PREFACE. THE following work has been compiled at the repeated request of numerous teachers who, finding the "Principia Latina" the easiest book for beginners in Latin, are anxious to obtain an equally elementary French work on the same plan. The main object of this book, as of the "Principia Latina," is to enable a beginner to acquire an accurate knowledge of the chief grammatical forms, to learn their usage by constructing simple sentences as soon as he commences the study of the language, and to accumulate gradually a stock of words useful in conversation as well as in reading. The grammatical forms are printed in conspicuous type and at full length, as no sound knowledge of the language can be acquired without the pupil being thoroughly familiar with these forms. It is the want of this sound grammatical training which is the chief objection to the systems of Ollendorff, Ahn, and similar works. But at the same time it is important that the pupil should be exercised from the first construction of sentences, so as to test by practical application the grammatical forms. The present work thus contains |