No. II.

Reed, Annac,

VIE

DE

GEORGE WASHINGTON

PRIS DE L'ANGLAIS, ET DÉDIÉ A LA JEUNESSE
AMÉRICAINE.

PAR A. N. GIRAULT

Professor of Languages in the US Naval School, Annapolis, Md.,"
Author of "The French Guide,” “Colloquial Exercises," &c.

TWENTY-THIRD EDITION.

PHILADELPHIA:

HENRY PERKINS, 142 CHESTNUT ST.
1848.

LIBRARY

OF THE

UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

E312 R385 1848

ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1835, by
HENRY PERKINS,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District
of Pennsylvania.

78341

PREFACE

TO THE FOURTH EDITION.

Of all the books generally used in teaching the French language, none appears to the compiler of this biography altogether suitable for the purpose. He thinks Voltaire's Histoire de Charles XII. and Siècle de Louis XIV. above the capacity of juvenile learners, and Gil Blas entirely unfit to be placed in their hands. The use of Telemachus as a French class-book he does most decidedly condemn, even at the risk of being accused of literary heresy. Its very elegant and poetical language can only be appreciated by mature minds, and good French scholars. It requires in the reader a greater knowledge of mythology than can be expected from children: its subject is not calculated to interest or improve them, unless, indeed, it be seriously intended to teach the youth of this mighty republic how a king should govern his subjects. The work, besides, is extensive; and it must be obvious to all, that French students should read a variety of small