The Graduated Course of Translation front English into French, by
Professors Cassel and Karcher, contains a series of facts, anecdotes, sad for the senior course, of literary extracts, likely to prove of in- terest to the student, in giving him materials for translation far more captivating than the unconnected and meaningless sentences provided by the exercises of most grammars. A valuable addition to the book is the vocabulary at the end, giving the equivalents of all words and idioms the rendering of which might prove above the capacity of the pupil. We regret, however, not to see in the two volumes before us a single example of epistolary composition, and consider this a most unfortunate omission. The very purpose for which students may, in after life, require a knowledge of French composition, is the writing of
letters, either of a familiar or of a commercial character, so that they ought to be provided as early and as frequently as possible with good models
of epistolary style. For this reason, a few letters of Mme. de Sdvignd, Voltaire, or any other master of the difficult art of letter-writing, or even some instances of plain commercial correspondence, would, we think, be a real improvement to the series.
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