The Portland daily press., 1874-09-26
'ERMS $500 PER ANNUM IN ADVANCE

CAusERIEs AvEc Mes ELEvEs. Par Lambert saa-
yeur. Cloth, 219 PIP. Boston: Lee s. Shepard.
Portland: Loring, Short & Harmon.
The students and teachers of French will
be glad to learn that reform has been made
in the old method of teaching. and that il
has been discovered at this late day that it is
not necessary to go through grammar to bs
able to ask for piece of bread and butter In
correct French.
frof. Lambert Sauveur, a French gentle
man of education and culture, well known in
Boston and New Haven, has written a book
Illustrative of this new system of teaching
French without grammar or dictionary, which
will be of great interest to teachers and
scholars as well as to persons of cultured
taste. 1t is entitled "Cduseries drec Mes
Eieues," and consists of charming CONVERSE
tions on wide range of subjects, between
himself and his pupils, and demonstrates
that the study of French can be made ore of
pleasure, and that ideas can be put into
French phrases as easily as TO string together
worcs which represent nothing. The expe-
rience of the american Girl abroad" who.
after long study of French at a boarding
school was able to say, "Have you the canary
OF the carpenter and the horse of the DOCTOR,
is by no means an exceptional case, aud well
illustrates the result of the old method of study
ing the grammar with its abstract rules and
stiff, senseless phrases. Prof. Sauveur saws,
1T is necessary to converse; for 10 learn
French, pupils must resort to conversation
and nothing else." The success attending
Prot. Sauveur's system testifes to the prac-
ticabillty Oft and his reasoning on this sub
Ject is clear enough to convince any person
that it is the only true method. He claims
that it dates back to Rabelais and Montaigne
and even to Socrates.
Mr.. Geo. B, Emerson of Boston, who stands
in the foremost rank of educators expressed
the same views in regard to the English and
Latin grammar in an address before the Bos.
ton Social Science Association in 1867. After
Prof. Sauveur's classes are sufficiently ad-
vanced, then the grammar is taken and made
study OF great interest. This volume re-
tains all the vivacity and srrightliness of a
conversation, while the French is pure aud
graceful.
FLOATING CITY AND THE BLOCKADE RUNNERS,
By Jules Verne. New York: Scribner, Armstrong
q Co. For sale by Loring, Short & Harmon.
In this handsomely bound and copiously IL
lustrated volume of three hundred pages
this most versatile of writers has undertaken
to describe an-ocean voyage N the Great
Eastern, and to give an Englishman's idea Of
blockade running as practiced during our late
war. The story of the Floating City is mi
mute description of the worlds largest steam
ship, and of life on board during a tedious
voyage, the ordinary incidents of which,
clothed by the writer's vivid imagination, as
sumo an air of romance. OF course eyery-
thing is highly colored and overdrawn. as is
the case in all of Jules Verne's writings.
This, however, constitutes their chief charm,
and, moreover the exaggerations are of so
gross nature that the most credulous of
readers could never for moment think
of accepting them as truth. For instance,
when he says, "Under this fine, sunny
sky the upper decks again became crowd
ed; ladies appeared in fresh costumes,
some walking about, others sitting down
l was going to say on the grass-plats
beneath the shady trees, and the children re-
sumed their interrupted games," and then in
order to construct pleasing simile, adds,
"With few soldiers in uniform, strutting
about with their hands in their pockets, one
unSuI nave IaDcieu oneself on a French
promenade" We are pleased with the fic-
ton, but would not for moment credit the
story that the deck of vessel could be tor
tured into the resemblance of French boule-
ward under the most propitous circumstances
"The Blockade Runners Is more of ro-
nance than the other and is not marked by
the minute and detailed descriptions of objects
and places which have been prominent fea-
ture of the authors former works. Though
in some portions it is quite exciting, we can
not but think hat writer so peculiarly gift
ed in the art of making black appear white
makes a great mistake in departing from his
his own inimitable style to take up that of
the ordinary story-teller.