CONARD OPDYCE 5/11/12 9: 10 MAY 1912 FLEURS DU PARNASSE FRANÇAIS; OR ELEGANT EXTRACTS FROM THE MOST APPROVED PRODUCTIONS OF THE BEST FRENCH POETS; : CAREFULLY SELECTED AND ARRANGED FOR AMERICAN SCHOOLS, AND AMATEURS OF FRENCH POETRY. BY CHARLES PICOT. La poesie est l'haleine de l'âme.-LAMARTINE. Floriferis ut apes in saltibus omnia libant.-LUCRET. PHILADELPHIA: THOMAS, COWPERTHWAIT & CO. Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1844, by CHARLES PICOT, in the clerk's office of the District Court of the United States in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. J. Fagan, Stereotyper. (2) The late venerable Peter S. Du Ponceau, Esquire, President of the American Philosophical Society, after having commended the first Nos. of this Series-" First Lessons in French," &c., - suggested the propriety of my publishing, separately, selected extracts from the best French poets. Before such suggestion was made by that distinguished philologist and savant, I had already prepared, and determined to publish the little volume which I now offer to the American public. I have ever been of opinion that poetry, which, in the language of Lamartine, is "l'haleine de l'âme," the breath of the soul, and in that of Byron, " the feeling of a former world and future," has a natural alliance with our best affections. If, as asserted by one of the most worthy and eloquent of the American divines, "the power of poetry to refine our views of life and happiness, is more and more needed as society advances;" and if, which nobody will deny, the United States, where the acquisition of knowledge in every department is so much sought after, and where the French language is so generally cultivated, are in every respect progressing more rapidly than any other civilized country in the world, may I not indulge the hope that this little volume-"Fleurs du Parnasse français," gems of French Poetry, will be favourably received? It contains some of the best and purest effusions of Corneille, La Fontaine, Racine, Florian, Lamartine, С. Delavigne, Béranger, A. Chénier, M. J. Chénier, in short, of almost all the poets of whom France has so much reason to be proud. CHAS. PICOT. |