Excerpt from Modern Spanish Readings Embracing Text, Notes, and an Etymological Vocabulary Ursuing the principle-initiated in the Grammar, the present volume offers a series of. Prose readings, each complete in itself, that fairly represent the language of contemporary Spain, as exhibited in the light article, the story, the essay, history, and the formal lecture. It will be evident at a glance, then, that no confusion of epochs, with their archaisms, obsolete terms and con structions, will be found here, as in compilations commonly called Readers the language throughout is such as one hears in actual life in good society, or may read in the journal, the review, and the latest work of fiction. When earlier matter is required, it should always be presented distinctly as such, with its special treatment, the faithful preservation of its orthography, glossology, and gram matical forms, that the student may know when he is reading the style of his own time, and be able to distinguish what is quaint or what is wholly obsolete. Although no tongue in Europe can be understood by the plain man so far back in the Middle Age as the Castilian, it must not be inferred that this is due to the immobility of its vocabulary and syntax, but rather to the maintenance of anti quated terms in remote and rural districts, and which, by traffic, are kept traditionally alive in the towns. No educated person says at present ende, dende, dempues, onde, probe, aide, etc., in the capital, yet these are as easily understood there today as in the times of Alfonso el Sabio, because still current among rustic and unlettered people. With these Readings, then, a sufficient introduction is fur nished to Spanish literature current in the actual century and even for a long way back in the preceding one. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.