Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1843, by JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. ANDOVER: PRINTERS. PREFACE. THE object in compiling this new German Reader was to give to those who begin the study of the German language, such selections from German literature as might prove easy enough for their first attempts at translating, and at the same time of sufficient interest in themselves. It was therefore thought best to take pieces of a narrative character, presenting each a complete story, and to arrange them according to their respective difficulties, without attempting to classify them, either with reference to the periods of German literature to which their authors belong, or according to their subject and form. However desirable a book compiled on either of these plans would have been for the student of the history of German literature, it would not have been adapted to the purpose intended. Experience in teaching has convinced the compiler that German poetry is easier than prose for the beginner to translate; he would, therefore, propose to those using the book, to commence with reading the first nineteen pages of poetry, and then to pass to the first piece of prose, to be followed by the second and third. The other pieces of prose will be found more difficult, because the language used is more idiomatic. It would, therefore, be advisable, at this stage, to proceed with the poetry from the nineteenth page. |