VI PREFACE

My aim shall hâve been attained if I hâve afforded them an incentive and an aid toward the object in view — that is, toward the mastery of the beautiful language which takes pride in poets like Corneille, Molière, La Fontaine, Racine, Lamartine, Alfred de Musset, Victor Hugo, etc., and in writings in prose that are unexcelled even by the classical masterpieces of the Greeks and Romans.