TO THE FRENCH LANGUAGE: CONTAINING FABLES, SELECT TALES, REMARKABLE FACTS WITH A DICTIONARY OF ALL THE WORDS, TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH. BY M. DE FIVAS, MEMBER OF SEVERAL LITERARY SOCIETIES. Une morale nue apporte de l'ennui : Le conte fait passer le précepte avec lui.-La Fontaine. He that requires the attention and application of youth should endeavor to make what he FROM THE FIFTH ENGLISH EDITION. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON & CO., 200 BROADWAY. PHILADELPHIA: GEO. S. APPLETON, 164 CHESNUT-STREET M DCCC L. HARVARD COLLE LIBRARY Miss 7. G Curtis Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1846. BY D. APPLETON & COMPANY, L: the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Sou hern District of New York. PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. THE strong and commendable desire, felt by almost every student of the French language, to enter as early as possible upon a course of instructive or entertaining reading, has induced the Publishers to select for the use of such persons a work of acknowledged excellence, which has rapidly passed through five editions in England. It is intended to accompany "Ollendorff's New Method of Learning French," now so widely known and justly esteemed, as pre-eminently the best work extant for gaining rapidly a thorough knowledge of the most useful and indispensable of modern languages. With any other French Grammar that may be used, however, it will be found highly valuable as an auxiliary. The great difficulty of compiling a book adapted to the wants of beginners has been admirably overcome in this "Introduction." The method which ought to prevail in every branch of learning-that of proceeding by insensible steps from what is easy to what is difficult is closely adhered to. The pieces contained in the volume com |