thus connecting no less than 

 four actions. 



The name '' logical term," it will be remembered, was proposed on 

 the analogy of the algebraic term, and students of mathematics know 

 how useful the bracket is in algebraic operations. By its use several 

 algebraic terms can be combined into one term, the mental convenience 

 thus effected being comparable to the material convenience there is in 

 having five or six small parcels tied up into one large parcel, or in 

 gathering all the tools that belong to a set and keeping them packed 

 in a box. What the bracket does in algebra, that the clause and the 

 participial phrase effect in speech. They conduce to expeditious think- 

 ing. They collect the several terms which they contain into a kind of 

 unity, so that the mind, without dwelling on the details, is able to 

 apprehend the meaning as a compact whole in its relation to the rest 

 of the sentence, and is thus able to follow the logical sequence of 

 thought in the sentence. 



The two characteristic terms of the complex sentence — the parti- 

 cipial phrase and the clause — now demand our attention. 



