Henry John Roby
Published: 2015-06-17
Total Pages: 671
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Excerpt from A Grammar of the Latin Language, Vol. 2 of 2: From Plautus to Suetonius In writing this Book I have had three aims specially in view, which taken together have led to my treating the matter somewhat differently from most other recent writers on the subject. 1. I have endeavoured to set forth the usages both of the Latin of Plautus and of the post-Augustan writers, as well as the usage of Cicero and of the Augustan age. Few things can be more important in the treatment of language than an historical method: what appears hopelessly intricate and irrational, when judged from a scientific point of view which is not that of the historical development, becomes intelligible and almost simple, when we look along the line of growth. No doubt there is much about Latin constructions, as well as about Latin forms, which will always be dark, because we come upon the language not in its youth, but in its maturity, when it was no longer a mere rustic dialect, but a literary language; and, even so, we have at first but the plays of Plautus, a few fragments of other writers, and a few brief inscriptions. Nor have the materials, which exist, been as yet sufficiently studied from this point of view. There is no book on syntax which can bear comparison with Neue's work on inflexions. Yet something of the kind is necessary before a shorter treatise, such as I have attempted, can speak with real precision. Every year however increases the number of contributions to the work. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.