A FRENCH METHOD, THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL. ADAPTED TO THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY BY H. W. EHRLICH, M.A., PH.D., FRENCH MASTER, ROYAL GRAMMAR SCHOOL, E LONDON: SAMPSON LOW, SON, AND MARSTON, SIMPKIN, MARSHALL AND CO., STATIONERS' HALL COURT; E. STANFORD, CHARING CROSS. PREFACE. THE following French Method contains a Course of Exercises, a Grammar, and a Reader, with a collection of useful words, and Vocabularies. It thus condenses in one volume what frequently has to be sought for in three or four different books. It is intended for Beginners. The books which now are almost invariably placed in the hands of English children when they commence French, are translations of Dr. F. Ahn's "French Method for German Pupils." This remarkable work was based on Seidenstücker's Practical System, and first published in 1832, at a time when the old-fashioned French Methods, which were mere imitations of Latin Grammars, still held their sway in Germany. These purely theoretical works, like many similar books which continue in vogue in some English schools, gave endless rules and exceptions, but few words required in common conversation, and hardly any exercises of a colloquial nature. Practically they were of little value; for it is much easier to speak a language with few rules and many words, than with many rules and few words. It was the endeavour to emancipate the study of living languages from the principles by which Latin and Greek are taught, that gave birth to the Methods b |