Direct Method Under the Stuarts

Extract

It is good for the schoolmaster who considers himself up-to-date to research occasionally among old school-books, and to discover how many of his ‘modern’ ideas are not modern at all; and a few evenings spent in the library of an old country house may be an enlightening and humbling experience. The pioneer will find that he is just an antiquary, the innovator that he is a reactionary. But if he can stomach the blow to his pride, he may find himself amused as well as enlightened, though the source of amusement will vary with the type of book. An eighteenth-century Greek Grammar will rely for its entertainment on the drawings and manuscript glosses of the pupil; but pleasure less crude is afforded by such a book as Familiarium Colloquiorum Libellus Graece et Latine, which was published in London in the year 1667, autore Johanne Posselio.