BEING A COLLECTION OF LIVELY ANECDOTES, JEUX DE MOTS, ENIGMAS, TO SERVE AS READINGS, DICTATION, AND RECITATION. For the Use of Schools and Private Students. BY CHARLES HENRI SCHNEIDER, F.E.I.S., M.R.C.P., FRENCH MASTER IN THE HIGH SCHOOL, THE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND WATT FRENCH CLASS-BOOKS BY MR SCHNEIDER. EDINBURGH HIGH SCHOOL FRENCH CONVERSATION- The new feature in this Grammar is the questionnaire, which, along with LETTER from Professor MAX MÜLLER. University of Oxford, May 1867. MY DEAR SIR,-I am very happy to find that my anticipations as to the To Mons. C. H. SCHNEIDER, Edinburgh High School. EDINBURGH HIGH SCHOOL NEW PRACTICAL FRENCH 16th EDINBURGH HIGH SCHOOL FRENCH MANUAL OF 7th Edition. 2s. 6d. **Printed opinions of distinguished Professors, and Teachers, including Edinburgh: OLIVER AND BOYD. London: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO. PRINTED BY OLIVER AND BOYD, EDINBURGH. PREFACE. THE Author has compiled the following Text-book as a sequel to his "French Reader." He has been induced to undertake the task from a conviction that such readings as he has collected have long been a desideratum, and from the fact that most of the collections of extracts that have come under his notice are of a very unattractive nature. The object has been to produce a book which shall keep alive the learner's interest by the variety of its contents, and, at the same time, initiate him into the peculiarities and niceties of the French language, by a series of exercises specially adapted for that purpose. To attain these ends, he has divided the work into lessons of suitable length, each containing a lively anecdote; examples of jeux de mots, or words of double meaning; a charade, enigma, or riddle; synonymes, homonymes, etc. Great attention has been paid to the class of words last mentioned, as a knowledge of them is indispensable to the mastery of the French language. The exercises are carefully graduated, the Author's aim being not so much to provide specimens of the beauties of the language, as to lead the pupil, step by step, to a complete acquisition of the vocabulary and idiom. In each of the concluding lessons the Author has inserted a choice extract from some distinguished French poet. These extracts are intended for reading and recitation. Amongst these selections are passages from Racine, Delille, Châteaubriand, Cassimir Delavigne, De Lamartine, Madame Tastu, Béranger, etc. Copious notes are appended, in which all the more important idioms are explained, and free translations of synonymes and homonymes are given; along with answers to the enigmas, charades, and riddles. The Author believes that pupils who have been well grounded in French for one year can use this volume as a reading-book. More advanced pupils ought to write exercises to dictation from it, and answer the questions in French. The translations of synonymes and of words similar in sound, which are purposely placed among the notes, ought likewise to be re-translated orally and in written exercises. Should these instructions be attended to, the Author is convinced that a complete knowledge of French will be secured. EDINBURGH HIGH SCHOOL, October 1867. CHARADES, ENIGMAS, JEUX DE MOTS, etc., are noted in their 65. Le Bossu et le Prédicateur, 73. Français et Anglais, |