j'aurois pu l'accepter, I might have accepted it. The conditional, je l'aurois accepté, would signify, I would have accepted it: but to express a contingency, or possibility, you must say, j'aurois pu, I might have, just as we had above j'aurois du, I should have, I ought to have, to denote duty obligation. Vous auriez pu écrire à votre père, you might have written to your father; vous auriez écrit à votre père, you would have written to your father. Page 24, 25, No. II., 88, VI. Rome étoit digne alors qu'on s'en fit adopter, then worthy that one should get adopted by her. Rome was government of "worthy," digne, is direct, as worthy of being praised, worthy of being blamed, it is construed in French with de; digne d'être loué, digne d'être blâme, but the substantive is preferred to the verb, digne de louanges, or digne d'éloge, and digne de blâme, page 85, No. V1I. When the government is indirect, as here, digne is construed with que, and the conjunctive. He deserves that people should take their revenge of him, il est digne qu'on s'en venge. Dans cette guerre on la vit toujours ferme, in that war one saw her always firm. Here you have the preterperfect definite, because Rome was seen firm at all epochs during the war, a definite period of time which is gone by. If there were no particular time mentioned when she was seen so firm, you would say, on la voyoit toujours ferme, firmness was her habitual state at all times, people were always seeing her firm when they looked at her, people used to see her firm. Remember, therefore, that you use the preterite or preterperfect definite, 1. whenever the precise time in which an action was performed, or an event took place, is completely past, and no part of it whatever remaining. Hence the French call this tense le tems historique, the historical tense. The events and deeds recorded in history happened at a definite time stated, which time is absolutely past. The thing was done and it is over. Le 17 Août, 1813, le Général Moreau se rendit au chateau, où l'Empereur Alexandre le présenta à Il alla ensuite faire visite aux Ministres et aux Le soir il eut une longue conversation avec le ses sœurs. Généraux. Comte de Metternich. Le 18, à midi, il fut présenté par l'Empereur de Russie à l'Empereur d'Autriche, qui le reçut avec la plus grande distinction, et le remercia de la modération qu'il avoit montrée dans ses campagnes sur le Rhin." Thus you say, je la vis hier à l'Opéra; le roi arriva Lundi; nous rendimes nos comptes l'année passée; les Princes ne voulurent pas danser au bal de la reine. 2. Whenever the action or the event spoken of happened subsequently to another transaction or circumstance stated. Après que j'eus reçu mon argent, je m'en allai, after I had received my money I went away; lorsque tout le monde fut parti, je me retirai dans ma chambre, when all the company was gone I retired to my bedroom. Comme Fabius tiroit la guerre en longueur, Annibal lui présenta plusieurs fois bataille, mais en vain; as Fabius was protracting the war, Annibal offered him battle several times, but in vain. There are, however, cases when the imperfect may be used even with hier, "yesterday," or a time completely past, of which there is nothing remaining. For instance, je ne trouve pas ma montre, je l'avois hier, I cannot find my watch, yet I had it yesterday; le Roi étoit malale Lundi, the King was ill on Monday; because the King being ill, and my having my watch, are events which both continued for some time, they were not over at once. la perfide Carthage, faithless Carthage. Perfide, adj. is one of those French words which have a great latitude of meaning. It denotes not only want of faith, which may be the work of particular circumstances, but want of loyalty, want of the inclination to keep faith, an insolent and malicious non-performance of vows and promises, a triumphant faithlessness. There is no language which has so many shades of meaning in a single word, and it probably is this circumstance which more than any other has recommended the French language to the Courts of Europe. Thus aimable, in opposition to belle, often signifies plain, deficient in beauty; bon frequently means silly; and puissant, lusty, corpulent. Vous y pourrez encor rencontrer des obstacles, you may still meet with obstacles. The y, which means to it, difficultis in accomplishing your object, viz. of giving laws to Rome, is not expressed in English, and yet you see of what importance it is, referring to all that Spartacus had said respecting his entering Rome the next day as a conqueror. See pages 55, IV., 129, IX., 200, XIII. We have already observed that those three little words, y, en, and on, and the exact determination of the time when something happened or was done, give to the historical or narrative style of the French a rapidity and clearness, which render their light historical works called Memoirs, uncommonly interesting. Those three words often come together. Le poivre est fort, on y en a mis trop, the pepper is strong, they have put too much of it in it. Here you have thirteen words in English instead of ten, and the disagreeable repetition of it in it. The y besides may refer to a plural, and then it would be in them. A French Nobleman, who had been governor of a province, talking to an inhabitant of that province, who had lately come to Paris, asked him: "Ya-t-il toujours bien des fous dans votre province? Il y en a toujours, replied the Countryman, mais pas tant que lorsque vous y étiez." There are some there still, but not so many as when you were there. Spartacus doit s'attendre que le dernier de nous périra, Spartacus must expect that the last of us will perish. Attendre, page 41, III. to wait, to expect, when made a reflected verb, signifies to expect confidently, to rely upon a thing, to be, as it were, sure that it will happen. It is generally construed with the particle à, and the infinitive. Je m'attends à être bien grondé, I expect a good scolding, I am sure I shall get it because I deserve it. Je m'attends que je serai bien grondé, would be equally correct, but not in the usual style of conversation. To vary as much as possible the German poëtical pieces, which we recommend to our readers as proper to be learnt by heart, we select to-day a few lines of J. H. Voss's celebrated Idyll Louisa, remarkable for its faithful delineation of the unsophisticated manners of the country people in the North of Germany. But the verses are hexametres; they are not so easily committed to memory as rhymes: yet they goa great way to teach'a correct pronunciation and the proper accent. Our extract, therefore, is but short. "PLÖTZLICH scholl im Gebüsche die rufende Stimme des Knaben: Kommt doch, und pflückt. Erdbeeren! Hier stehen sie röther wie [Scharlach, Busch an Busch vollglühend, dasz einer nicht weisz wo er hin soll! Jubeln wollen wir alle vor Lust wann unseren Vorrath Wir in die Kumm'ausschütten! Da werden sie schaun mit Ver[wundrung, Beide Papa und Mama! Felderbeern pflanzte der liebe Wunderbar! es erhebet der Reiche sich künstlicher Gärten, Welche die Frucht ihm zinsen aus jeglichem Sonnenbezirke, Fröhnend in Zwang; und dem Armen bereitete Gott in der Wild [nisz, Ohne sein Thun, Fruchtgärten voll heilsamer Blumen und Kräuter : Arbeitlos dann sammelt das Kind, und sammelt der Greisz ein, Heimliche Gabe von Gott, der treu auch des Sperlinges waltet. SUDDENLY there resounded in the thicket the calling voice of the boy: Come then, come and gather Strawberries! Here they stand in full glow, bush by bush, redder than scarlet, so that one does not know where to begin! We shall all be huzzaing for joy when we pour our provision into the dish! Papa and Mamma will both look with astonisment! The Almighty planted such succulent and sweet Wood Strawberries! They taste infinitely better, with cream, than the gardener's pompous Strawberries, with wine! Now they approached, and beheld the swollen berries, which, red as fire, and crowded in clusters, shone all around amidst the grass in the beams of the sun, and spread an aromatic fragrance over the country. The noble modest Walter exclaimed with joy and surprise: How wonderful! the rich pride themselves in their artificial gardens, which yield them the fruit of every climate, reared in bondage by force; whilst the Almighty prepared in the wilderness for the poor, without any labour of theirs, fruit-gardens stocked with wholesome flowers and herbs and unemployed children and old people collect the secret gifts of God, who also bounteously provides for the Sparrow. Plötzlich, adv. of time, suddenly; when strengthened by the particle ur, urplötzlich, very suddenly. It generally implies something unexpected, and frequently something alarming. scholl, resounded, is the irr. imperfect of the verb schallen, which is regular, when it means to produce a sound; but it has scholl in the impf. when it means to resound, to re-echo ; and the participle then is geschollen. das im Gebüsche, a contraction for in dem Gebüsche. in here governs the dative, because there is no locomotion; if there were, it would be in's Gebüsch, for in das Gebüsch. Gebüsch, es, e, die Gebüsche, n. the thicket, the copse, the bushes. The particle Ge prefixed to a substantive often changes the word into a collective one. ein Busch, a bush; das Gebüsch, a collection of bushes, a thicket; so der Berg, a mountain; das Gebirge, a chain of mountains; eine Wolke, a cloud; das Gewölke, an assemblage of clouds. Voss says, "Oft sieht man auf einem Punkte des Berges eine kleine lockere Nebelflocke aufsteigen. Zusehens wächst die Masse, und wird erst Wölkchen, dann Wolke, und dann Gewölk." kommt doch, und pflückt, the real second person plural of the imperative, which, in the language of polite conversation in a private circle, would be kommen sie doch und pflücken sie, come but and gather; doch, however, is frequently a mere expletive to enforce a request, it answers sometimes the English pray; thun Sie mir doch den Gefallen, pray do me that favour. Page 13, No. I. kommen, to come, is an irr. n. v.; ich komme, ich kam, ich bin gekommen. Pflücken, r. a. v. to gather, to cull, to pluck ; and figuratively to plunder, to cheat at play. die Erdbeere, f. the strawberry. We call Felderbeeren or Walderbeeren, those which grow spontaneously in woods; and Gartenerdbeeren, those which grow in gardens. röther, the comparative of roth, adj. red. der Scharlach, es, m. scarlet. Sich in Scharlach kleiden, to wear scarlet clothes. Busch an Busch, bush by bush. dasz einer nicht weisz wo er hin soll! that one knows not where he shall to; meaning that one does not know where to go first, where to begin gathering. Einer answers here |
