iv
important aid to students of Classical and Germanic Philology, yet to a large number of such are accessible only when the subject can be mastered in a short time. On the other hand, the disad vantages necessarily entailed by the purely practical method may readily be removed later by a short methodical exposition of the grammar • • • • • • The verses in the exercises are taken chiefly fronm BOEHTLING's Indische Spruchen ; the sentences are in part derived from various Sanskrit works, or modelled after passages contained in them. To the last lessons no Sanskrit exercises have been appended, since the reading of the Nala or of some other easy Sanskrit work may very well be begun as soon as the formation of the perfect has been learned."
After using the Leitfdden for some time in the instruction of a class, I was convinced of its great merits as a practical introduction to the language; while on the other hand it seemed very unfortunate that it held throughout to the native system of grammar. which, since the appearance of Prof. WHITNEY's work, we in America at least have learned to distrust. Under these circumstances it seemed advisable to attempt a combination of BUHLER'S practical exercises with WHITNEY's theory; and to this end the book has been really rewritten. An introduction has been added, giving a general view of the structure of the language; the exercises have been pruned here and there, chiefly to remove forms which seemed too unusual or doubtful to have a just claim on the beginner's memory; and the number of lessons has been reduced from forty-eight to forty-five, by condensing the description, needlessly full for beginners, of the aorist, precative, and secondary conjugations. I have endeavored to retain nothing but what would supply the real wants of those for whom the book is de-
