NEW METHOD OF LEARNING TO READ, WRITE, AND SPEAK THE FRENCH LANGUAGE: WITH THE LESSONS DIVIDED INTO SECTIONS OF A PROPER LENGTH FOR DAILY BY V. VALUE. TO WHICH ARE ADDED VALUE'S SYSTEM OF FRENCH PRONUNCIATION, HIS GRAMMATICAL SYNOPSIS, A NEW INDEX, AND SHORT MODELS OF COMMERCIAL CORRESPONDENCE. NEW-YORK: D. APPLETON & COMPANY, 346 & 348 BROADWAY. M.DOCO.LVII. EdueT 1518,57.645 HARVARD COLLEGE DEC 14 1931 LIBRARY Harald Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by D. APPLETON & COMPANY, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Suthern District of New York. NOTICE. A KEY to the Exercises of this Grammar is pub lished in a separate volume. PREFACE. I undertaking to edit an improved edition of OLLENDORFF'S FRENOR GRAMMAR, I may be allowed to state my per.onal familiarity and experience with the system which I have practically taught for many years. However, as the Method is called a New Method; if it deserves that title, its active principlę must differ from that of the old mode of tuition, and consequently any one, let him be ever so talented, who, without being well acquainted with its modus operandi, would attempt to correct, improve, or compose a work based on that principle, would be as likely to fail, as an experienced stage-driver would be, if he were to endeavor to take the management of a steam or locomotive engine. It is then incumbent on me to show that I am fully acquainted with the fundamental principle of that New Method. In 1832, before the publication of Ollendorff's or Manesca's System, I published a pamphlet entitled "Experience Consulted; or V. Value's System for teaching Modern Languages." At page 3 of the introduc tion, is this passage: "We will merely notice that the principle which furnishes the student with the means, from the first lesson, of forming his own sentences, or, in other words, of making an immediate and continued use of the words he learns, so as to speak, will appear new to the public, although it has here been acted upon for many years." At page 5, will be found: "Since the means ought always to be made subservient to the end in view, and since immediate is in direct opposition to postponed use, we must reverse the practice usually adopted, and consequently furnish the student with words susceptible of inter-combinations, instead of teaching him such as, not being combinable together, cannot be incorporated into the same sentence, and must, of course, render his efforts entirely fruitless." This is what Ollendorff has practically carried out; and, as I have long used his system, its details are perfectly familiar to me. The difference in the extent of the lessons cannot have escaped the notice of teachers and scholars who have practically used the work. The 1st, 2d, and 3d are of a proper length for one recitation, even |