Rebilius Cruso: Robinson Crusoe, in Latin a book to lighten tedium to a learner

Rebilius Cruso: Robinson Crusoe, in Latin; a book to lighten tedium to a learner

This book was composed when the writer was a Professor of Latin, as part of a larger scheme. He has long been convinced that the mode of teaching Latin has become less and less effective in proportion as it has been made more and more scientific. The effort has been general to confine the pupil to the most elaborate styles and the most approved classics, and the exercise of memory has been superseded by minute accuracy in the study of very limited pieces. In the natural mode we have enormous endless repetition and much learning of the names of things. We begin with short sentences and a very limited number of verbs; and we learn with the least possible number of rules. If we could talk in Latin, that would be of all best; but as we cannot get exercise in talking it for practical needs, no teacher can hope to gain adequate readiness and facility: or if a few might, yet this could not be counted on in any general system. It has long been my conviction that we ought to seek to learn a language first, and study its characteristic literature afterward. Greek and Latin literature plunge us into numerous difficulties all at once, inasmuch as their politics, their history, their geography and their religion are all strange to the young student. To take difficulties one by one is obvious wisdom; and with a view to this I elaborately maintained in an article of the Museum (No. iv., Jan., 1862, Edinburgh) that we ought to teach by modern Latin. As parts of such a system I have executed and published a Latin Hiawatha, and Latin Verse Translations of many small pieces of English poetry. If I could write Latin conversations that would interest learners, I should gladly have undertaken[iv] this: but when I tried, I could not invent matter that seemed interesting enough. This indeed is my objection to Erasmuss Colloquies, which also are not easy enough in idiom to satisfy me. This Robinson Crusoe I thought I could make very interesting, and it includes a far greater variety of vocabulary than can be obtained from any of our received classics of the same length. I hope also the style is easy. I surely need not apologize for taking only the general idea from Defoe. His tale is far too diffuse, too full of moralizing and with too little variety. He was very ignorant of the Botany and Zoology of the tropics, and when his tale is faithfully abridged, its impossibilities become too glaring. The Arabic Robinson Crusoe published by the Church Missionary Society cuts down Defoes story unmercifully. I am indebted to my former colleague, the late Professor T. Hewitt Key, for the translation of Robinson into the name Rebilius. He also approved of Ignipulta for a gun, not as strictly grammatical, but as good enough to pass with Latins who were familiar with the word Catapulta. From him also I adopted Cannones, for cannons, and Pistola a pistol. The word Canna, a cane (or hollow tube) seems to be the root of Cannon, a tube or cannon, in Spanish, whence the American canon for a tunnel, or larger tube. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 50732
Author: Newman, Francis William
Release Date: Dec 20, 2015
Format: eBook
Language: Latin

Contributors

Contributor (Author): Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731