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XXIV. REFLEXIVE VERBS

B. 1. Les heures s'envolent sur l'aile du temps.

2. Les médecins se porteraient mal, si tout le monde se portait bien. 3. La pelle se moque du fourgon (Proverbe).

4. La lumière se répand beaucoup plus vite que le son,

5. Qui s'acquitte s'enrichit. 6. Qui s'excuse s'accuse (Proverbe).

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7. La vertu s'éprouve et se perfectionne dans l'adversité comme l'or dans le creuset.

8. Le mal arrive avec des ailes et s'en retourne en boitant.

9. Ces gens s'accordaient comme chiens et chats.

10. L'horizon des connaissances humaines s'agrandira de jour en jour. 11. L'origine de cet usage se perd dans la nuit des temps.

12. Aide-toi, et le ciel t'aidera (Proverbe). 13. Connais-toi toi-même. 14. Qui s'attend à l'écuelle d'autrui a souvent mal dîné (Proverbe).

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C. 1. When shall you go to bed?-We shall go to bed at ten o'clock. 2. They are mistaken. 3. The besieged troops defended themselves like lions. 4. You will catch a cold, if you expose yourself to the draught. 5. How is he? He is not very well. 6. We don't agree. Butter sells [at] two francs a (say, the) pound. 8. The little boy would wash himself, if the water were not so cold. 9. Several verbs are used with a reflexive pronoun (pronom réfléchi) for [their] object. 10. The weather was clearing up when we awoke. 11. Yesterday the sun rose at five o'clock, and set at seven. 12. Get up and dress yourselves.

13. The pots called the kettles grimy.

D. La fourmi et la colombe. Une fourmi, étant allée se désaltérer au bord d'une fontaine, fut entraînée par le courant et allait se noyer, quand une colombe, qui s'en aperçut, lui jeta dans l'eau une petite branche d'arbre. La fourmi s'y posa et parvint à se sauver. Bientôt après arriva un oiseleur qui marchait pieds-nus. Voyant la colombe, il se préparait à la tuer; mais soudain la fourmi le piqua au talon. La douleur qu'il ressentit fut si vive qu'il tourna la tête et donna ainsi à la colombe le temps de se sauver à tire d'aile.

Imitez la fourmi et soyez reconnaissants envers vos bienfaiteurs.

L'aigle, la corneille et le berger.-Un aigle planait dans l'air; il vit un agneau, fondit sur lui et l'enleva dans ses serres. Une corneille, plus faible, mais non moins gloutonne, vit cet exploit et entreprit de l'imiter; elle fondit donc sur un bélier couvert de laine et voulut s'en saisir; mais ses griffes s'embarrassèrent tellement dans la toison qu'elle ne put s'échapper. "Ah! ah!" dit le berger, "je vous tiens: vous avez beau tâcher de vous débarrasser: vos efforts sont inutiles; vous servirez de jouet à mes enfants. Cela apprendra à toute votre race à ne pas imiter l'aigle et à ne rien entreprendre au-dessus de vos forces."

from their Lending Library for Teachers

Now Ready. Crown 8vo. pp. xlviii., 936. Price 12s. 6d.

AN HISTORICAL

FRENCH GRAMMAR

BY

ARSENE DARMESTETER

LATE PROFESSOR OF THE HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE
AND OF MEDIAEVAL FRENCH LITERATURE AT THE SORBONNK

TO WHICH WAS AWARDED THE PRIX SAINTOUR
BY THE FRENCH ACADEMY, 1897

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ALPHONSE HARTOG

PROFESSOR OF FRENCH AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC

London

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED

NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

All rights reserved

THIS book, originally intended for schools, and enlarged so as to be used also in colleges, presents for the first time a complete picture of the French language on a relatively small scale. While designed primarily for students, by its broad treatment of the general problems of language, it offers much of interest to a wider public. In the General Introduction the author explains and justifies the scheme which he has adopted. The first sixty pages of the work itself are devoted to a brief survey of the history of the French language as a whole; and the remainder is divided into four books:

Book I., on the Study of the Sounds (or Phonetics); Book II., on Morphology (or Accidence); Book III., on (1) Word-Formation and (2) the Life of Words (or Semantics); Book IV., on Syntax. The object of the author is to explain the forms and usages of Modern French by means of their history. While an elementary knowledge of French is assumed, it is hoped that the translation removes the very real (and often unsuspected) difficulties that the original presents, especially in the Syntax, to the average English student. The text has been carefully revised under the supervision of the French editors, so that this is not only a translation but also a new edition of the book, already a classic in France. Indexes containing references to some 6500 words and phrases, and to 600 prefixes and suffixes have been added; and dates of birth and death of authors quoted, etc., have been introduced. Finally, it should be pointed out that in accordance with the author's intention the book remains accessible to students with no previous knowledge of Latin.

des Debats, M. GASTON PARIS, of the French Academy, wrote:

"Comme introduction générale à son œuvre, Arsène Darmesteter a écrit une courte histoire de la langue française qui est un vrai petit chef d'œuvre, et qui joint au mérite d'une exécution parfaite, celui d'une complète nouveauté. Le tout remplit cinquante cinq petites pages et contient plus de faits et d'idées qu'on n'en dégagerait de presque tous les livres écrits jusqu'à présent sur la langue française.

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"L'essentiel est que le tableau général soit vrai, que les plans en soient bien disposés, que les masses en soient groupées dans leurs justes proportions et dessinées dans leurs formes réelles. Or, ces exigences sont parfaitement réalisées et même dépassées dans l'œuvre vraiment magistral de Darmesteter. . . Ce petit livre sera désormais le manuel de tous ceux qui s'occuperont de l'histoire du français."

From an article by A. R. RISOP (K. Vollmöller's Kritisches Jahresbericht über die Fortschritte der Romanischen Philologie, ii., 132):

It

"The individuality of Darmesteter's teaching lies in the happy union of rigorous scientific investigation with the art of lucid exposition. would be vain to look for any other book in which serious problems of science have been made intelligible in so marvellous a fashion to what seems to have been but an ill-prepared audience . . . it is by its foremost representatives alone, that the attempt to popularize science can be undertaken and carried out with real and satisfactory success. And if some day a higher value comes to be placed by school authorities in Germany on a knowledge of the transformation and growth of language than has been the case hitherto, Darmesteter's method would have to be taken as a model in the new text-books that would be required."

PRESS OPINIONS.

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Academy.- "The book is one of admirable lucidity and profound learning, pleasantly conveyed. The growth of the language. is traced with the firm hand of real genius through every step, from the rough speech of the Roman settlers in Gaul to the polished, copious, and elegant language of modern France."

Spectator.-"We cannot pretend to give here an adequate appreciation of this admirable book. It must suffice to mention its completeness on the one hand, and the vivid interest which the author contrived to give to details which might easily have become tedious. book of vast learning, expressed with admirable lucidity."

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Daily Chronicle.-"Darmesteter's book has been admirably translated, and we know of none better calculated to ensure a thorough and scholarly familiarity with the origin and development of French."

Public School Magazine." Throughout we cannot help noticing the studious simplicity of the language in which the various statements are made. It would be impossible to misunderstand a single sentence in this book.. We believe that an enthusiastic teacher might impart almost the whole of this book to a class of say Fourth Form boys, and that without loss of time. We are entirely confident that it may be made a valuable educational instrument in Public Schools. There is inspiration in every page."

Educational Times.-"The chapters on the formation of words and the life of words are exceptionally interesting, but indeed the volume in its entirety is more interesting and more significant than any recent work on French philology."

Literature. . . . There is little else to be said except that it is as complete and thorough as a work of the kind could be expected to be. In addition to its other virtues, it is admirably indexed."

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Cambridge Review.-"To this book we can only give unqualified praise. It must serve as a model for all future books of the kind. Few, if any, faults can be found in it under any of such various headings as arrangement, indexes, translation, and finally subject-matter. În other words, the contents of the book are as good as the arrangement, which is a marvel of convenience."

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Oxford Magazine.-"When we pass to the work itself, we have nothing but praise for all who have shared in its production. An experienced and popular lecturer, Prof. Darmesteter succeeded in making his work a model of clearness and arrangement. Pedantry is conspicuously absent. Of the translation, we can only say that

it is worthy of the book. We have found nothing to criticise."

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Manchester Guardian.-"This book is at once the monument of a great departed scholar, and the record of a notable new step in French education. Arsène Darmesteter was indeed a born teacher of language as well as a born explorer and discoverer of its hidden ways; for him, as the title of his best known book sufficiently attests, words were living things, and his rare gift of exposition made them alive for others.... Ninety (pages) are occupied by a series of valuable indexes. The translation is throughout excellent."

...

Educational Review.-"The publishers are to be congratulated on the technical skill with which they have compressed more than a thousand pages of closely printed matter into a volume, that tires neither the eye nor the hand. The book . . will also render a solid service to the mere schoolmaster, engaged year in year out in teaching French, by methods traditional or reformed, to boys who are not particularly anxious to learn."

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