According to the old method, the student is required first to learn the principles as they are laid down in the grammar, and then to apply them to selected words, or short sentences, and after a brief preliminary training of this sort, he is plunged headlong into the reading of some classical author, and expected to make fast progress, and take great pleasure in the study of the language. His vocabulary is to be learned by looking up the words in the lexicon until they become familiar. Different forms of this method are in use among teachers of the ancient classics, but all follow practically the same order first, study of grammar; second, application of grammar.