Au sein de la paresse, in the bosom of idleness, in the lap of idleness. Le sein, m. the bosom, is one of those homonymous words-sain, cinq, ceint, sein, seing, saint, being all pronounced alike. Page 101, VII. . Et l'ennui détruisoit l'univers. Un Dieu qui, &c. and weariness was destroying the universe. A Divinity which, &c. In English you would combine the two ideas by "when," and say, weariness was destroying--when. But observe that this combination with "when" is hardly ever allowable in French. Instead of saying, as you do in English, “ I shall be with you on Friday, when I shall have the pleasure of telling you," je serai chez vous Vendredi, quand j'aurai le plaisir de vous dire, the French prefer combining the sentence by the copulative conjunction "and," et. They say, je serai chez vous Vendredi, et j'aurai le plaisir de vous dire, or they split the two ideas, je serai chez vous Vendredi ; j'aurai alors le plaisir, &c. I shall then have the pleasure, &c. See ennui, page 309, XX. All the words in ui, which are but few, are m. Prendre pitié, or avoir pitié Prit pitié, took compassion. de quelqu'un, to take pity of one. sion. This word requires your utmost attention; it has a very different meaning according to the connexion in which. it stands. Avoir, or prendre pitié, is always taken in a good sense, and means to have compassion. But faire pitié often denotes that a thing is contemptible, wretched, bad. Il raisonne à faire pitié, he argues wretchedly. Elle chante à faire pitié, she sings very badly. Cela fait pitié, that is pityful, wretched. Il vous écorche les oreilles, c'est pitié de l'entendre, be grates your ears, it is misery to listen to him. Regarder quelqu'un en pitié, to look upon a person with contempt. The English" it is a pity," is, in French, c'est dommage, and never c'est pitié, because this expression means, as we have stated just now, it is a misery, the thing is so wretched; but you may translate the English "it would be a great pity," by ce seroit grand' pitié, observing only not to say grande pitié. The French words in é, with the acute açcent, are generally m., but those in auté, eté, iété, ité, and itié, are f. Those in ité are the same in English, and end in ity, with a small number of exceptions. Such are caducité, decay; causticité, censoriousness; cécité, blindness; commo. dité, convenience; efficacité, efficacy; insatiabilité, insatiableness; insociabilité, unsociableness; insolvabilité, insolvency; modicité, smallness; nubilité, marriageableness; somptuosité, sumptuousness; surdité, deafness; and a few more: but there are at least 400 in which the English ity answers exactly the French ité. Mit auprès du plaisir, placed near pleasure. Mit is the preter. of the irr. a. v. mettre, to put, to place; je mets, je mis, j'ai mis. This verb has a variety of meanings, according to the word to which it is joined, as mettre à bout, to exhaust one's patience; mettre bas, to bring forth; mettre en fuite, to put to flight; mettre en crédit, to set the fashion; mettre au net, to copy a writing; se mettre à, to begin to. Elle se mit à pleurer, she fell a crying; but se mettre, without any preposition, to dress one'sself: elle se met bien, she dresses with taste; mais sa cousine ne sait pas se mettre, but her cousin does not dress well. Mettre la main à un ouvrage d'esprit, to work at a literary work; mettre la dernière main à un ouvrage, to finish a literary work. Se mettre au jeu, to sit down to a game; se mettre dans le jeu, to addict one's-self to gambling; to turn gambler. Auprès, prep. page 280, XVIII. Il est auprès du Roi, he is with the King; he has a situation at court, in the King's household; but il est fort bien auprès du Roi, he is in high favour with the King. As an adv. auprès means hard by, close by. Je viens d'ici auprès, I come from near this place. But couchez vous auprès is a received expression, (une phrase faite, page 309, XX., 323, XX1.,) meaning, well then let it alone. Thus, Piron said very humorously of some Nuns who would not receive the Confessor whom the Bishop had recommended-Elles n'en veulent point pour Directeur; eh bien! qu'elles se couchent auprès L'espoir, page 118, VIII. It is one of those nouns with which fol is still used, instead of fou, page 307, XX. Un fol espoir, a foolish hope. Aujourd'hui, adv. to-day, this day, now-a-days. It is used, as it were, substantively. You may say, in the nominative, aujourd'hui ressemble à hier, to-day resembles yesterday; le temps d'aujourd'hui, the weather of this day; and in the da, tive, on a remis l'affaire à aujourd'hui, the matter has been put off till this day. How can Mr. Cobbett, in § 148 of his French Grammar, assert—“ Sometimes our adverb is a compound when the French is not: as now-a-days, which they express by aujourd'hui ?" Surely aujourd'hui is as much a compound as "now-a-days," and even more so, for it consists of four words, au jour de hui, the day of to-day; hui being an old term derived from the Latin HODIE, which is still used in the French Courts of justice, to denote, "reckoning from this day." The French Lawyers express " this day twelvemonth," by d'hui en un an. Ce bonheur usé, this worn out happiness. Usé, ée, worn out, destroyed, is both adj. and part. past of the verb user, which, as a r. act. 1. means to consume, to wear out, to deteriorate; and as a neuter verb, to make use of, to employ. In this sense it is construed with de. User bien, or user mal de quelque chose, to make a good or a bad use of a thing. But coupled with en, and applied to persons, it means, to use, to treat: il en use mal avec son frère, he does not treat his brother kindly; elle en use bien avec sa mère, she behaves well to her mother. The refl. s'user, means to get deteriorated, to become worn out. The infinitive user is also employed as a substantive. The French say, ce drap est d'un bon user, that cloth is of a good wear, it will wear well; cet homme est bon à l'user, this man improves upon acquaint ance. Et vous avez besoin de vous quitter, and you want to quit each other, to part. Le besoin, m. want, need, occasion: être dans le besoin, to be in want, to be in need. It also denotes a natural need: il est sorti pour un besoin, he went out to do his needs. Avoir besoin de, to want to, to be in want of, to be in need of, to have occasion for. Observe that avoir besoin never expresses the English "to want," when it simply means "to be willing or to be desirous of." This is expressed by " vouloir," page 291, XIX. Hence the com que mon expression, "what do you want?" is in French, voulez vous ? unless it should be meant for "what are you in need of?" then you would say, de quoi avez vous besoin? I want paper, I want to write to my brother; j'ai besoin de papier, je voudrois écrire une lettre à mon frère, Sans humeur, sans caprice, without whims, without caprice. Humeur, f. (see eur, page 67, V.) is one of those French words which have a variety of meanings. The principal are, humour, moisture, temper, disposition. Etre d'humeur à, to be in the humour to, to be disposed to, generally denotes the habitual disposition of the individual-il n'est pas d'humeur à se laisser gouverner. Etre en humeur de, to be in the humour for, relates more to the actual disposition of the moment; elle n'est pas en humeur de chanter aujourd'hui. Avoir de l'humeur, to be in a had humour. Caprice, caprice, whim, is m. avoir des caprices, to be whimmy; suivre son caprice, to indulge one's whim. Of the French words in ice there are 32 m. and 86 f. The latter are for the most part in trice, and characterize females, either by their trade and profession, or by their disposition. They corre spond with the masculine words in ateur: opérateur, gives opératrice; spectateur, spectatrice; consolateur, consolatrice: the virgin Mary is called, by Roman Catholics, la consolatrice des affligés, the comforter of the distressed. Observe that the prep. sans, without, which we had with an infinitive, page 41, III., is construed without an article, as here, whenever it denotes exactly the English" without." The French say, sans effort, sans argent, sans secours, sans amis, &c. But whenever sans means the English "had it not been for, were it not for," it must be construed with the article. Sans la chasse on vivroit sans plaisirs à la campagne, 'were it not for hunting and shooting, a country life would be without pleasure; sans la passion du jeu il est sans passion, were it not for his passion for gambling, he would be without any passion, devoid of passion. The rule is, that when sans specifies, it requires the article; when it modifies or qualifies, it excludes the article. Un diner sans sallade ne vaut rien en été ; but sans la sallade nous aurions fait un mauvais diner. Ménage étant un jour aux Chartreux, (at the Convent of the Carthusian Friars, who are forbid speaking by the rule of their order,) on lui fit voir un tableau de St. Bruno, (the founder of the order) très-bien fait, et il dit sur le champsans la règle il parleroit. With pronouns, as they do not admit of any article, the connexion alone shows whether sans specifies or modifies. Sans moi, page 150, X., without me; but when I say, sans moi vous n'auriez rien eu à manger, it means, had it not been for me you would have had nothing to eat; and sans toi, towards the end of this Discourse, means, without thee, devoid or deprived of thee. Comme il règne en mon cœur, as it reigns in my heart, in the same way as it reigns. We had comme in the same 66 as. sense, page 41, III. It is a conjunction, serving to denote the motive of an action, or to explain and compare: comme il est honnête homme; comme on pourroit nous attaquer. In this sense it always is "as, or whereas," in English. But when it is comparative, it may be rendered by " like," when connected with a substantive. Ils se sont comportés comme des fous, they behaved like madmen. With a verb it is again as." La chose est, comme vous le voyez, telle qu'on l'avoit dite, the matter is, as you see, just as it had been told. When it is merely explaining, it can be rendered only by Il l'auroit condamné comme juge, mais il l'a justifié témoin; as a judge he would have condemned him, but as a witness he exculpated him. How Mr. Cobbett can rank comme, as he does, in § 160 of his French Grammar, among prepositions, is really surprising. It is no more a preposition than "as," or "like," are prepositions in English. It is decidedly a conjunction, and it very properly stands in Mr. Cobbett's List of Conjunctions, § 166. Some grammarians, it is true, consider comme as an adverb, when it is compara comme tive, just as the English" like," but no one ever, before Mr. Cobbett, mistook it for a preposition. We conclude Bürger's Ballad of The Elopement for our German lesson. |