left after these points have been mastered a few of the easiest of Cicero’s letters may be read.[1]
In the eighth class the study of grammar is to be attacked; but no exceptions should be learned, and not more than two hours daily should be devoted to the elements. The rest of the day may be employed in reading Virgil’s Eclogues and Cicero’s Letters.[2] In the seventh class the pupil may advance to grammar of a more advanced kind, and to syntax. One hour daily is enough for this. Another may be devoted to reading Cicero’s De Amicitia and De Senectute. During the third hour the poets, such as Virgil, Catullus, Tibullus, and Horace, the latter only in selections, may be read. The fourth hour can be employed in exercises of style.[3]
In these three classes the memory is the chief thing to be exercised. Neither boys nor masters should work less than four or more than five hours daily in school.[4] The boy who now enters the sixth class is nine or ten years old and has mastered the rudiments of Latin. Cæsar’s Commentaries, Plautus, Terence, and Sallust may be added to the authors already in hand. One hour daily to be given to style and composition.[5]
In the next class Greek is commenced. After a few months’ preliminary grammar Aesop’s Fables and the Olynthiac Orations of Demosthenes may be attempted.[6]
The fourth class adds Homer to the list, and introduces the pupil to the study of rhetoric.[7]
In the third class dialectic may be commenced, and should be studied in Aristotle. Cicero’s Topics and Livy are also recommended.[8]
In the second class the Dialogues of Plato and of Cicero may be read. The pupil has now got beyond the stage when he should spend time in learning rules. What he needs is practice.[9]
