Θ ог GENERAL GRAMMAR, ADAPTED TO THE CAPACITY OF YOUTH, AND PROPER TO SERVE AS AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF LANGUAGES. Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Lacy, BY A. J. SYLVESTRE DE SACY, Member of the Royal Council for Public Instruction, the French Baron. TRANSLATED AND FITTED FOR AMERICAN USE BY D. FOSDICK, JR. Third American, from the Fifth French edition. NEW YORK: MARK H. NEWMAN & CO., 199 BROADWAY, 1847 Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1834, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. PREFACE. Ir will, perhaps, be a considerable a priori recommendation of the following treatise, that its author is the Baron De Sacy, one of the most profound linguists of the age. His devotion to the science of language, and his extensive acquirements in this department of literature, more especially in the study of the Oriential tongues, certainly give uncommon promise of success in the preparation of a work like the present. To the public, however, the decision respecting its intrinsic value must be surrendered. The Translator is conscious that its worth, whatever it may be, is by no means enhanced by the dress in which it now appears; but he submits it with diffidence to the clemency of those under whose eye it may chance to fall. It is proper to acquaint the public with the manner in which the Translator has proceeded, in adapting this little treatise to American use. He has omitted, in many places, discussions about words belonging to the French language alone, especially such as could be of no use to an English reader; he has used his best judgment in substituting poetical examples drawn from the store-house of English literature for such poetical examples in French as were used by the author, and could not, from the nature of the case, be properly translated into English; he has altered some French proper names to names more in accordance with the genius of the English language; he has not confined himself to an exactly literal translation of every word as it re *See, e. g., pp. 173, 174, 175, and 195, 196, 197 of the original. |