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This book contains most of Lucian's Dialogues, prepared for school use by certain omissions and changes. The syntax has been changed where it did not accord with the normal Attic (mostly in the use of ἄν and a few particles), and rare or poetical words have sometimes been simplified. The style, however, is much what it was. It would not be possible to make the style agree with the best Attic without a good deal of new writing; and, although the style of Lucian is more cumbrous than Plato's, yet this very fault gives scope for paraphrase as a simpler style would not do. We shall see later how this comes into the question. It is a great comfort that the readers will forget most of the words and forms used, unless the master takes pains to fix them in the memory; in such cases he may fix the simpler paraphrase, leaving the verbiage to take care of itself. If the pupils, after reading the book, can express the meaning of any passage in simpler words, they will understand the meaning, which is the essential thing; and if at the same time they are able to recognize and understand certain long or ugly phrases, that will do them no harm. They will not be tempted to use these phrases rather than the simpler and easier phrases.

Moreover, such disadvantages as there are in Lucian's style are many times outweighed by the lively interest that he inspires. I have found the Dialogues, as far as substance goes, an almost perfect book for a first author. Many of them are short enough for one lesson; all are full of wit, and such wit as the boy's mind can enjoy. They also teach, or cause to be learnt, a good deal of mythology; and, since the humorous aspect of Olympus is natural to the Greek from Homer onwards, the reader will not get a false or unhistorical impression. He is not yet ready to understand the serious side of Greek religion, which will be impressed on him when he comes to read Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Plato. Moreover, the boy who leaves school after one year of Greek will carry with him from Lucian a pleasant memory such as is not given by Greek grammars and exercise-books. If he gives a second year to the study of Greek, he will have read some Homer or Herodotus, and Plato's Apology or some other prose work of value.

The notes are in Greek. They are meant to be used in a way shortly to be described; but any master who prefers to put them at once into the hands of his class will still find them useful. The boy is in that case given a choice of two things: either he may read them, in which case some of his difficulties are solved, but he has to read more Greek in order to solve them; or he may look up the words and names in his dictionary, in which case he has the practice of looking them up. In neither case will he get his information without doing something for it. Many teachers believe that looking up words in a dictionary is good for the learner; these also will be able to use this book. It may not be out of place, however, to ask those who believe this whether they have any reason for their belief. I do not know that any one has made any systematic inquiry into the use of the dictionary, to find out how long it takes beginners to look up words and what their minds are doing while they are looking them up. I cannot pretend to have done this systematically; but the few inquiries we have made in this school, go to show that to look up words takes a very long time for the beginner, even when he has not a dictionary with many meanings to the word, but a special vocabulary with only one or two meanings. It certainly distracts his attention, and he has to resume the thread of his thought before he can fit in his new word, which also takes time. My own state of mind in looking up new words is quite clear to me: it is a blank, out of which emerges now a word expressive of exasperation, now the address of a friend forgotten and puzzled over, or other flotsam of the subconsciousness. If it were so that all this time the new word should be impressing itself on the memory, well and good; but it does not seem to be so, and if not, here is another of the time-wasting devices which have become sacred in schools.

The following I have found to be the best way of using this book.

The pupils are in their first year of Greek; they have worked through all the common accidence and syntax, and the various exercises in reading or composition that belong to the beginner's stage. They are provided with a reference grammar, containing accidence, outline of syntax, and a table of the commonest irregular verbs. Our problem now is to fix the grammar by use, and to enlarge the vocabulary.

Preparation. The text alone is put into the boys' hands, the booklet of notes being kept for revision. The master reads the text of a dialogue aloud in Greek. Each boy is expected to ask, in Greek, for an explanation of anything he does not understand. This the master gives by paraphrasing the new word in simple Greek words already known; and all the class (not the one only) write the explanation in their notebooks, with accents, carefully. The master must assure himself that this is done, by going round and looking as he dictates, or by calling up the boys in turn to his desk. When this care is taken, accuracy soon becomes a habit. Parts of new verbs, or other forms, may be treated in the same way. When the whole piece has been done, if time be left, the boys are asked to read it over in Greek, two (or more) taking parts as the characters.

Home Work. The passage thus read is translated into English, at first in writing, later in writing or not, as proves to be more convenient. Any new forms are looked up in the grammar, and verb-tenses learnt.

The next lesson will begin with the reading out of one or more of these versions, which the master will criticize; they will then be collected, and he can examine them all later. He will thus be able to see where his explanations were not clear or sufficient, and this will guide him the next time. There is no need to give back the papers, although criticism may be made, of praise or blame, if time allows, with grammar drill where the need is shown.

Preparation for next day follows; and this will take up most of the lesson. At this stage the learner is not fit to do his preparation unaided.

Composition will be learnt by the continual practice of question and answer, and by the paraphrases written in the notebooks. The master can practise almost any construction that he wishes to practise, by changing the form of his note. More formal exercises should be given occasionally, in the following forms: (1) a free English translation of some passages of the text may be given to be put into Greek, not necessarily word for word; (2) shorter sentences, also taken or adapted from the text, to be translated exactly; (3) passages of English of a similar type may be set for translation; (4) the substance of any passage of the text may be set to be written in the boys' own words; (5) similar themes may be set to be written up in the boys' own words.

Of these (1) is very useful, and may form a part of the home-work instead of the English version, on certain days. No. (2) is also good, so long as the sentences bear on the text or on the grammar arising out of it, but anything arbitrary is sure to cause weariness. No. (3) is more advanced; Nos. (4) and (5) are too difficult for the first year of Greek, but are good later.

It is found that by working on this plan the translation of the boys is much better than if each lesson were construed in class; and the work is not mechanical, but individual.

Very little revision is needed; once reading through at the end of term, in Greek, is enough, the master now asking the questions, and the boys answering him in the same language. At this stage the printed notes are to be given to the class, for checking their own. Meanwhile they may have been useful to the master in suggesting each day how he may treat the next lesson.

A little ingenuity and experience will suggest many other ways of driving the work home. For instance, if the boys have a dictionary of biography and mythology, one evening's work may be to write a short account in Greek of some of the personages mentioned in the part prepared: if these are many, they may be divided amongst the boys. Or again, the boys may prepare a dialogue for acting, and recite it in their own words, if they prefer.

I wish to repeat that these hints are not evolved out of the imagination, but are the result of all sorts of different experiments, carried on during eight years. I shall be grateful if any one who uses the book will give me some hints derived from his own experience.