mory. The second offers a great number of proverbial, idiomatical, and figurative, modes of expression; a curious collection, obtained from more than five hundred plays, extending from the age of Molière to the present time; and enhanced by a rigid scrutiny of every important publication upon French idioms, and the other peculiarities of speech. As plays, and especially comedies, are designed to pourtray us as we are, or as we appear in the various walks and scenes of life, it must be obvious to every one that these are the proper sources for the discovery of Such turns and idioms as are peculiar to the people whose manners they are meant to describe. It will be readily inferred from this circumstance, that, however whimsical and remote from the learner's mother-tongue such modes of expression may seem, they are, nevertheless, indispensable to a complete knowledge of the language he would acquire. The first volume concludes with the first part of "LE LECTEUR FRANÇAIS," consisting of historieties, conversations, dialogues, and scènes dramatiques en prose. These lively productions, which have been so classed as to keep pace with the progress of the learner, cannot fail to promote his advancement in the language of conversation. Having thus explained the nature of the First Volume, it now remains for me to analyse the SECOND VOLUME, which is divided into five parts. The First Part contains the conjugation of verbs, which is, I trust, satisfactorily explained. I shall not here attempt to expatiate on the system of the celebrated Beauzée and Sicard, concerning the tenses of verbs, which I have adopted; and the truth and simplicity of which I hope I have fully demonstrated, in treating on the verb,-testimonials in its favour, which are increased by the wonderful facility with which it can be retained in the memory, and its easy application to every language. In order, however, to meet the wishes of many respectable instructors, I have in every instance accompanied the New Terms with a repetition of the Old. The Second Part contains an analysis of the various kinds of words of which language is composed. The subject is introduced in the familiar form of conversation, which renders it more lively and intelligible, and relieves the scholar from a train of long and prolix reasoning. Here the pupil becomes acquainted with many points essential and peculiar to the French language, and is prepared for the French syntax. It will here be proper to observe, that, immediately after the FIRST CONVERSATION, which treats of WORDS, follows a comprehensive System of Pronunciation, from the best French orthoëpists, in which, it is hoped, few essential particulars have been omitted. It possesses the advantage of a Key, so peculiarly devised that Englishmen, debarred from the assistance of a French instructor, may nevertheless instruct themselves in French sounds by the help of this System alone; and they are thus enabled, with the aid of the present work, to become conversant with the French language. The Third Part is altogether grammatical and critical, and forms one of the most extensive systems of French syntax ever offered to the public. The Fourth Part consists, first, of elegant extracts in prose, from the French classics; secondly, of the rules of punctuation, from that eminent grammarian Beauzée, exemplified by appropriate and elegant passages from the best writers; thirdly, of the rules of poetry, from Wailly, &c. a knowledge of which is necessary in order to have a correct idea of the mechanism of French poetry; and, fourthly, of several of the most excellent dramatic scenes, in verse, from Molière, Racine, &c. and a whole tragedy, "La Mort de César," which is considered by the French Quintilian as one of the works which do the highest honour to Voltaire as a writer. The Fifth and last Part exhibits a system of Epistolary Correspondence on the most ordinary transactions of civilized and refined society, with prefatory observations on the style and forms proper to each. These models have been selected from the classical works of Voltaire, Sévigné, Maintenon, Bernis, Fléchier, and others. I am happy to acknowledge the advantages I have derived, in this portion of my work, from the "Manuel Epistolaire" of M. Philippon-de-la-Madeleine, whose elegant compilation has been introduced, by command of the French government, into all the Lycées. In order to enhance still more the value of the present section, for the benefit of merchants who carry on a French cor⚫ respondence, I have added forms of mercantile letters of every kind, bills of exchange, promissory notes, receipts, bills of lading, invoices, &c. from the best mercantile sources. I shall now proceed to the DEVELOPMENT OF THE SYSTEM OF TUITION, to which the work I have just analysed is intended to be applied. To this development I earnestly entreat the scrutinizing attention of the enlightened and patriotic; for, if supported by their sanction and co-operation, society will speedily be benefited by a DISCOVERY which wonderfully simplifies and accelerates the attainment of a liberal education; which it even places, by the extreme economy introduced into this system of tuition, within the reach of the poorest of mankind. Before I enter into further explanation, it is necessary to submit to the reader's notice the following AUXILIARIES to the present method; the manner of applying which will be made manifest in the subsequent clucidations. INTRODUCTION. ALPHABET. ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVW*XYZ, &c. abcdefghij k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z. PRONOUNCE the above as the French would do the following: A, be, cé, de, e (eŭ), fe, gue, he (aspirated), i, je, ka, le, me, ne, o, pe, ke, re, se, te, v, ve, double u or double ve, kze, i grec, ze, &c.t This letter is not a member of the French alphabet; but, as many foreign words which begin with W have been adopted in the French language, it appears proper that it should not. be omitted. In order to satisfy the reader that this is the true pronunciation of the consonants, let us observe what it would be if they were preceded by a vowel, and formed a syllable with it, as in the following instances, ab, ad, aƒ, ag, al, am, &c. By pronouncing the above monosyllabic expressions, the sound of be, de, fe, gue, le, me, &c. which we have given to the consonants separately, would undoubtedly be produced; and if we consider that, by placing any other vowel before these letters, the same sounds would have been produced, the inference necessa rily is, that they are the only natural, and of course the only proper, sounds. We have been compelled to deviate from this system in the case of the y, c, aud k, in which the old pronunciation has been retained, as the complete introduction of it would necessarily lead to the suppression of several useless letters in the alphabet, which cannot be done but by genera! consent. In order to convince the reader that the new nomenclature wonderfully facilitates the pronunciation of words, let us, accordingly, spell, for instance, the French word forès. It will, in this decomposition, produce the following elements, felo-rè-se, which, rapidly pronounced, will give florès. According to the old system, from this word would emanate the whimsical elemeats, effe-elle-o-erre-é-esse, which, not being in reality contained in it, can never lead to its pronunciation, nor to that of any word whatever, as they cannot by any means amalgamate together. Our mode of pronouncing the alphabet being a gift of Nature, is therefore applicable to all languages. This vowel is called voyelle-tréma (vowel diæresis), over which two points are placed: they jay un ë tréma, un ï tréma, un ü tréma, an ë diæresis, an ïdlæresis, an ü diæresis. The rowel diæresis ought to be sounded separately and distinctly from the preceding vowel. The cedille, is a small sign or mark which is placed under the letter C, when we wish o give it the sound of S before the vowels a, 0, 1. Other Vowels. cu, ou, an, in, on, un. NOTE. It is of great importance in this system that the scholar should become familiar with the Alphabet and Accented Vowels; indeed, so much so, that it is physically impossible to make rapid progress without it. Fortunately, however, it is of easy acquisition; and it is much to be wished that the scholars may have the whole perfectly at command in the very outset: a circumstance altogether in their power, by constantly repeating, after the nstructor, the alphabet and accented vowels, and writing them until they are thoroughly familiar to the EAR and the EYE. Names of the Orthographical Signs. A-pos-tro-phe ('), an apostrophe; Vir-gu-le (,), a comma; Point-Virgu-le (;),* a semi-colon; Deux-points (:), a colon; Point (.), a period ; Point-In-te-rro-ga-tif (?),† a note of interrogation; Point-Ex-cla-ma- tif (!), a note of admiration; Trait-d'u-ni-on ou ti-ret (-), a hyphen. .... Points sus-pen-sifs (. . . . . .) ;§ Pa-ren-thè-se ( ), a parenthesis; Trait de sé-pa-ra-ti-on (—) ;|| Gui-lle-mets (“), inverted commas ; A-cco-la-de ou cro-chets, braces. After mature consideration, I have adopted the above syllabification ; which posseses this signal advantage over the one generally received, that, without suppressing the letters not to be sounded, and of course altering the orthography of words, it prevents the possibility of their being pronounced incorrectly, as is evinced in the word a-cco-lade, where one e only can be sounded. The following pages, in which this System of SylJabification is pursued will sufficiently exemplify it both to Teachers and Scholars. • The point-virgule, is also called virgule ponctuée, aud un point et une virgule. + The point-interrogatif, (the interrogatory note,) is also called point d'interrogation, (note of interrogation.) The point-exclamatif, is also called point d'exclamation, point admiratif, and point d'admiration, (note of admiration.) Į Points suspensifs, (notes of suspensiou,)-(. . . . ..) Notes of suspension are often met with, particularly among the poets: they are only used in the loftier emotions of the passions, when the sentiments that bear on the mind cannot be expressed at once, but are suffered to escape in broken and successive phrases, which describe with force the agitation of the soul. This punctuation may take place either in the serious or the comic style: it corresponds with the English (-). In dialogue, this sign is used in place of the incidental phrases, dit-il, reprit-il, répondit-il, said he, replied he, answered he; and announces another speaker. The trait de séparation is in this instance, wanting in the English language: it may be called a long dash. For a complete Treatise on French Punctuation, we refer the Scholar to the second volume of this work, in the Lecteur Français, p. 89. WORDS FORMING THE LINK, or Completion of Sense, between the Parts of Speech; such as the Prepositions and Conjunctions, the chief Adverbs, and most of the Particles, and the adverbial and the conjunctive Modes of Expression,-preceded by numbers from un to six cent huit inclusive. It is necessary to inform the student, that the opposite page, and the following ones on the right hand, ar designed for an extensive repository of sentences, or skeletons of sentences, formed on the important words on the left hand pages, with which they correspond numerically. The star, or asterisk, is substituted for these words in order to give the whole in as little space as possible. The phrases are to be used by the scholars who have made some piogress,when called upon by their instructor for some of their own composition. In this case they are either to give the same phrases, medified in the tenses of the verb which occur to them, (with the addition of some incidental circumstance of their own, if their previous acquirements supply them,) or give some new ones formed from them, as they are to be considered as models, carefully preserving the acceptation of the words indicated by the star which is pointed out by the original phrase. Should the pupils mean to use a skeleton of a sentence, they must complete it, and preserve the sense with words of their own, which will be a stimulus to their imagination or inventive powers. The judicious master will observe, that now and then several modes of expression are ranked under the same head in the pages on the right, owing to their synonymy; but, as perfect synonymy cannot exist in language, he will point out to the scholars what phrases apply more particularly to each of these modes of expression. This will contribute to deve Jop in them the faculties of acuteness and sagacity so important to express ourselves with precision and perspicuity. 26, vingt-six. 27, vingt-sept. 28, vingt-huit. 29, vingt-neuf. 30, trente. 31, trente-et-un. 32, trente-deux. 33, trente-trois. ...... .......... ......... ...... ...... ....... Pour Dès ........ Pen-dant ...at, to, on, with, in, for, &c. from, of, by, out of, with, ir on or upon, for, after, at, about, some, &c. ...before, far, deep. before, in the presence of. ..bekind, after. [wards. after; what next ?about, after ••••ncur, almost. .... near, with, in comparison. ••••near, by, hard by. .... •against, close to, with. •••on, upon, over, near. ..on, upon. under, beneath, near, in. in, into, within, with. •••••••to, as far as, till, until, even to. ........ ........ • about, roumul, with. between, among, in. ・・・・・ among, amidst. through, by, in. .... ....... [from. for, as, on account of, in order. without, were it not for. ....... during, in the time of. ⚫towards, to. except, save, but. except, but. • save, saving, without prejudice. ••••••• in spite of, notwithstanding. Mo-ye-nnant, au moyen de for, by means of. No-nobs-tant notwithstanding, for all that. |