GOLDEN PATH TO FRENCH. FIRST PART. COMPRISING THE ELEMENTS OF THE LANGUAGE, BY A. F. GENLAIN. FRENCH MASTER AT SOMERSETSHIRE COLLEGE, BATH. "Longum iter est per præcepta, Breve et efficax per exempla." SENECA. BIBLIOTHECA OCT 1877 BODLEIANAY TO BE HAD FROM THE AUTHOR: 17, NORTHAMPTON STREET, BATH. DÉPÔTS: LIBRAIRIE HACHETTE ET CIE., LONDON: 18, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C. PREFACE. The most elementary logic tells us that, to write, we should have an aim; that, if we step on already trodden grounds, it must be with a view to improvement, independently from this, that the production should in no respect fall short of previous works on the same subject. All this I fully felt from the very first, hesitated a while and finally sat down to work, with what effect, however, I leave others to judge. Did I then mean to surpass the brilliant productions of such gentlemen as Messieurs Aigre de Charente, Antonin Roche, P. H. E. Brette and Gustave Masson, Ferdinand Gasc, etc., etc.? nothing of the kind; their works are, one and all, perfect in their respective ways, displaying at once superior scholarship, matured and refined judgment and a masterly understanding and treatment of their subject. But, because Eschylus, Sophocles and Euripides early wrote splendid plays, does it follow that no other should have ventured on the stage after them? Did they not besides leave abundant room, to say nothing of original conception and individual mode of treatment? ... However, if I did not aim at rivalling the professors above mentioned, there was a host of Pseudo-French |