Dufief's Nature Displayed in Her Mode of Teaching Language to Man....Adapted to the Spanish [2 volumes, complete]

Philadelphia: Printed by T. & G. Palmer, 1811. First Edition. Good. Volume I contains "The Spanish Language", "La gramática inglesa", and "The English Reader." Volume II contains "The Analysis of the Parts of Speech", "Spanish Syntax Made Easy", "The Commercial Secretary", and "El lector español."

This is a very early American guide to learning Spanish, based on a system for teaching French developed by Nicolas Dufief. The authors were Manuel de Torres, a Spaniard living in exile in Philadelphia because of his involvement in Latin American independence movements, and Louis Hargous, a Spanish and French teacher at Princeton.

For more on Torres and his connection to Latin American independence movements, see Raúl Coronado's A World Not to Come, pp. 152ff.

Two volumes: xxxii, 557, [1]; [ix], 530, [3] pages. Bound in contemporary sheep with red spine labels. Outer joints cracked; old dampstaining to many leaves; generally a good, solid set.

This set has the ownership signature of Enos Chandler in both volumes. It seems at least possible that it is the Capt. Enos Chandler of Maine. Chandler hand wrote poems with religious themes on the endpapers of volume two, one of which is dated 1833 "at sea.