A Theoretical and Practical Grammar of the French Tongue: In which the Present Usage is Displayed and All the Principal Difficulties Explained Agreeably to the Decisions of the French Academy ... |
Common terms and phrases
2dly Accidental sound adjective adverbs Amphibology autre avant avoir avoit beau beauty bien c'est compound tenses Cond conjugated conjunction consonant denotes devoir Dieu elle English été étoit être EXAMPLES EXERCISE express faire fait falloir faut feminine feminine rhymes femme followed French French language frère FUTURE ABSOLUTE gender and number grand happy homme Imperf imperfect infinitive j'ai jamais jour l'autre le monde le Perche livre masculine masculine rhymes mieux monde mute n'est never noun parlé participle past participle present peine personal pronouns phrases placed pleasure PLUPERFECT plural pouvoir preceded preposition pres Pret preterit definite pron pronominal verbs Proper sound qu'il qu'on quoi regimen relate relative pronoun REMARK rendre repent rhymes rien RULE s'en sentence SIMPLE TENSES singular sometimes speak Subj subjunctive substantive syllables syllepsis thing thou tion tive tout verb voir vois vouloir voulu vowel words
Popular passages
Page 427 - C'est en vain qu'au Parnasse un téméraire auteur Pense de l'art des vers atteindre la hauteur : S'il ne sent point du ciel l'influence secrète, Si son astre en naissant ne l'a formé poète, Dans son génie étroit il est toujours captif; Pour lui Phébus est sourd , et Pégase est rétif.
Page 400 - I ranged mountains and deserts for images and resemblances, and pictured upon my mind every tree of the forest and flower of the valley. I observed with equal care the crags of the rock and the pinnacles of the palace. Sometimes I wandered along the mazes of the rivulet, and . sometimes watched the changes of the summer clouds.
Page 400 - The business of a poet, said Imlac, is to examine, not the individual, but the species; to remark general properties and large appearances ; he does not number the streaks of the tulip, or describe the different shades in the verdure of the forest. He is to exhibit in his portraits of nature such prominent and striking features as...
Page 400 - ... or decoration of moral or religious truth; and he who knows most will have most power of diversifying his scenes, and of gratifying his reader with remote allusions and unexpected instruction.
Page 401 - First follow Nature, and your judgment frame By her just standard, which is still the same...
Page 401 - The business of a poet," said Imlac, "is to examine not the individual but the species; to remark general properties and large appearances. He does not number the streaks of the tulip, or describe the different shades in the verdure of the forest. He is to exhibit in his portraits of nature such prominent and striking features as recall the original to every mind; and must neglect the minuter discriminations, which one may have remarked, and another have neglected, for those characteristics which...
Page 435 - Il est un heureux choix de mots harmonieux. Fuyez des mauvais sons le concours odieux : Le vers le mieux rempli, la plus noble pensée Ne peut plaire à l'esprit, quand l'oreille est blessée.
Page 402 - In some fair body thus th' informing soul With spirits feeds, with vigour fills the whole, Each motion guides, and every nerve sustains; Itself unseen, but in th' effects remains. Some, to whom Heaven in wit has been profuse, Want as much more to turn it to its use; For wit and judgment often are at strife, Though meant each other's aid, like man and wife.
Page 435 - Dans le réduit obscur d'une alcôve enfoncée S'élève un lit de plume à grands frais amassée : Quatre rideaux pompeux, par un double contour, En défendent l'entrée à la clarté du jour. Là, parmi les douceurs d'un tranquille silence, Règne sur le duvet une heureuse indolence. C'est là que le prélat, muni d'un déjeuner, Dormant d'un léger somme, attendait le dîner.
Page 399 - And yet it fills me with wonder, that, in almost all countries, the most ancient poets are considered as the best: whether it be that every other kind of knowledge is an acquisition gradually attained, and poetry is a gift conferred at once; or that the first poetry of every nation surprised them as a novelty, and retained the credit by consent, which it received by accident at first; or whether, as the province of poetry is...