Book Description

Excerpt from French Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs: With a Pure Prose Pronunciation, in Accordance With the Usage of the Cognate Languages, and Calculated to Induce English, German, Italian, Spanish, and All Other Learners of the French, to Join With Them in Public Worship To a superficial reader the title of this Tract car ries upon its face the evidence of its author's pre sumption. In the fulness of self-complacency, and with little respect to his neighbours, a gentleman once wrote to me, under the blind belief that the French language could say and do what it pleased, and claim an exemption from the interference of other languages. So the Emperor Nicholas says and does what he pleases, and claims an exemp tion from the interference of other Governments. His Majesty is about to learn that the Govern ments of Europe are a political family; and the above letter-writer ought to have known long ago, that the languages of Europe are a philological family: There are principles common to them all; and there are questions upon which they all have an equal right to give an opinion. Neither does the intelligence or respectability of that opin ion depend upon the place where its author was born. I once dined with the above correspondent at his own house, in a distant city. He laid before me certain bold innovations of his own upon the English grammar, though he was born and brought up in France. I gave him a respectful hearing; and my judgment of his views was formed upon their own merits, and not upon the genealogy of their advocate. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.