FOR

FRENCH PROSE COMPOSITION:

OR,

SELECTIONS FROM

THE BEST ENGLISH PROSE WRITERS,
WITH IDIOMATIC RENDERINGS OF DIFFICULT PASSAGES, NOTES,
AND PRACTICAL HINTS TO TRANSLATORS.

BY

FERDINAND E. A. GASC, M.A.

FRENCH MASTER AT BRIGHTON COLLEGE.

LONDON:

BELL AND DALDY, FLEET STREET.
1858.

303.c.65.

BODL

DOMIMINA
NUSTIO
ILLUMEA

LONDON:

R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL.

The British Empire.

(James's Fables of Esop)

(Lord Chesterfield's Letters)

vii

xii

1

2

4

5

.

6

(Spectator)

6

. (Harris)

8

(Tatler)

9

11

12

(Lord Chesterfield's Letters)

13

England and Scotland (Sir W. Scott, Tales of a Grandfather)

The Comparison of Watches (Edgeworth's Modern Griselda)

Hearers and Doers. (S. Clarence, Not a Minute to Spare)

Scene from "The Good-natured Man "

Another Scene from "The Good-natured Man" (O. Goldsmith)

b

16

17

19

20

22

28

30

(Wm. Cowper's Letters)

33

37

41

Firmness of Alexander Severus

School-day Anecdotes

(Defoe)

59

62

65

Robinson Crusoe in his Island

Gulliver's Way of Living in the Country of Lilliput. (Swift)

A Travelling Incident . (Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit)

The Literary Snobs (W. M. Thackeray, The Book of Snobs)

Scene from "The School for Scandal"

Lord Byron to Thomas Moore
Meeting of Waverley and Mac Ivor.

(Robertson, History of Charles V.)

(Dodsley, Economy of Human Life)

(Goldsmith)

(Shakspeare, Julius Cæsar)

70

(Sheridan)

(Byron's Letters)

72

79

91

93

95

97

98

100

Brutus on the Death of Cæsar

Scene between the Jews Shylock and Tubal. (Shakspeare)

A Sketch of the Normans (T. B. Macaulay, History of England)

Influence of the French Language and Literature in the Age

of Louis XIV.

John Bull

A Practical Useful Hint

A Pretty Quarrel between Master Tom Jones and his Play-

Sophia's Little Bird

Scene from "The Rivals"

Louis XI.

(Sir Walter Scott, Quentin Durward) 123

Fox (Lord Brougham, Statesmen of the Time of George III.)

Montaigne. (Hallam, Introduction to the Literature of Europe) 138

The Vicar of Wakefield and his Family

The Spell of Wealth.

(W. M. Thackeray, Vanity Fair)
(W. M. Thackeray, Vanity Fair)

(Washington Irving, Sketch-Book) 152

(Sir Walter Scott, Guy Mannering) 155

Lady Montagu to Mrs. Thistlethwayte (Lady Montagu's Letters) 157

Scene from "She Stoops to Conquer".

A Sea-fog and Wreck.

A Highland Revenge.

(O. Goldsmith) 196

(Captain Basil Hall, Fragments) 203

. (Sir Walter Scott, Rob Roy) 217

The Widow and her Son. (Washington Irving, Sketch Book) 221

An Episode of the late War, 1855. (W. H. Russell, The War) 226

The Death of Wm. Pitt, Earl of Chatham . (T. B. Macaulay) 255

Scene from "The Clandestine Marriage" (Garrick and Colman) 259

The Native Village. (Charles Lamb, Rosamund Gray)

On Forming a Taste for Simple Pleasures

On the Folly of Inconsistent Expectations

Religion never to be treated with Levity.

Scene from "Money"

(Vicesimus Knox)

265

269

(Mrs. Barbauld)

272

(H. Blair) 276

(Sir E. Bulwer Lytton) 277

Lord Chatham's Speech on the Immediate Removal of the

Troops from Boston, in America.

280

286

The Spectre Guest's Coming. (Miss Mitford, Country Stories)

Town versus Country

The Battle of Pharsalia. (0. Goldsmith, History of Rome) 295

The Battle of Otterburn (Sir W. Scott, Tales of a Grandfather) 303

The Defeat of the Spanish Armada.

(E. S. Creasy) 308

The Battle of Assye (From the Duke of Wellington's Despatches) 313

Memorandum on the Battle of Assye

The Battle of the Alma.