METHOD Of learning with greater FACILITY the GREEK TONGUE: Containing RULES for the A perfect Understanding of the AUTHORS Who TRANSLATED from the FRENCH of the DUBLIN: Printed by and for GEORGE FAULKNER, in Effex-Street. M,DCC, XLVII. T HE Merit of the following Work is to deservedly eftabhed in the learned World, as to need no Prese nor Preliminary Difcourfe to recommend it to the Public The repeated Editions of it Abroad, and the feveral Abridgments and Extracts of it published in moft Parts of Europe, are an incontestable Teftimony of the fuperior Excellence of this grammatical Performance. That a Work, fo univerfally admired, thould have gone through fo many Impreffions in the Original, is not so much a Subject of Surprize, as that it has not as yet made its Appearance in our Language; it cannot but appear aftonishing, that fo valuable a Performance fhould, for fo long a Time, have escaped the Vigilance of fome able Translator. But how difficult foever this may be to account for, the prefent Scarcenefs of the Original, the great Succefs it has met with in the foreign Academies, added to the Defires of feveral Members of our own two learned Univerfities, have encouraged us to attempt the publifhing of this Tranflation. Particular Care has been taken to render this Attempt ferviceable, by the Fidelity and Accuracy of the Verfion. The only material Alteration herein made is, that the Rules are not thrown into Metre, as in the French; for certainly it must be allowed, that fuch trifling Verfifications are intirely unneceffary in a Work not merely calculated for fcholaftic Rudiments, but defigned as a complete System of the Greek Tongue. We flatter ourselves, that this Undertaking will be agreeable to the English Reader; especially as fome late Effays towards a Greek Grammar in our Tongue have met with a favourable Acceptance, though of a much inferior Value to this celebrated Performance, which is generally allowed, by all competent Judges, to be the completeft Introduction extant to the Greek Language. With regard to the Author of this Work, though it goes under the Name of the Gentlemen of Port Royal, yet we think proper to acquaint the uninformed Reader, that it is the Production of the learned LANCELLOT, a Member of that illuftrious Community. This eminent Writer having dedicated his Studies intirely to the Acquirement of the learned Languages, published the following Work almost a Century ago, after have ing for many Years confulted, and drawn the most folid Obfervations from all the old and new Greek Grammarians. As the long Application he had made to this kind of Study led him into feveral useful Discoveries relating to the common Errors of Grammarians, fo it enabled him to point out a new and easier Syftem of Grammar, and to intitle his Work, fuch as you have it here faithfully tranflated, A new Method of learning the Greek Tongue, |