ou must make a selection not of authors
only, but a part of authors." It is curious to find him banishing
altogether a book that is, or certainly was, more extensively used in
our schools than any other classic, the Heroides of Ovid.

These, and such as these, then, are the books which our Roman boy would
have to read. Composition would not be forgotten. "Let him take," says
the author just quoted, "the fables of Aesop and tell them in simple
language, never rising above the ordinary level. Then let him pass on to
a style less plain; then, again, to bolder paraphrases, sometimes
shortening, sometimes amplifying the original, but always following his
sense." He also suggests the writing of themes and characters. One
example he gives is this, "Was Crates the philosopher right when, having
met an ignorant boy, he administered a beating to his teacher?" Many
subjects of these themes have been preserved. Hannibal was naturally
one often chosen. His passage of the Alps, and the question whether he
should have advanced on the city immediately after the battle of Cannae,
were frequently discussed. Cicero mentions a subject of the speculative
kind. "It is forbidden to a stranger to mount the wall. A. mounts the
wall, but only to help the citizens in repelling their enemies. Has A.
broken the law?"

To make these studies more interesting to the Roman boy, his
schoolmaster called in the aid of emulation. "I feel sure," says
Quintilian, "that the practice which I remember to have been employed by
my own teachers was any thing but useless. They were accustomed to
divide the boys into classes, and they set us to speak in the order of
our powers; every one taking his turn according to his proficiency. Our
performances were duly estimated; and prodigious were the struggles
which we had for victory. To be the head of one's class was considered
the most glorious thing conceivable. But the decision was not made once
for all. The next month brought the vanquished an opportunity of
renewing the contest. He who had been victorious in the first encounter
was not led by success to relax his efforts, and a feeling of vexation
impelled the vanquished to do away with the disgrace of defeat. This
practice, I am sure, supplied a keener stimulus to learning than did all
the exhortations of our teachers, the care of our tutors, and the wishes
of our parents." Nor did the schoolmaster trust to emulation alone. The
third choice of the famous Wincheste