Page:Letters to Squire Pedant in the East.pdf/12

Rh among other things, the author of these Letters, intends them as a stepping-stone from the current and everyday English to the Latin. Their language is mostly Latino-Graeco-English.

Any one, who has ever studied the Latin tongue, knows what trouble he had in retaining the meaning of Latin words, while trying to construe a sentence. This difficulty is measurably obviated by studying the following Letters well before commencing Latin. Here, the perplexity of construing a sentence is absent, and the definition only to be attended to — and when the student commences the Latin, the definitions of many words in that language will already be familiar, and hence less division of mind in deciphering a Latin sentence.

Should the student of these Letters never study the ancient languages, he will still be in the possession of such a knowledge of derivatives, as will enable him to understand all graduates of colleges, when putting forth the fruits of their lingual studies; and not be intimidated by any hard words that he may chance to meet in any tome of lore.

These letters should be studied in all schools in which there are pupils who can fluently read and readily define the current words of the English language. Three recitations a week might be made in them. By means of the attached Vocabulary, it will not require much time and labor