which insensibly recalls the tone of a classical author without either travestying his peculiarities or borrowing his phrases.

It is thought that the following exercises, on the plan of analogous passages, will be an aid towards forming a good style in Greek and Latin Prose, both by directing the student to the best models, and by guarding against the waste of labour experienced in working indiscriminately on ill-assorted or intractable materials.

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.

A GREAT many fresh passages have been added to the present edition. Some of these have been chosen, as being peculiarly adapted for rendering into Greek, on the ground of their resemblance in tone to the authors referred to in each case. Some are selections from papers set in various scholarship Examinations. Several new pieces of an easier grade have been introduced, in which the syntax is simple, and the sentences short, resembling in that respect the narrative style of Xenophon. As the Anabasis is, or ought to be, constantly read in Schools, these pieces will be found suited for boys who are not yet familiar with the more complicated periods of Demosthenes and Plato. They will recognise a likeness to something they have read in Greek, and may thus be encouraged to try their hands at imitation.

J. Y. S.

T. F. D.

FOR GREEK PROSE.

I. HISTORICAL.

I.

N the year of our Lord 1348, there happened at Florence,

whether owing to the influence of the planets, or that it was sent from God as a just punishment for our sins, had broken. out some years before in the Levant; and after passing from place to place, and making terrible havoc all the way, had now reached the west; where, spite of all the means that art and human foresight could suggest, as keeping the city clear from filth, and excluding all suspected persons: notwithstanding frequent consultations what else was to be done; nor omitting prayers to God in frequent processions: in the spring of the foregoing year it began to show itself in a sad and wonderful manner. To the cure of this malady neither medical knowledge nor the power of drugs was of any effect: whether because the disease was in its own nature mortal, or that the physicians (the number of whom, taking quacks and women-pretenders into the account, was very great) could form no just idea of the cause, nor consequently ground a true method of cure: whichever was the reason, few or none escaped.

Thucydides, ii. 47, sqq.

A

28

M

II.

EN of the strongest minds were lost in amazement, when they contemplated this scene of woe and desolation : the weak and the credulous became the dupes of their own fears and imaginations. Tales the most improbable, and predictions the most terrific, were circulated : numbers assembled at different cemeteries to behold the ghosts of the dead walk round the pits in which their bodies had been deposited: and crowds believed that they saw in the heavens a sword of flame, stretching from Westminster to the Tower. To add to their terrors came the fanatics, who felt themselves inspired to act the part of prophets. One of these, in a state of nudity, walked through the city, bearing on his head a pan of burning coals, and denouncing the judgments of God on its sinful inhabitants another assuming the character of Jonah, proclaimed aloud as he passed, 'Yet forty days and London shall be destroyed;' and a third might be met, sometimes by day, sometimes by night, advancing with a hurried step, and exclaiming with a deep sepulchral voice, 'Oh, the great and dreadful God!'

Thucydides, ii. 8. 21, 52-54.

III.

IN this state of suspense, superstitious terrors possessed men's minds readily. The Capitol was struck with lightning, an unwonted prodigy; and the Sibylline books were consulted in consequence. The books said, 'When the lightning shall strike the Capitol and the temple of Apollo, then must thou, O Roman, beware of the Gauls.' And another prophecy said that a time should come 'when

In stain of was