Of all the systems hitherto devised to facilitate the study of the French language, and at the same time offer to the student a method which, in its development, will prove attractive to him, we are inclined to think the present one by M. Biarnois is in many respects to be preferred.
The idea in the invention of most of the modern systems is a good one: to give the pupil words and phrases before he is taught the rules for their grammatical construction. This is the design proposed by our author, and after an introductory article on pronunciation he gives us at once a sentence.
"On nous dit que le Sultan Mahmoud, par ses guerres perpétuelles, au dehors et sa tyrannie à l'intérieur, avait rempli les états de ses ancêtres de mine et de desolation; et avait dépeuplé, l'Empire Persan."
This sentence is thoroughly analyzed, which gives him occasion to explain:
1. Transposition and contractions of pronouns.
2. The gender and number of substantives.
3. Formation of the feminine of adjectives.
4. Of the plural of adjectives.
5. Place, elision, and contraction of the article.
6. Forms of negation.
7. Possessive pronouns.
8. Possessive, demonstrative, and indefinite adjectives, with many grammatical relations of all these.
This is followed by an original set of rules to find French words to express what we know in English, how to form verbs out of substantives, and to determine, without a dictionary, the conjugation to which each of these verbs belongs.
Again we have more phrases, accompanied by running explanatory notes, and the whole couched in a familiar conversational style which cannot fail of fixing the attention and impressing the memory of the student.
The latter half of the work, under the title Recapitulation, takes up the parts of speech in more regular order.
We confess that for young beginners we would prefer a certain amount of study in the admirable work of Dr. Emile Otto, as revised by Mr. Ferdinand Bôcher for English students, before taking up the method of M. Biarnois. The latter supposes a considerable advance in the knowledge of the English language, and he is compelled at the very outset to make use of words and phrases which, to youthful pupils, might need explanation fully as much as the corresponding ones in French. But for students in our colleges, who have already some notion of English or Latin grammar, we think this grammar of M. Biarnois is one of the best, and in many respects better than any that have come under our notice.