a BY A. N. GIRAULT, Principal of the French and English Seminary for NOTE TO THE R The GENERAL BOOKBINDING CO., CHE Principal of the French and English Seminary for Philadelphia : HENRY PERKINS, 134 CHESTNUT STREET. BOSTON: PERKINS & MARVIN, 114 WASHINGTON STREET. 840.5 6518 ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1837, by HENRY PERKINS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. STEREOTYPED BY L. JOHNSON, PHILADELPHIA. PREFACE. In preparing this little work, the compiler's chief' aim has been, not only to omit nothing that could prove useful to those who begin the study of the French language, but especially not to admit any thing which he did not think absolutely indispensable to them. Indeed, the great art of a teacher consists in presenting to the minds of his pupils only what is necessary for the time being, and in throwing aside or concealing from their view all obstructions or difficulties which they are not able to remove by themselves. To place in the hands of a beginner a grammar or book containing all the rules and exceptions to which a language is subject, is an absurdity. The books called Grammars are nothing but repositories of rules: rules are nothing but observations on the fitness or unfitness of the relations existing between words. But fit ness or unfitness can no more constitute language, than rules on harmony can constitute music. Grammars are made for those who already know the language; consequently, it is preposterous to employ such observations as means to teach the language to those who are ignorant of it. |
