TO THE HONOURABLE COLONEL GEORGE ANSON, M. P. THIS VOLUME IS MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, BY HIS OBLIGED AND MOST OBEDIENT SERVANT, THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. it THE many works which have been published in this country, and the various methods adopted in them for conveying the knowledge of language, (particularly of the French,) would make appear almost a vain undertaking to add one to their number. I have however often regretted, on carefully examining those which have received the most general suffrage, and putting to the test of experience every system which has gained the greatest popularity, that such repeated and laudable efforts should be so diffusively scattered, as to render their combined utility lost to the benefit of society. Being every day more and more convinced that a connected course of study, comprised in one volume, would infinitely accelerate the progress of the young student, I undertook the task, fully aware of the labour it would add to the duties of my profession, but flattering myself with the hope of such indulgence for any errors to be found in this first attempt, as the well informed of Britain never withhold from the humblest pretensions to utility. In this work I have endeavoured to enforce that which is acknowledged to be the only means of fixing on the mind the rudimental principles, a constant recurrence to former rules, presenting at one view whatever is most essential in the theoretical part, and avoiding the inconvenience of constantly turning over pages for references. The Tables have been systematically constructed so as to afford considerable assistance to the memory in retaining the rules. The exercises are in two parts: the first contains an extensive vocabulary of Nouns and Adjectives, so arranged as to lead the learner on from simple to compound, and to give the teacher, at the same time, every opportunity of combining practical with grammatical knowledge. The free exercises, which form the second part, are accompanied by a particular Guide or Key; and as by the time the pupil has arrived at this part of his study, he may be supposed to have treasured up in his memory a valuable collection of words and expressions, I thought it unnecessary to swell the work, by following the plan so generally adopted, of repeating words already familiar; and deemed it more useful to devote a few pages to the instruction of the pupil, independently of grammatical rules, in some of those peculiar expressions called idioms; without a knowledge of which he will find himself at a loss in reading the plainest authors, and would be unable to proceed one step in con versation. The second division of this work consists of a selected course of reading, divided into three parts: the first, containing an interlineary translation, should keep pace with the first exercises, and is intended to qualify the scholar to enter on the second and third parts without fear of meeting insuperable difficulties. This interlineary translation must not be confounded with some which have lately appeared in this country, being rendered far superior to them by having the most difficult yet most essential parts of the language (viz. the rules for the genders and the analysis of the Verbs) rendered imperceptibly familiar to the young beginner, the infinitive of every Verb being given, and the special terminations of the Nouns being distinguished in Italic. The second and third parts, which are intended to keep pace with the free exercises, have been so selected as to contain nearly every rule of, or peculiar construction in, Syntax; and the frequent reference of the pupil to the grammatical Tables, cannot fail to impress deeply on his mind that indispensable part of the language. The Dictionary, which follows the reading, will also save much time and trouble, as it will comprise only those words in the reading which it is presumed might have been forgotten, or those which admit of some particular acceptation. The advantage of this plan is too obvious to need comment, for how much more |