IV PREFACE

are first given, then the choicest treasures bequeathed by Corneille, Racine, Boileau, Molière, etc., and thèse are followed by some of the most pleasing stanzas of Victor Hugo, Lamartine and other living poets.

In the distribution of the contents, it is however important to observe that the sélections designed for recitation commence with the literature of France of the seventeenth century; those of a previous epoch, being merely inserted as historical spécimens of the graduai growth and development of poetiy in France, are comprised Avithin the Introduction. In the seventeenth century the French language was formed, and, notwithstanding the innovations of the ultrsi-Romantiques of the modem school, it is still, in substance, the same éloquent idiom created by the genius of Pascal, and rendered imperishable by the galaxy of talent that distinguished the glorious era of Louis XIV.

The Leçons et modèles de poésie française being intended as a sequel to the Editor's Réjjertoire littéraire, or prose sélections in the French language % the same care has been exercised in cull-

' " The 'Répertoire littiraîre' présents a séries of extracts from the most celebrated Freuch authors, from Pascal to Chateaubriand and Victor Hugo ; aud includes spécimens of almost everj- variety of French prose composition. The notes of the compiler, which évince much learniug, taste, and discrimination, ^ill materially assist to a perfect understanding of the authors which they illustrate, whilst they point out several striking analogies, hoth in thought and expression, between the productions of French writers aud the classical compositions of antiquity. The sélection, throughout, is as judicious as the elucidations are just and appropriate ; and we hâve much pleasure in recommending this excellent work to our readers, as