UNIT II
MAKING LATIN

        As soon as the young grammar school student had memorized the many rules of basic Latin grammar and applied them to some rather simple sentences, the school master demanded the acquisition of a more extensive vocabulary and additional  drill in elementary Latin composition. Thereafter, a student's progress beyond the elementary level rested squarely upon his ability to acquire a reasonably comprehensive, working Latin vocabulary. Fortunately for young seventeenth- and eighteenth-century students there were several vocabulary handbooks to make this task easier. Two of the more popular vocabulary books were Comenius' Orbis Sensualium Pictus, translated by Charles Hoole in 1659, and Comenius' Janua Linguarum Reserata, published in 1673. Each book included not only the vocabulary for the many tangible objects which a student would encounter in his daily living, such as the beasts inhabiting the nearby woods and pastures, games, including an early version of tennis, and parts of the body (see Selection A), but also the abstract terminology for good moral conduct, such as prudence, friendship and temperance (see Selection B).

        As soon as the student acquired a working Latin vocabulary, he was required to translate, into grammatically correct Latin, English sentences for which he was given only the nominative case of the Latin noun or adjective, not its correct case, and only the first principal part of the Latin verb, not the full or correctly conjugated part. Throughout the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, there also were published several Latin language exercise books, similar to the Teacher's Handbook of today, which were available to assist the student in his task of "making Latin." Most of these early exercise books were printed in England. Shortly after they were published there, they inevitably turned up on American soil. In time, some of these exercise books were actually printed in America, as, for example, John Clarke's An Introduction to the Making of Latin, an interesting book consisting of 28 chapters of grammatical rules, exemplified in sentences of three different levels of difficulty. In his preface, Clarke (1687-1734) describes the purpose of each level:

The Exercises are of three sorts. The first, that immediately follow the
Rule Short, wherein nothing further is designed than only to exemplify
the Rule. The second Sort are longer; wherein not only the Rule, to which
they are subjoined, is exemplified, but all the foregoing Rules are brought
into Play again, as much as possible, the better to fix them in the Memory.
Whereas, without this Contrivance, Boys would forget one Rule, while
they were learning another. The third Sort, which begin with a Mark,
exemplify all the foregoing and subsequent Rules promiscuously. Clarke's preface is followed by 138 pages of parallel columns of English sentences and their Latin equivalents, the latter to be parsed correctly, declined correctly, or the prepositions added.

        Selection C contains examples from the first Worcester (Massachusetts) edition, printed in 1786, of the 24th edition of John Clarke's An Introduction to the Making of Latin. The fourth example of Section C is a passage taken from "An Abridgement of Roman History," which, with its companion section, "A History of Greece," was included in Clarke's book and which undoubtedly gave the young student his most formidable challenge in "making Latin" at that point in his study of the Latin language. Selections such as these were also the first introductions to the many of the more famous historical figures and events of ancient Greece and Rome to which the young student was exposed in the early American Latin grammar school.
 

Readings

A. Comenius' Orbis Sensualium Pictus (Chapter 39 Caput & Manus)

In Capite sunt Capillus 1, (qui pectitur Pectine 2), Aures 3, binae, & Tempora, 4. Facies 5. In facie sunt Frons, 6. Oculus 7. uterque, Nasus 8. (duabus Naribus) os 9. Genae (Malae) 10. & Mentum. 13. Os septum est Mystace, 11. & Labiis; 12. Lingua cum Palato, Dentibus 16 in Maxilla. Mentum virile tegitur Barba, 14. Oculus vero, (in quo Albugo & Pupilla) palpebris et supercilio. 15. Manus contractus, Pugnus 17. est; aperta, Palma, 18. in medio, Vola, 19. extremitas, Pollex, 20. cum quatuor Digitis, Indice, 21. Medio, 22. Annulari 23 & Auriculari, 24. In quolibet sunt articuli tres a.b.c. & totidem Condyli d.e.f. cum Ungue, 25.

B. From Comenius' Janua Linguarum Reserta (Chapter 84):  "De Temperantia"

        Depravatio nostra permulta concupiscit: sed temperans cupiditates moderatur.
Sobrietas est continentia a superflua alimonia. Veteres temperabant ac diluebant
merum aqua, & victitabant simplicissime: nunc quot gulae illecebrae, tot pernicies.

        Ebrius enim noxiam poenam habet crapulam, donec eam edormierit: ebriosus ac
bibulus tremorem ac podagram sortitur: ad haec, sobrii & abstemii mente valent,
temulenti amentia.

C. From John Clarke's An Introduction to the Making of Latin:

        1. Example of sentence of the "first sort." - Chap. II: The Adjective must agree with
            the Substantive in Case, Gender, and Number

        The good Boy learns, the naughty Boy plays, the swift Horse conquers, the
        slow Horses are overcome.

        Bonus puer disco (3), malus puer ludo (3), celer equus vinco (3), tardus
        equus vinco (3).
     

        2. Example of sentences of the "second sort" - Chap. VI: Two or more Substantives
            Singular, will have a Verb or Adjective Plural; and if they be of different Persons
            or Genders, the Verb or Adjective will be of the most worthy. (Of Persons, the first
            is more worthy than the second, and the second than the third; and of Genders, the
           Masculine is most worthy; but if the Substantives, either all or some, signify Things
            without Life, the Adjective is Neuter commonly.)

                Cicero and Cato were wise and learned, they were Men whom Rome and all the
                world admired.

                Cicero & Cato sum sapiens & doctus, sum homo qui Roma & totus terrarum orbis
                admiror (1).

                I and my Brother read Terence; thou and thy Brother are elder than we and
                read Cordery.

                Ego & meus frater lego (3) Terentius. tu & tuus frater sum natu major quam
                ego sum, & lego (3) Corderius.
 

        3. Examples of Sentences of the "third sort." - Chap. XXI Comparatives govern an
            Ablative of the Thing compared, and the Measure of Excess.

                The Roman Standards and Arms, not seen before, and the Courage of the Soldiers,
                coming so briskly under Walls, affrighted the Greeks something more.Wherefore
                they fled immediately into the Citadel, and the Enemy carried the Town.

                Plus aliquantus Graecus Romanus signum armaque non ante visus, animusque miles
                tam prompte succedens murus terreo (2). Itaque fuga extemplo in arx fio, urbsque
                hostis potior (4).
 

        4. Example from "An Abridgement of the History of Rome".

                The seventh and Last King, that reigned at Rome, was Tarquin, surnamed the proud,
                whom most of the old Roma authors affirm to be the son of Priscus, but Dionysius
                will have him to be his Grandson. He managed the Kingdom he had procured by his
                Wickedness, no better than he got it, being cruel to the Senaotrs and his other Subjects.
                He conquered the Volsci, the Sabines and the Gabii; and having built the Capitol with
                the spoils of the Cities he had taken, he was at last turned out of the City and his
                Kingdom too, for a rape committed by his son upon Lucretia.

              Septimius ac postremus Roma regno Tarquinius, cognomentum Superbus, qui
                Priscus filius plerique vetus Romanus auctor trado; sed Dionysius nepos sum
                contendo. Hic regnum scelus partus non melius quam quaero administro, crudelis
                in senator partiter et civis. Volscus, Sabinus, Gabiique vinco; capio urbs extruo,
                ob filius stuprum qui Lucretia infero, ex urbs et regnum ejectus sum.
 

        5. Example from "An Abridgement of the History of Greece".

                Alexander, the Son of Philip of Macedonia, who from his mighty Achievements
                was surnamed the Great, was born in year of Christ 356. At the Age of 15 he was
                put under the Tuition of Aristotle, the famous Philospher; and in his 20th Year
                began his Reign. He was, as his Father before him had been, chosen General
                against the Persians, by the common Suffrages of the Greeks, excepting the
                Lacedaemonians. But as the Greeks were a people of a fickle Temper, they
                revolted from him, whilst he was making War in Thrace. But coming upon them
                sooner than they expected, he struck such a terrour upon them, that the Athenians,
                and others, immediately submitted.

                Alexander, Philippus Macedon filius, qui ob res gestus excellentia Magnus
                cognomen assequor, nascor annus ante Christus 356. Annus aetas 15 in disciplina
                trado Aristotles celeberrimus Philosophus: annus porro vicesimus regno coepi. Ad
                exemplum pater imperator contra Persa communis Graecus suffragium, praeter
                Lacedaemonius eligo. Sed ut sum Graecus ingenium mobiles, dum in Thracia
                bellum gero, ab is deficio. Sed cum opinio celerius is supervenio, tantus terror is
                inijicio, ut Atheniensis aliusque statim se dedo.

References

        Selections such as '"C, 4 and 5" were often the first introductions to the figures and events of Greek and Roman history which many of the young students in the colonial Latin grammar schools received. Throughout the remainder of their education they repeatedly came into contact with several of the same historical figures and events, for these students lived at a time when history was considered  the sourcebook of life or the "lamp of experience."1 For example, Dr. Joseph Warren, a leading Boston patriot, in his March 5th, 1772 Boston Massacre commemorative address, makes an explicit reference to the same Lucretia, described in "C, 4," and with whom anyone in his audience, who had only a few years of grammar school education, would have been familiar:

                    The fatal fifth of March, 1770, can never be forgotten. The horrors of
                    that dreadful night are but too deeply impressed on our hearts. Language
                    is too feeble to paint the emotions of our souls, when our streets were
                    stained with the blood of our brethern; when our ears were wounded by
                    the groans of the dying, and our eyes were tormented with the sight of the
                    mangled bodies of the dead. When our alarmed imagination presented to
                    our view our houses wrapt in flames, our children subjected to the
                    barbarous caprice of the raging soldiery; our beauteous virgins exposed
                    to all the insolence of unbridled passion; our virtuous wives, endeared
                    to us by every tender tie, falling a sacrifice to worse than brutal violence,
                    and perhaps, like the famed Lucretia, distracted with anguish and despair,
                    ending their wretched lives by their own fair hands.2

        An even more interesting reference to some of the rather famous figures of ancient history is made by John Adams in his Diary on March 15th, 1756, at a time when he was teaching at the Latin grammar school in Worcester, Massachusetts, but when he  already was contemplating leaving that profession to study law. He compared some of the pupils in his classroom to the Caesars and Alexanders of ancient times, historical personages about whom he, no doubt, had spoken on several occasions to his young charges:

I sometimes, in my sprightly moments, consider my self, in my great Chair
at School, as some Dictator at the head of a commonwealth. In this little
State I can discover all the great Genius's, all the suprizing actions and
revolutions of the great World in miniature. I have severall renowned
Generalls but 3 feet high, and several deep projecting Politicians in
peticoats. I have others catching and dissecting Flies, accumulating
remarkable pebbles, cockle shells &c., with as ardent Curiosity as any
Virtuoso in the royal society. Some rattle and Thunder out A, B, C, with
as much Fire and impetuosity, as Alexander fought, and very often sit
down and cry as heartily, upon being outspelt, as Cesar did, when at
Alexander's sepulchre he recollected that the Macedonian Hero had
conquered the World before his Age.3         The exercise of "making Latin" served a twofold purpose in eighteenth-century America. On the one hand, it sharpened a student's linguistic skills through the daily practice of translation and Latin composition; on the other hand, it also gradually introduced the student to the premiere figures and the most significant events of ancient history. All of these references constituted the common vocabulary of newspapers, political essays, orations, eulogies, and belles-lettres of the eightheenth- and nineteenth centuries.4

  Endnotes
1 Meyer Reinhold, The Classick Pages, (The Pennsylvania State University,
    University Park, Pennsylvania: American Philological Association; 1975), pp. 81-98.

2 Dr . Joseph Warren, Boston Massacre Oration, March 5, 1772.

3 L. H. Butterfield, ed., Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, 1, 1755-1770
    (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1961)
    p. 13.

4 Henry Steele Commager, "The American Enlightenment and the Ancient World:
    A Study in Paradox," Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society 83
    (1971), pp. 3-15, makes two claims for the pervasive existence of the Classical
    tradition in eighteenth-century America: 1) "The Enlightenment as a whole looked
    to the Ancient World, studied its history, read its literature, imitated its art and
    architecture, cultivated its philosophy, and, in theory at least, embraced its political
    principles. This was the education of all who had any education: the churchmen,
    the artists, the lawyers, and the statesmen. There was nothing remarkable about
    American fascination with the ancient world; it would have required explanation
    had the generation of the founding fathers turned their attention elsewhere," and
    2) "the second feature of the classical inheritance - familiarity with historical
    events and personages from the Greek and Roman world . . . was history for
    ready reference, always with the assurance that your auditors or readers would
    recognize all the references, catch all the allusions, nod agreement with every
    argument, rejoice in every apt quotation." (pp. 8-9).