volume one

Annex
Q
PREFACE.
"When we consider the European reputation this work
has so long enjoyed, we find it more difficult to discover the
cause of its having been hitherto withheld from the vast
body of English readers, than we do to ofier reasons for the
present publication. Mutual difi'usion of knowledge among
nations must keep pace with the facilities and extension of
intercourse so suddenly and wonderfully created by science
and we confidently look to the period when no such work as
this can be confined to the mere scholars of countries foreign
to that in which it was written. It is in vain to say that
Erench is so generally understood in England as to render
translations from that language unnecessary ;
a long experi-
ence has taught us that this is not true. AYe have no faith
in a universal acquaintance with a difiicult language, all the
niceties of which must be understood before it can be appre-
ciated or enjoj^ed. AVith a pretty extensive well-educated
circle of friends, we do not know, and never did know, six
English persons, male or female, who could translate La
Eontaine's Eables with ease and spirit. Although Erench
is taught at every respectable middle-class scliool, it is
comparatively neglected by some of the highest ; it is soon
forgotten by the pupils of the former, and cultivated prin-
;