MERLET'S Traducteur is a selection of passages from French writers,
adapted to the purposes of the learner. The ext racts are undoubtedly made with judgment, and make even a very pleasant book of miscellaneous reading. There arc also grammatical in- structions, and explanations of idioms, which will be found useful. The only fault we can find is, that the construction and exposition of the idioms is not sufficiently analytical. The explanation, for instance, of croquer le marmot—a phrase occurring in an amusing little comedy called the Inconveniences of the Diligence—is as follows—" To dance attendance, to wait a long time, and be dis- appointed." The student is, however, no wiser as to the literal signification ; and if he uses the phrase, he must use it like a parrot. Again, in the same scene, courir la prelentaine, is said to be—" To gad about." But how little one learns from such an explanation !
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