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FABLES, SELECT TALES, REMARKABLE FACTS

AMUSING ANECDOTES, &c.

WITH

A DICTIONARY

OF ALL THE WORDS, TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH.

Victor

BY M. DE FIVAS,

MEMBER OF SEVERAL LITERARY SOCIETIES.

Une morale nue apporte de l'ennui :

Le conte fait passer le précepte avec lui.-La Fontaine.

He that requires the attention and application of youth should endeavor to make what he
proposes as grateful and agreeable as possible.-Locke

FROM THE FIFTH ENGLISH EDITION.

NEW YORK:

D. APPLETON & COMPANY, 200 BROADWAY.

M DCCC LI.

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Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1846

By D. APPLETON & COMPANY,

E the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Sou hern District of New York.

PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

THE strong and commendable desire, telt by almost every student of the French language, to enter as early as possible upon a course of instructive or entertaining reading, has induced the Publishers to select for the use of such persons a work of acknowledged excellence, which has rapidly passed through five editions in England. It is intended to accompany "Ollendorff's New Method of Learning French," now so widely known and justly esteemed, as pre-eminently the best work extant for gaining rapidly a thorough knowledge of the most useful and indispensable of modern languages. With any other French Grammar that may be used, however, it will be found highly valuable as an auxiliary.

The great difficulty of compiling a book adapted to the wants of beginners has been admirably overcome in this "Introduction." The method which ought to prevail in every branch of learning-that of proceeding by insensible steps from what is easy to what is difficult-is closely adhered to. The pieces contained in the volume com

prehend a great variety of subjects, and are generally of a lively and familiar style. It is therefore calculated to keep up the interest of the student, and enable him to read with facility other French books in which he may not find any assistance.

Though designed for the use of schools, it has been borne in mind that many of the learners of French are adults; and therefore while the book is adapted to the capacity of youthful students, it will also be found accept able to those of more advanced age.

The Dictionary at the end, in which the meaning of every word contained in the book is given, will be appre ciated by all whose experience has made them familia with the discouraging labor and loss of time occasioned by the transition from a reading-book to a separate dictionary, in the early stages of learning a foreign language. That this cause alone has driven many persons from their resolution of learning French, is a fact well known to teachers.

By placing the explanatory words at the end of the book, instead of putting them at the foot of the page, the learners will also derive considerable benefit. They will be pleased with a book, in which the pages are not disfigured; they will have time for reflection, and scope for exerting their ingenuity; and these exertions will often be rewarded by discoveries the most animating, because made by themselves.

In this American edition the work has been carefully revised; and the division of the Dictionary into two parts -a serious inconvenience, caused by additions to the text

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