Publisher's Synopsis
From the PREFACE.
THE following exercises are intended, as the title-page indicates, to prepare the beginner in Greek for the study of Xenophon's Anabasis. While therefore the aim has been to furnish a sufficient amount of grammatical knowledge, so that the learner may enter successfully, and without too sudden a transition, upon the study of a Greek author, the fact has not been lost sight of that too many difficulties are often placed in the path of the learner at the very outset. I am encouraged to hope that the end has been attained; and, at the same time, that the error of condensing too much into too limited a period of study has been avoided. These exercises were written for a class in the preparatory department of this University, and have been found, for this class at least, to involve grammatical information sufficient for an introductory work; nor has the transition from one exercise to another, or from these exercises to the Anabasis, seemed to be too abrupt.
It will be perceived that the object of this work is not to familiarize the learner with the more difficult rules of syntax, but with the ordinary inflection of words, such as occur in Attic prose. It is no small attainment when one has learned to put together correctly and easily the article, the adjective, and the substantive; and to perceive instantly the force, either by the eye or by the ear, of the different cases and numbers, with or without the article; and, in the verb, of the different modes, tenses, voices, numbers, and persons. A judicious use of these exercises will do much towards the attainment of this end. They are purposely made as simple as possible, that a greater number of forms maybe involved, and that repetition - a grand secret in the acquisition of any language - may be carried to as great an extent as practicable. Should any teacher find them too long, they can be abridged by omitting a few of the sentences in each exercise. It is hoped, however, that this will not be found necessary. It is but just to say, that in the plan of the work and in the preparation of the separate exercises, many useful hints have been obtained from Harkness's Introductory Latin Book, - a work combining simplicity and perspicuity with exact scholarship and practical utility in a very rare degree. Much knowledge, which the learner is supposed to have acquired in the study of that work, is presupposed in this....
