Jenney’s First, Second, Third and Fourth Year Latin (review)

BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES REND US 179 confuse the intended reader of this series), or with details of his account of voDe; or £\>oa t \lovfa. An expert might feel that serious metaphysical puzzles have been oversimplified in Barnes' discussion of substance. But the same expert will be pleased to be able to refer his students to Barnes' exceptionally lucid and elegant accounts of final causes, of how the syllogism functions in an ideal Aristotelian science, of the unsolved problems of empiricism and of other important issues, and to his concise clarification of several hoary misconceptions which still beset the study of Aristotle. Both Plato and Aristotle are brief and include bibliographical guidance, unobtrusive notes and indices. They are well written and useful books, worthy contributions to a distinguished series. UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO BRAD INWOOD As a teacher of Latin reared in the "traditional" method and, after a fifteen year hiatus, plunged into the "reading approach", I am alternately overwhelmed, awestruck and envious of the goals set by the authors of this series. It consists of four attractive well-bound volumes. Workbooks accompany the first two, and for every volume there is a Teacher's Resource Guide, complete with answers to all exercises in the text and workbook. The preface to the first Teacher's Resource Guide contains the firm assurance that Latin is admirably suited to fill the gap left by "recent trends against rote learning" in modern language instruction. Because the Latin we teach is "a work of art", "s imple and predictable in syntax", devised by the ruling classes of the later Republic, the authors see it as "an ideal language for the students who want to understand the nature and structure of language in general". No classicist would disagree with that attitude or with the suggestion that the classics can best be promoted "not by erudite dissertations on their cultural value, but by definite illustrations of their usefulness in the very field of those who attack the classicsll • Having assured us of the value of our field and having offered suggestions as to our approach, the authors proceed with a series of lessons staggering in their suggested pace but impressive in stated objectives, organization and layout. By the end of the first two weeks, for example, a grade nine class is expected to have mastered the endings of first and second declension, the present tense of first conjugation verbs and of II sum", the agreement of verbs, uses of the Nominative, the Accusative as direct object, Ablative of Place Where and Genitive of Possession. Students should also have memorized fifty-nine vocabulary words and be familiar with the use of the enclitic -ne. In addition to this wealth of information on forms and 180 BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS syntax, almost every page contains illustrations, half of them in colour, dealing with details of design and decoration of Roman dwellings. The temptation to digress for a period or two would be irresistible. The lessons are presented in an orderly, systematic fashion, with forms given in charts whenever possible, simple syntactical explanations, using Latin sentences with translations, and vocabularies listed in alphabetical order according to parts of speech. The practice exercises involve manipulation of English into Latin and Latin into English and the content of the reading passages is a welcome change from the antics of fictitious Roman children in contrived situations. Lesson 4 introduces the Trojan War, and the adventures of Aeneas occupy the next ten lessons. From there, students progress to stories of Roman heroes like Cincinnatus and Scipio Africanus, examples of myths, such as the tale of Atalanta, or accounts of important historical events and individuals. There are also supplementary reading passages which present the adventures of Perseus and Odysseus, providing almost enough excellent reading material to support a strictly II reading ll approach, if anyone should be so inclined. The teacher who feels that derivatives are an essential aspect of a Latin course can find exercises in the Workbook; some of the short IIWord StudyII paragraphs, especially those dealing with prepositions as prefixes, are also helpful. Anyone concerned about the Roman Civilization content will be delighted to learn that the illustrations are explained in detail...