LATIN-OR ENGLISH.

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 February 1922, Page 2

LATIN-OR ENGLISH.

(To the Editor.) Sir.—Notwithstanding the ips o dixit of Mr. J. Tennent, that “Latin, is a dead language,” 1 am loatii to believe that the Latin language has been numbered among the fallen m the great war, or that it is even in articulo mortis. Therefore, nolens volens.” ’Mr. Tennent must acknowledge that his ex parte statement lays on him the onus probandi. Daily, anti meridiem and post meridiem, that gentleman, no doubt,, receives business letters with enclosures representing so much per annum, and he probably reckons on realizing a certain per centum, per capita, from his customers. Seeing that he is a member of the Greymouth School Committee, Mr. Tennent doubtless has tender recollections of his own alma mater and its custos rotulorum. Frequently each month he places his imprimatur upon various transactions. Ono might labor on ad infinitum in an effort to show him how common are latinisms to the daily life of even this commercial ago. But one forbears undertaking the magnum opus and would ftiin adopt instead the inultum in parvo method. Latin tplls others, memento mori, but appears to be immune itself. In his argumentiun ad hominem Mr. Tennent creates a crux criticorum which finds a speedy solution in the aphorism, Humanum cst errare. In conclusion, Sir, T am quite sure if the Greymouth School Committee I’eferred to that great Latin scholar Professor Rankine Brown, AVellington, he would give a perfect rendering in Latin of “We seek the light of knowledge. ’ And for a school motto is not Latin desirable,—l am etc., NO SCHOLAR.