JULIUS CESAR. LATINE REDDIDIT HENRICUS DENISON, COLL. OM. AN. APUD OXON. OLIM SOCIUS. OXFORD AND LONDON: JOHN HENRY AND JAMES PARKER: ETON: E. P. WILLIAMS. MDCCCLVI. PREFACE. THE translator has been induced by the following considerations to publish what was begun as matter of amusement, and private occupation. The employment of translation, oral and written, as the best and readiest mode of acquiring a dead language, and of imbuing the mind with its idiom and spirit, does not appear to be sufficiently recognised in the practice of the schools of this country. The translator has long been persuaded that the very remarkable disproportion between the time and labour bestowed upon the teaching of the Greek and Latin languages, and the knowledge of either acquired by the average of English youth, is mainly owing to the neglect of translation, and to the preference shewn for what is styled, by courtesy, "original composition." Under this system, instead of acquiring new ideas, the young student learns to write without them; instead of enriching his language, he does everything to impoverish it; instead of learning nice grammatical distinctions, 3925 35 53 |