PREFACE

The style of those compositions which foxpi oui first study in learning a language, becomes fivmly impressed npon the memory, and supplies, as it were, the 'moùlds or forms into which thought aflerwards WiûS ^hen it is attempted to be ezpressed. " Les choses qu'on apprend par coeur j' says Bollin^ " sHmpriment dans la mémoire, et sont comme des moules ou des formes que les pensées prennent lorsqu'on les veut exprimer" Hence the importance of selecting from the literature of the langoage to which we dévote oor attention, the compositions of those writers who offer the pùrest models for imitation. By this means we are habituated to a correct and élégant phraseology, and at the same time enrich oor minds with just and noble sentiments.

Under the influence of this conviction, my object in the Répertoire des prosateurs français is to présent a séries of extracts from the works of Fénelon, Pascal, Massillon, Bossuet, La Bruyère, BufFon, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Barthélémy, and other illustrions writers who hâve adomed the literature of ^FVance from the Augustan i^e of Louis XIY to the présent day. The great îdiomatic révolution which has taken place in the language within the last quarter of a century has made it imperative to dwell largely on the modem authors, especially the historians, and for the purpose of inustrating fîilly the variety and peculiar character* istics of their style, the présent édition exhibits a succession of éloquent narratives, from the .récent and celebrated productions of Chateaubriand, De Lamartine, Victor Hugo, Guizot, Thiers, S^ur, Michaud, Lamennais, Jules Janin, Alfred de Vigny, etc. The narratory and descriptive selec-

^ tions, either historical or romantic, are chiefly intended for the practice of Recitation, which, of ail auxiliaries in instruc*