A Short Grammar Of Classical Greek - nouveau livre

A SHORT GRAMMAR OF CLASSICAL GREEK WITH TABLES FOR REPETITION BY ADOLF KAEGU, Ph.. D. PROFESSOR AT ZURICH UNIVERSITY FOB HIQ-H SCHOOLS, ACADEMIES, AND COLLEGES BY JAMES A. KLEIST, S. J. B. HERDER BOOK CO. 17 SOUTH BBOADWAY, ST. Louis, Mo., AND 33 QUEEN SQUARE, LONDON, W. C. 1947 PREFACE. This Short Grammar of Classical Greek is an adaptation of the Kurzgefastte Griechische Sckulgramtnatik of Dr. Adolf Kaegi, Professor in Zurich University, Switzerland. It will be accompanied by an English edition of the Exercise Books of the same author. The reasons that seem to justify an attempt at making Prof. Kaegi s books accessible to English-speaking students of Greek are of a threefold nature 1 The peculiar character of Kaegis Grammar and Exercise Books, 2 the fact that both are based upon the same method of strict criticism, and 3 their favor able reception throughout Europe. 1. Jt wan in the year 1884 that Prof. Kaegi published his Griech. Schulgram mftfik. Some forty Greek grammars were then in use at the Gymnasia of German speaking countries, and the author could scarcely venture to add a new one, unless he was convinced that the characteristic features of his own book would justify its appearance and win for it a prominent place among the books that served a similar purpose. What then are the merits of Kaegis School Grammar Of late years, but especially since the issue of the Lehrpl ne fiir die hoheren tichulen PreussenSf it was deemed necessary by men of authority on school matters to reduce the amount of grammar that had to be mastered during the college course by the students of Greek. Accordingly, there soon appeared in Germany a num ber of grammars which, especially in theiretymological parts, discarded much of what was formerly required. The authors of these new text-books were guided by the correct principle that it is useless and a loss of time to burden the mind of the young student with material he never or seldom meets with in the authors read at college. Thus a considerable advance was made in the line of short school grammars. In many cases, however, the intended reduction was not methodical. It was not always based on an accurate knowledge of what frequently occurred in school authors and thus became necessary, or what but rarely occurred and was in conse quence dispensable, in a school grammar. On the contrary, a thorough examina tion convinced Prof. Kaegi that much had been, dropped in a merely eclectic manner, because it seemed supeirfluous to the authors of these books. Against such eclecticism Prof, Kaegi made a resolute stand. In order to find a reliable basis for his own School Grammar, in which he in tended to omit all the useless ballast of rare forms, exceptions, finesses, etc., the author went over the whole range of classical literature as far as it came within the reading-scope of German Gymnasia, with the avowed purpose of preparing upon the above principle a school grammar and sifting the matter to be inco Dorated into it. itt iv PREFACE. This long protracted labor put a vast amount of grammatical matter at the disposal of the author, and as he correctly thought that the teaching of grammar must be subservient to, and determined by, the reading-matter, lie either omitted all the peculiarities and irregularities which are seldom met with in classical authors, or marked them by small print, or put them in special notes or chapters forreference. Thus it is that Kaegis Schulgrammatik shared on the one hand from its very first appearance the advantage of brevity with other grammars, and on the other far surpassed them, because his system of reducing the grammar was not at all eclectic, but strictly methodical. Such is a brief sketch of the history of the Schulgrammatik...