PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION

That the written and spoken language of France has within a quarter of a century undergone a change, which renders the reading of modem authors difficult to those who are familiar only with the older writers, is a fact readily admitted even by Frenchmen themselves. Hitherto, however, no attempt has been made in this country to supply the deficiency in elementary works which must necessarily resuit from this change. Ne^ compilations hâve indeed been published, but their contents hâve been mainly derived from the older classics. The présent work, selected exclusively from the writings of the latest and most eminent French authors, is intended to furnish the student with the means of becoming acquainted with the French language as it is written and spoken at the présent day. Its nature and design, however, are so clearly and cogently set forth in the compilera Préface, that little more than an enumeration of the peculiarities of this American reprint of the English work is at présent needed.

In addition to the original contents, the whole of which hâve been retained, the présent édition contains upwards of twenty pages of valuable sélections from the writings of Sismondi and Mignet, modem historians of great merit and distinguished réputation.

The notes, for the explanation of new and difficult words and idiomatic phrases, which in the English work are printed together at the end, hâve in this édition, for convenience of référence, bien placed at the foot of each page containing the matter intended to be elucidated. Thèse notes hâve also been revised ; a few, which were thought to be of little value,