roso, &c. A knowledge of Latin will greatly assist the student in the formation of these derivatives. Most substantives derived from adjectives end in tà, za, zia, and udine: probo, probità; prudente, prudenza ; stolto, stoltezza; pigro, pigrizia; mansueto, mansuetudine. But the real formation of the Italian nouns is seen better by comparing them with the corresponding Latin. Thus nouns in tà come from Latin words in tas, as probitas, probità: those in za from terminations in tia, as prudentia, prudenza, and so on. We merely throw out these hints, of which the student may avail himself, by classing words according to their termination, and thus becoming acquainted with whole families of them at once. Also in learning a new verb, it is well to find out all the substantives and adjectives as well as the adverbs, that can be derived from it; as consolare, consolatore, consolatrice, consolante, consolabile; abbominare, abbominevole, abbominando, abbominoso, &c. All these terminations cannot be affixed to every verb indiscriminately; that in ando is used in comparatively few cases, and that in abile changes in some verbs into evole, and in others into ibile. Esortare makes esortatore, esortatrice, esortazione, esortativo, esortatorio, esortatoriamente, esortabile. From arrendere are made arrenditore, arrenditrice, arrendimento, arrenderole, arrendevolezza, arrendevolmente, arrendibile, arrendibilità.

One of the difficulties in the Italian syntax consists in finding out the preposition required between a verb and the following infinitive. The English have generally little difficulty in their own language, in which the particle to answers the purpose in most cases. In Italian, it may be either di, a, per, or da. Vi pro

metto di farlo. Non pensa à far cosa alcuna. Viag gia per istruirsi. Urla da fare assordire. In this

respect the Italian construction resembles the French, excepting the da, the use of which is peculiar to the Italian language. Again, the case after the verb, as some grammarians express it, meaning the preposition that the verb takes after it, and before the noun following, is a subject of some difficulty; it pleases me' is rendered in Italian by piace a me; he thinks of me,' pensa a me, &c.

Barberi, in his Grammaire des Grammaires Italiennes,' has given some directions about this part of the syntax, and upon the use of prepositions in general. A dictionary of the Italian verbs, after the manner of M. Tarver's Dictionary of the French verbs, specifying the prepositions which each verb takes before the noun or infinitive following it, is wanted, and would prove a very useful book to the Italian student.

With regard to the mechanical formation of the verbs, their inflexions and irregularities, there has been no want of expounders. Pistolesi published a treatise on the Italian verbs, and Mastrofini after him wrote two good-sized quartos on the same subject, which, however, Compagnoni mercifully curtailed and compressed into a small 12mo. Teorica dei Verbi Italiani, regolari, anomali, difettivi, e malnoti.' Milan, 1820. It is a useful little work.

Certain prefixes being coupled to verbs or verbal nouns always produce the same modification in their meaning; dis answers to the English un: thus fare signifies to do, disfare to undo; piacevole, pleasant; dispiacevole, unpleasant; simile, dissimile, &c. But the use of this prefix in Italian is carried to a greater ex

tent than that of either the un or dis in English, as may be seen by looking in the dictionary at the letters 'dis.' Ri likewise invariably means repetition; fare, rifare, to do again; rifacimento, rifatto. Stra implies excess; cotto, cooked; stracotto, overdone. Tra, tras, and trans, answer to the English trans, &c., trapiantare, trasportare, transfigurazione.

We would advise the student, as soon as he is able to write connected sentences in Italian, to take up a good prose book, either epistolary or narrative, such as Bentivoglio's Letters, edited by Biagioli, or those of Annibale Caro, both excellent models of style; and having translated some pages into literal English, so as to understand thoroughly the meaning of the author, to retranslate from his manuscript into Italian. After this, he should compare his own version with the original text, and observe those variations in the former which proceed from bad grammar, and those which are owing to idiom or peculiarity of style in the author. The former he will of course immediately correct; the latter might be noted down in a vocabulary or phrasebook. By persevering in this course he will acquire a much sounder knowledge of the language and its peculiarities than by labouring, week after week, and month after month, in translating into slovenly Italian the ill-digested mass of unconnected dull sentences under the name of exercises, with which most grammars are swelled. We do not mean to say that, in the first period of his study, the various rules of grammar should not be illustrated each by a few short sentences; but these ought to be taken as much as possible from some writer of established authority, as Biagioli has done in both his grammars; the only fault is, that his

quotations are too frequently from the poets; we should always prefer quoting from prose-writers. And here we touch on another point, to which we would call the earnest attention both of masters and pupils. It has been too much the practice to put at once into the hands of students the works of the great Italian poets, instead of beginning by grounding them well in good The colloquial, epistolary, and narrative prose-style. practice appears to us so absurd, that we can only account for it by the remark, that as the study of Italian did not constitute, until lately, a part of education in Italy, the Italian prose-writers, with few exceptions, such as Boccaccio, were hardly known to the Italians themselves, and people had at last adopted the notion, which we have ourselves often heard expressed, to our astonishment, that the Italian language was only fit for poetry. The editions of most Italian prose-works were old, scarce, inelegant, and cumbersome, and lay neglected in the dust of libraries. It is chiefly within the last fifteen years that new and cheap editions of the Italian prose-writers have appeared in great abundance; Italians, as well as foreigners, have found out that Italy was as rich as any country in almost every branch of a national library, with the exception, perhaps, of novels in the modern acceptation of the word, for of tales there is a superabundance; the deficiency, however, in novels, Manzoni, Rosini, Azeglio, and others, have since filled up.

The language of Italian poetry is so different from that of prose, that a student who has read only the poets will never be able to express himself intelligibly either in writing or speaking. Another objection we have to the early use of the poets, especially by females,

is, that most of them are exceptionable in a moral point of view. Some parts of Ariosto and even of Tasso cannot be translated to a young female; and if the teacher passes them over, the omission has nearly as bad an effect as the explanation would have. We speak from experience, for we remember finding ourselves in an awkward predicament, being requested by a young lady to read to her Ariosto, which she had already begun under some other advice, until we came at last to a dead stop. Teachers, if requested to read objectionable works to a female pupil, should say at once honestly, either to her or to her parents, that they are not books for young ladies. This is not prudery, but common propriety. In Dante likewise there are passages that cannot be explained to a lady. Petrarch is harmless, though rather too languishing and amorous, yet we would not object to it, especially as the beauty of its language is so great. Metastasio is easy, and affords a pleasing light sort of reading.

Alfieri's tragedies, with the exception of Mirra, all the works of Ippolito Pindemonte, a favourite writer with us, Pellico's dramas, Monti's Basvilliana and Mascheroniana, the Visioni of Varano, the fables of Pignotti and of Bertola, Ugo Foscolo's Sepolcrithese are books that can be put into any one's hands. But we should wish to see a pupil well acquainted with prose first. Let him read the historians as soon as he is able, for Italy can truly be said. to boast of her historians. Dino Compagni, the two brothers Giovanni and Matteo Villani, Machiavelli, Segni, and Guicciardini, form a splendid series. We would particularly recommend Machiavelli's History of Florence for the simple nervousness of his style. All Machia