sentence is understood, the plays may be committed to memory and acted in this way there are stored up in the brain many half-understood constructions which require a fuller explanation, and this, when it is given, will be welcomed by the learner, since he has already felt the need of it. But should the master prefer, he may practise the main syntax constructions by means of oral work before attempting the reading of the plays. In some ways, this is the best course to pursue, for then the boys acquire a familiarity with the necessary constructions before they come to their actual reading, which is consequently much more rapid than it would otherwise have been. The boys are then delighted at the ease with which they can read and so become all the keener. The master must be his own judge as to which course to pursue, but he will not be using this book in the way in which it is intended to be used if he makes his boys plough slowly through the plays instead of running through them (over and over again, if he sees fit) with vivacity and alacrity. If the class cannot read the plays in this manner, then let them postpone them for a few weeks and devote the interval to practice on syntax constructions. To do this, the master must look through the first two or three plays which he intends to read, and "drill" his class in the necessary constructions. For example in the "Laqueo suo captus" the following constructions are employed:—"quin" with the subjunctive, the gerundive, verbs of fearing, "fieri potest ut" and "efficere ut, accusative and infinitive, indirect question, prae se ferre," purpose, petition, "facere quin," preventing, etc. The majority of these constructions, then, should be previously understood by the class, nor need the requisite "drill" be dull work. Let the master walk about the room and go through and describe certain actions, illustrating the constructions; then let him make the class tell him what he is doing (in the present tense) and afterwards repeat it in a past tense. It is a good plan to make different boys
