was unwilling to speak to him, except in the presence of his relations. Je n'ai pas voulu la voir en l'ab- I would not see or visit her in the absence of her husband. sence de son mari. By attending to the following observations and remarks, you will become sensible of the difference in the use of en, dans, and à. First.{ Il arrivera en trois jours. The first means that he will be three days coming. The second means that three days will elapse before his coming. The first of the above phrases is construed to signify that he is vo luntarily gone to the prison. The second, that he has been put there, without any regard to his will. The third is doubtful or equivocal. The first means that the officers are on the field. THIRD. The prepositions dessus, and dessous, dedans and dehors, cannot be used by themselves; they must be construed together, and have the same complement -EXAMPLES: J'ai cherché dessus et dessous la | I have looked under and over the table. table. La peste est dedans et dehors la The plague is within and without the city. ville. The prepositions are in the following phrases, of course, misap. plied. J'ai cherché dessus la table. To render these phrases correct, the prepositions sur, sous, dans, hors de, must be substituted for those used. The above abuse has even crept into the poetry of Racine and Desbarreaux, as in these lines: In order that dessus, dessous, dedans, dehors, may be used correctly by themselves, they must be respectively acted upon by another preposition.-EXAMPLES: In the Conversation on the Preposition, I have shown in what circumstances dessus, dessous, dedans, dehors, might be used singly and without any complement; to this, in order to avoid repetition, I now refer. FOURTH. Durant and pendant denote a duration of time, with this difference, that durant is applied to what lasts any unlimited time; and pendant generally, to what lasts but a short time.-EXAMPLES: Nos ennemis ont resté en quar- | Our enemies have remained in tiers d'hiver durant la cam winter quarters during the campaign. It is dangerous to go out of one's house during the dog-days. Le régal fut fort honnête; Durant is the only preposition that can be placed after its complement, as in the following phrases: On lui fait une rente sa vie du rant. Il a été absent six ans durant. They pay him an annuity during his life. He has been absent for six years. The words proche, près, hors, require the preposition de after them. The only cases in which it may be suppressed are in directions to places, or in conversation.—EXAMPLES: Il loge proche le palais. He lodges near the court-house. To Mr. such-a-one, near the Cemetery of the Innocents, at Paris. This house is situated out of the city. SIXTH. Never make use of vis-à-vis in the sense of envers, à l'égard, &c. as a great many French people do: and instead of saying Les torts que j'ai vis-à-vis de vous: say, Les torts que j'ai envers vous, ou à votre égard. My acting wrong towards you, or with regard to you. Let vis-à-vis express physical relations only; as, Il demeure vis-à-vis de mes fe. He lives opposite to nêtres. SEVENTH. In prose, prefer avant de to avant que de; but, in poetry, the measure will fix the choice. Ciel, ouvre-moi la tombe avant de m'avilir: EIGHTH. Many people mistake the preposition près for the adjective prêt, m. prête, f.; hence, a gross counter-sense results; as, when they say, Il était prêt à tomber, for Il était près de tomber; since prêt à, signifies disposé à, ready to; and près de, signifies sur le point de, upon the point of, near. LESSON THE TWENTY-THIRD. ON THE ADVERB RULE I. The adverb must be, in general, placed in a sentence before the adjective or participle which it modifies.-EXAMPLES: On est aisément intéressé par des aspects divers, lorsqu'on entre dans la carrière de la fortune: mais lorsqu'on est arrivé aux plus hautes places, les plaisirs de l'imagination finissent avec elles. -Tels on croit voir ces navigateurs qui, après avoir vainement essayé de s'ouvrir un passage aux extrémités du monde, retournent tristement sur leurs pas, et considèrent d'un œil morne et languissant les divers spectacles de la nature dont ils avaient été si vivement frappés, lorsque naguère ils traversaient les mers, l'esprit vivement ému par la curiosité et par l'espé rance. We are readily attracted by various prospects, when we enter into the career of fortune; but, when we have reached the highest preferments, the pleasures of imagination are then at an end. Such we may fancy those navigators, who, after having vainly tried to open to themselves a passage to the extremities of the world, return sadly on their track, viewing, with a melancholy and languid look, the various scenes of nature by which they had been struck in so lively a mauner, when, not long before, they crossed the seas with a mind strongly agitated by curiosity and hope. OBSERVATION. There are circumstances in which taste alone can direct the proper use of the adverbs of manner, which may be placed either before or after the adjective.-Thus, we may say, with equal propriety, César était ouvertement ambitieux, ou ambitieux ouverte- Cæsar was openly ambitious. ment. RULE II. The adverb, in general, is placed immediately after the verb, in its radical tenses; or between the past participle and the auxiliary, in its compound tenses.-EXAMPLES: C'est le destin des choses humaines | It is the fate of human things to de n'avoir qu'une durée courte et rapide, et de tomber aussitôt dans l'éternel oubli d'où elles étaient sorties. Mais, votre église, grand Dieu! mais, le chef have but a short and fleeting duration, and then to fall into that eternal abyss whence they came. -But your church, great God! but the admirable master-piece d'œuvre admirable de votre sa. gesse et de votre miséricorde envers les hommes; mais, votre empire, maitre souverain des cœurs! n'aura point d'autres bornes que celles de l'éternité. -Tout nous échappe, tout disparaît sans cesse autour de nous, c'est une scène sur laquelle, à chaque instant, paraissent de nouveaux personnages qui se remplacent; et de tous ces rôles pompeux qu'ils ont si bien joués, pendant le moment qu'on les a vus sur leur théâtre, il ne leur reste à la fin que le regret de voir finir la représentation et de ne se trouver réellement que ce qu'ils sont devant vous. of your wisdom and of your mercy to mankind; but your empire, sovereign Master of all hearts! will have no limits but those of eternity.-Every thing flies from us: all continually vanishes around us ; it is a scene on which every instant new performers appear and succeed one another; and, out of all the pompous parts they play so well, during the short period they are seen on the stage, nothing remains to them, in the end, but regret to see the conclusion of the drama, and to find themselves only what, in your eyes, they are. EXCEPTION.-In the compound tenses of verbs, we may, however, sometimes place the adverb either before or after the past participle. Custom alone will direct in that respect; thus, we may say, equally well, Les femmes l'ont prodigieusement | The women have prodigiously gâté, ou l'ont gâté prodigieuse- spoiled him. ment. We place, either before or after the verb, the adverbs of order and rank, and those which denote time in a determinate manner; thus we may say, Nous devons faire, premièrement, notre devoir; secondement, chercher les plaisirs permis. Aujourd'hui il fait beau; il pleuvra, peut-être, demain. On servit d'abord la soupe et le bouilli, ou d'abord on servit la soupe et le bouilli. We ought, first, to do our duty; secondly, seek lawful pleasures. To-day it is fine weather; it will rain, perhaps, to-morrow. The soup and bouilli were served up first. OBSERVATIONS. FIRST. Davantage, which many people are apt to confound with plus, and use for it, is, by no means, an expression synonymous with plus; +he following particularly distinguishes it from that expression. |