LE GRAND-PÈRE ET SES QUATRE PETITS-FILS. LIVRE DE LECTURE, À L'USAGE DES ÉCOLES. PAR MME FOUQUEAU DE PUSSY. Approuvé par le Conseil Royal de l'Instruction publique. Eleventh American Edition, Rebised. CAREFULLY PREPARED FOR AMERICAN SCHOOLS, AND BY FRANCIS S. WILLIAMS, PRINCIPAL OF A SCHOOL FOR YOUNG LADIES. BOSTON: SWAN, BREWER AND TILESTON. 1861. Educ T 1518.61.400 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, BY FRANCIS S. WILLIAMS, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts RECOMMENDATIONS. From Professor E. Arnoult, Teacher of French in Harvard University. Gentlemen: - I know well "Le Grand Père," and Mr. Francis S. Williams's editor efforts to make it a thorough, good, easy school book, for the study of the French language; and I verily believe that your American edition will soon prove to be the readiest way and instrument of the kind the most useful French reading book - in the hands of all teachers and students in the United States. As to the intrinsic qualities of the original work, it needs no literary credentials of my own; indeed, Madame de Pussy's highly appreciated little book, "approuvé par le Conseil d'Instruction Publique de Paris," bears its own passport through the world! I will, therefore, merely add, that I was the first to recommend the American edition to the American public; for I intend to adopt it myself, in Cambridge and Boston, as the best school French Reader ever published in this or any other country. Respectfully yours, MESSRS. HICKLING, SWAN & BROWN. E. ARNOULT. From Mr. Thomas Sherwin, Principal of the English High School, Boston. MESSRS. HICKLING, SWAN & BROWN.-Gentlemen: You ask my opinion of "Le Grand-Père," an American edition of which you are about to publish. This work has been used in the English High School for several years, and, as a first book for reading in French, I have never seen its equal. It is colloquial, interesting and instructive, communicating, at the same time, much general knowledge, and the essentials of the language. The edition which you have in press is superior to the Paris edition, in con sequence of the notes and certain omissions made by the very competent editor. I confidently recommend the book to every school in which the French language is studied. Very respectfully yours, THOMAS SHERWIN. From Mr. Francis Gardner, Principal of the Latin School, Boston. MESSRS. HICKLING, SWAN & BROWN. -Gentlemen: I have examined, with much pleasure, the proof-sheets of the Notes to your edition of Le Grand Père. Upon the transcendent merits of the work itself, when in the hands of a competent instructor, it is needless to enlarge. The judicious notes of Mr. Williams supply the only desideratum which existed; and by their means the intelligent pupil can, unaided, make a progress which, without the book, he could scarcely make under the best of masters. In its present condition, I unhesitatingly pronounce it the best book for its purpose in the language. Very respectfully yours, &c. FRANCIS GARDNER. From Mr. E. A. Beaman, Principal of a Young Ladies' High School, Boston. MESSRS. HICKLING, SWAN & BROWN - Sirs: "Le Grand-Père," which you propose publishing with notes and emendations by Mr. Williams, is a most charming book. I have examined it, with reference to its use in school, with admiration. I am acquainted with no book so peculiarly adapted to answer the purposes of a French reader, when freed from the objections alluded to in Mr. Williams' preface, and furnished with the valuable notes of so accomplished a French scholar and teacher. Its subject-matter is clearly within the range of thought of those for whom it is designed. The sense is easily made out. Its topics are varied, and eminently adapted both to interest and to instruct, and thus to afford that natural, wholesome mental action which should always be a primary object in juvenile education. Its language is simple, colloquial and perspicuous, and just such as is most naturally and readily acquired at the commencement of learning a new language. These and other excellent qualities, together with the notes and corrections, serve to render this volume an invaluable treasure to both the teacher and the pupil in French. It needs but to be known to be generally adopted as a text-book. Very respectfully. HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY THE BEQUEAT OF E. A. BEAMAN PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. THE necessity of expurgating for American children a mod. ern French work, written by a lady for the use of schools, and approved by the Royal Council of Public Instruction in France, may not be obvious to those unacquainted with the views of the French, as to what constitutes suitable reading and proper topics of conversation for children. That such a necessity, however, exists, no one who has carefully read the whole of Madame Pussy's admirable little work will feel disposed to deny. But, lest a misapprehension may arise from this circumstance in regard to the moral influence of all French works, we wish to say a few words upon this important point. To those well acquainted with the subject it need not be said, that the French are as careful as our own nation, and perhaps even more so, as to the reading in which they allow their children to indulge; and that, consequently, many books which we feel no hesitation in placing in a child's hands are by them scrupulously withheld. But, on the other hand, they permit themselves to speak freely in the presence of children on many subjects which we on all occasions avoid. In both nations the proprieties of language itself are observed and required. The difference between the two lies solely in the topics which may or may not be spoken of. : The principle which guides the French seems to be this: all books which serve to excite the imagination, inflame the |
