Author Description

Excerpt from The Order of Words in the Ancient Languages Compared With That of the Modern Languages The author's notes I have in nearly all cases marked with the signature W. A very few I have omitted where their retention seemed of no importance to the English reader. Here and there I have added a line or a word in the text when this brief expla nation obviated the necessity of a note. In a few cases I have incorporated a note by the author into the text where this seemed to me an improvement. Many of the quotations from the Greek and the Latin are given without translation in the original work. Besides, as the French translation, where the author has added one, would be of little value to the English reader, I have in many cases omitted it and supplied its place with an English translation. Where the author's words would be of interest to those who read French, I have retained them enclosed in brackets. In all cases where it seemed advisable I have supplied an English version, whether a French one was given or not. Where a suitable one was within reach, I used it; where not, -and this was the case in a majority of instances, - I made one or changed another's to suit my purpose. Some who will read these pages could doubtless have made better; a large number will perhaps think they could do so until they have themselves made the trial. As the class of readers for which the translation is intended is less learned than that for which the original was prepared, there was need of a considerable number of notes by the translator. Some were also rendered necessary by the change in the point of view from French to English. It has been no easy matter to decide how numerous or how long to make them. The thesis touches upon many points of interest to philologists; but how many of these by-paths, frequently so alluring, one ought here to follow, and how far to follow them, are questions upon which there will probably be a wide divergence of opinion. I have been guided by