LESSONS IN ENGLISH.—XXX. WoRDs are undergoing constant change of signification. The changes are in general so slow as scarcely to be noticeable, except at considerable intervals. There is a certain elasticity of mind which contracts and expands, and expands and contracts. Corresponding with these internal movements is a contraction and expansion of the import of words. The term “import” furnishes an illustration. The import of a word is, according to the etymology of the term, that which the word carries in itself. That something, that load or freight, is a variable quantity; it varies in quality as well as in quantity. The vase swells with its contents, and so its capacity is augmented. Among the changes which words undergo, two of great importance may be specified: one is a change from good to bad, the other is a change from bad to good. On the former I add a few things here; the latter must stand over for a little space. Words which originally had a good meaning may degenerate so as to have a bad meaning. Conventicle is a harmless word, signifying only a small place of meeting. Our political and religious strifes, however, have thrown around it a feeling of contempt, and in this feeling it is sometimes applied to the chapels of the Nonconformists. “It behoveth that the place where God shall be served by the whole church be a publick place, for the avoiding of privy conventicles, which, covered with pretence of religion, may serve unto dangerous practices.” -Hooker. The word cunning derivatively denotes knowledge, and the skill that ensues from knowledge. In this sense it was current at the time when our present version of the Scriptures was made; for example— “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, Cunning is of the same origin as king, and both denote mental Its inoffensiveness is preserved in the term “A poem is the work of the poet; poesy is his skill or craft of making.”—Ben Jonson. Our craft is the Saxon kraft, or the German kraft, which denotes internal strength, such as comes from essential virtues or from knowledge and skill. The students of these lessons should always bear in mind how necessary it is for them to acquire facility in composition. They cannot adopt a better plan than that which I have frequently pointed out, namely, to read a passage from some good English author, and then endeavour to reproduce it in writing. One of the most elegant writers in our language, Mrs. Bar bauld, who in her husband's school superintended the lessons in English composition, was accustomed to pursue a plan which to some extent is similar to what I recommend, and which for many years I followed in my own school. Lucy Aikin, her biographer, tells us: “On Wednesdays and Saturdays the boys were called in separate classes to her apartment; she read a fable, a short story, or a moral essay to them aloud, and then sent them back into the school-room to write it out on their slates in their own words. Each exercise was separately looked over by her; the faults of grammar were obliterated, the vulgarisms were chastised, the idle epithets were cancelled, and a distinct reason was always assigned for every correction; so that the arts of editing and of criticising were in some degree learnt together. Many a lad from the great schools, who excels in Latin and Greek, cannot write properly a vernacular (from the Latin vernaculus, native) letter, for want of some such discipline.” L-TIN soos. Latin Words. Meanings. Stems. English Words. dictate, predict, diction. dial, diary, meridian. mediate, mediocrity. dignity, dignify. diurnal, journal. docile, doctor, doctrine, dole, dolorous, condale. domineer, dominion. domestic, domicile. donation, donor. duct, induce, educate. dual, duel. durable, durance. cbriety, inebriate. edible. egotist, egotism. red(e)em, exemption. reflect, infect. flexible, sterile. conflict, afflict. jloral, florist. fluctuate. Jluent, influence. reflux, efflur. federal, confederate. perforate. fortuitous, fortunate. fortify, fortitude. Josse. fossil. Joragment, infringe. fracture, fraction. fraternal, fratricide. frigid, refrigeration. fructify. fruition. fulminate. refund. Jusible, infuse, refuse. congeal, congelation, oda gentile, genteel. [inous genuflexion. belligerent, gesture,digestic erternal, exterior. Jabric, fabricate. facilitate, faculty. difficult. Jactor, perfect, benefit, soporific, purify. soporiferous. fallacious, infallible. profane, profamation. Jable, ineffable. fate, fatal. felicity. feminine, effeminacy. ferry, infer, circumfereno ferrid, effervescence. fidelity, infidel. conside, diffidence. filial, affiliate. filament. figment. fiction, fictitious. final, finite, definite, def fiscal, confiscate. [tin fissure. *There is one kind of egotist which is very common in the world. I man those empty, conceited fellows, who repeat as sayings of their on, or some of their particular friends, several jests which were made before they were born, and which every one who has conversed in the scroi has heard a hundred times over.”—Spectator. *If a pawnbroker receives plate or jewels as a pledge or security for thsrepayment of money lent thereon, on a day certain, he has them on an express contract or condition to restore them, if the pledger Proms his part by redeeming them in due time."—Blackstone. “Ajust, though terrible, judgment of God upon these play-hunters and prophaners of his holy day.”—Prynne. “Somewhat allied to this (blasphemy), though in an inferior degree, is the offence of profane and common swearing.”—Blackstone. “When one tossed his weaver's beam, and the other carried the guts of Gaza, they performed their prodigious feats by tender filaments, sighter than a cobweb, undiscernible with a microscope.”—Search, "Light of Nature.” Dimite and definitive are synonymous, that is, words which come near in meaning to each other; I say near in meaning, for there are few pairs of words that have exactly the same force. Djinik and definitive, as coming from finis, an end, agree in that they both put an end to a matter: a definite answer puts an end to your question by speaking so clearly, and so exactly, as to leave no room for its repetition; but a definitive answer pots an end to the matter in issue as well as to the question. By a definite answer I leave you in no doubt as to my meaning; and by a definitive answer I put a negative on your proposal. Bonest men, and clear-minded men give definite answers; men who have come to a final conclusion pronounce a definitive judgment. “They never have suffered, and never will suffer, the fixed estate of techurch to be converted into a pension, to depend on the treasury, tito be delayed, withheld, or perhaps to be extinguished, by fiscal ificalties.”—Burke, “French Revolution.” "And all their landes, goodes, and possessions were confiscate and *d to ye kynge's vse (use).”—Hall, “Richard III.” "There are other subterraneous juts and channels, fissures and onges through which many times the waters make their way.”— oriam, “Physico-Theology.” Torouse comes immediately from the French refuser. But once the French P From refutare, says Richardson; and tetainly refutare, both in good and in middle-aged Latin, Rimarily signifies to put down, put back, refuse, and only derinirely to prove logically wrong. But this view makes to refuse odio refute the same in origin. Besides, the t and s are not thangeable. It seems less incorrect to derive refuse from re stifundo (fusus, fusion), which thus means a pouring or handing * Refuse, the noun, signifying rubbish, comes from the same * only it takes its special import from a custom which preruled in some cathedral and collegiate churches, according to with those who held the benefices were required to put together *7 year into a common treasury, for the common use, some Motion of their income. That portion was seldom the best, and * the refusio, as the Latin name for the common contrion was, refuse in English, came to have a bad character, *to benearly equivalent to our rubbish. Rubbish, or in an oform of the word, rubbage, is that which was rubbed off **) as refuse is that which is poured or thrown co ExERCISES IN COMPOSITION. Historical Theme: “The Mission of Moses to Pharaoh.” WQEDS WITH THEIR PROPER PREPOSITIONS. But the glow of morning beamed into the little chamber where their seven children lay in their beds asleep. Then they gased at the children one by one, and the mother said, “They are seven in number; alas ! it will be hard for us to find them food.” Thus sighed the mother, for there was a famine in the land. * But the father smiled, and said, “See, do they not lie there, all the seven P And they have all red cheeks, and the beams of the morning stream over them, so that they appear lovelier than ever, like seven blooming roses. Mother, that shows us that He who creates the morning and sends us sleep, is true and unchangeable.” As they stepped from the chamber, they saw at the door fourteen shoes in a row, growing smaller and smaller, two by two, a pair for each child. The mother gazed at them, and when she saw that they were so many, she wept. But the father said, “Mother, why dost thou weep? Have not all the seven received sound and active feet? Why, then, should we be anxious about that which covers them P If the children have confidence in us, should we not have confidence in Him who can do more than we can comprehend? “See, his sun rises | Come, then, like it let us begin our day's work with a cheerful countenance.” Thus they spoke and toiled at their labours, and God blessed the work of their hands, and they had enough and to spare, they and their seven children; for faith gives strength and courage, and love elevates the soul. LESSONS IN BOTANY. —XXIX. SECTION LXVI.-HAMAMELIDACEAE, OR WITCH-HAZELS. Characteristics: Calyx tubular, adherent to the ovary; limb four to five partite; petals absent or inserted upon the calyx, and alternating with its divisions; stamens indefinite in the apetalous genera, in the petaliferous genera double the number of the petals, some sterile, and opposite to the petals, others fertile and alternate; anthers square or semi-circular; ovary half inferior, two-celled, uni- or multi-ovulate; ovules pendent, reflexed; two styles, two stigmata, both distinct; capsule septicidal, having one-seeded cells. The members of this natural order are trees or shrubs, ordinarily covered with hair arranged in the form of stars. Leaves alternate, petiolate, simple, bi-stipulate. Flowers almost sessile, disposed in panicles, capitula, or spikes. The few species composing this natural order are dispersed over North America, Japan, China, India, Madagascar, and the Cape. The Wirginian hamamelis (Hamamelis Virginica) is a shrub having yellow fasciculated flowers, the ovary of which does not ripen until the second year. It is cultivated in gardens for the sake of its oily farinaceous seeds; the decoction of its bark and leaves is charged with tannic bitter principles and a peculiar volatile oil. The alder-leaved fothergillia (Fothergillia alnifolia) is a shrub, a native of Carolina, but cultivated in Europe. Its inflorescence is a spike composed of white and odoriferous flowers. Its fruits discharge their seeds with a considerable noise. The Rhodoleia Championi (Fig. 218) is a small tree discovered in China by Captain Champion, in the forests which surround Canton. It is cultivated with facility in the open air of European countries. The leaves of this tree are persistent, its flowers grouped in five, surrounded with roseate bracts, which might be almost taken for a petaloid floral envelope. SECTION LXVII.—PHILADELPHACEAE, OR SYRINGAS. Characteristics : Calyx adherent to the ovary, valvate in aestivation; petals in number equal to the divisions of the calyx, with contorted aestivation; stamens, a multiple number of that of the petals; ovary, three or many celled; placenta central, multi-ovulate; ovules ascendant or pendent, imbricate, reflexed; capsule many-seeded; seeds enveloped in a loose testa; embryo dicotyledonous, straight, in the axis of a fleshy albumen, the length of which it equals. The members of this natural order are erect trees, having simple opposite leaves without stipules. Their flowers are complete, regular, white, odoriferous, disposed either in cyme or panicle. The Philadelphus coronarius, or garland syringa (Fig. 220), is indigenous to Central Europe, and a frequent garden ornament. Its flowers are very odorous, and were formerly held in esteem as a medicine. They contain a volatile oil sometimes employed as an agent for the adulteration of oil of jasmine. The Deutzia scabra, or rough-leaved deutzia, is a native of Japan, now cultivated in botanic gardens. The Japanese employ the inner bark of this tree as a plaster; its leaves are employed to impart a polish to wood. LESSONS IN ENGLISH.—XXX. WoRDs are undergoing constant change of signification. The Among the changes which words undergo, two of great importance may be specified: one is a change from good to bad, the other is a change from bad to good. On the former I add a few things here; the latter must stand over for a little space. Words which originally had a good meaning may degenerate so as to have a bad meaning. Conventicle is a harmless word, signifying only a small place of meeting. Our political and religious strifes, however, have thrown around it a feeling of contempt, and in this feeling it is sometimes applied to the chapels of the Nonconformists. “It behoveth that the place where God shall be served by the whole church be a publick place, for the avoiding of privy conventicles, which, covered with pretence of religion, may serve unto dangerous practices.” —Hooker. The word cunning derivatively denotes knowledge, and the skill that ensues from knowledge. In this sense it was current at the time when our present version of the Scriptures was made; for example— “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, Cunning is of the same origin as king, and both denote mental Latin Words. Meanings. Stems. English Words. “Modern languages have only one variation, and so the Latin; 1 the Greek and Hebrew have one to signify two, and another to sign more than two; under one variation (the former) the noun is said be of the dual number, and under the other of the plural.”—Cla. * Latin Grammar.” “A duel, called by the Greeks monomachia (single-fight), and by Latins duellum, receiving its denomination from the persons engal in it, is properly a fight or combat between two persons.”—South. “Isuppose I need not take any pains to prove the unlawfulness, the sottishness of such duellings, when men sold their lives for a cro or an angel; and by a preposterous way of labouring not to get to living, but to procure their death,”-South. *There is one kind of egotist which is very common in the world. I gan those empty, conceited fellows, who repeat as sayings of their on, or some of their particular friends, several jests which were made before they were born, and which every one who has conversed in the rurki has heard a hundred times over.”—Spectator. *It spawnbroker receives plate or jewels as a pledge or security for torpayment of money lent thereon, on a day certain, he has them on an express contract or condition to restore them, if the pledger Proms his part by redeeming them in due time.”—Blackstone. “Ajust, though terrible, judgment of God upon these play-hunters Lipophaners of his holy day.”—Prynne. “Somewhat allied to this (blasphemy), though in an inferior degree, stile offence of profane and common swearing.”—Blackstone. “When one tossed his weaver's beam, and the other carried the sites of Gaza, they performed their prodigious feats by tender filaments, tighter than a cobweb, undiscernible with a microscope.”—Search, "Loki of Nature.” Dimite and definitive are synonymous, that is, words which come near in meaning to each other; I say near in meaning, for there are few pairs of words that have exactly the same force. Dimite and definitive, as coming from finis, an end, agree in that they both put an end to a matter: a definite answer puts in and to your question by speaking so clearly, and so exactly, as to leave no room for its repetition; but a definitive answer pots an end to the matter in issue as well as to the question. By a definite answer I leave you in no doubt as to my meaning; and by a definitive answer I put a negative on your proposal. Honest men, and clear-minded men give definite answers; men who have come to a final conclusion pronounce a definitive joigment. "They never have suffered, and never will suffer, the fixed estate of the church to be converted into a pension, to depend on the treasury, obe delayed, withheld, or perhaps to be extinguished, by fiscal iftulties.”—Burke, “French Revolution.” "Andall their landes, goodes, and p ions were oftscate and aed to ye kynge's vse (use).”—Hall, “Richard III.” "There are other subterraneous juts and channels, fissures and *ges through which many times the waters make their way.”— Brian, "Physico-Theology.” Torouse comes immediately from the French refuser. But *nce the French P From refutare, says Richardson; and *ainly refutare, both in good and in middle-aged Latin, Rimarily signifies to put down, put back, refuse, and only derinintly to prove logically wrong. But this view makes to refuse to refute the same in origin. Besides, the t and s are not inhangeable. It seems less incorrect to derive refuse from re ofundo (fusus, fusion), which thus means a pouring or handing * Refuse, the noun, signifying rubbish, comes from the same * only it takes its special import from a custom which preodin some cathedral and collegiate churches, according to with those who held the benefices were required to put together *7 year into a common treasury, for the common use, some Motion of their income. That portion was seldom the best, and * the refusio, as the Latin name for the common contrikin was, refuse in English, came to have a bad character, **be nearly equivalent to our rubbish. Rubbish, or in an oform of the word, rubbage, is that which was rubbed off **) as refuse is that which is poured or thrown *. But the glow of morning beamed into the little chamber where their seven children lay in their beds asleep. Then they gased at the children one by one, and the mother said, “They are seven in number; alas ! it will be hard for us to find them food.” Thus sighed the mother, for there was a famine in the land. * But the father smiled, and said, “See, do they not lie there, all the seven P And they have all red cheeks, and the beams of the morning stream over them, so that they appear lovelier than ever, like seven blooming roses. Mother, that shows us that He who creates the morning and sends us sleep, is true and unchangeable.” As they stepped from the chamber, they saw at the door fourteen shoes in a row, growing smaller and smaller, two by two, a pair for each child. The mother gazed at them, and when she saw that they were so many, she wept. But the father said, “Mother, why dost thou weep? Have not all the seven received sound and active feet? Why, then, should we be anxious about that which covers them 2 If the children have confldence in us, should we not have confidence in Him who can do more than we can comprehend? “See, his sun rises 1 Come, then, like it let us begin our day's work with a cheerful countenance.” Thus they spoke and toiled at their labours, and God blessed the work of their hands, and they had enough and to spare, they and their seven children; for faith gives strength and courage, and love elevates the soul. LESSONS IN BOTANY. —XXIX. SECTION LXVI.-HAMAMELIDACEAE, OR WITCH-HAZELS. Characteristics: Calyx tubular, adherent to the ovary; limb four to five partite; petals absent or inserted upon the calyx, and alternating with its divisions; stamens indefinite in the apetalous genera, in the petaliferous genera double the number of the petals, some sterile, and opposite to the petals, others fertile and alternate; anthers square or semi-circular; ovary half inferior, two-celled, uni- or multi-ovulate; ovules pendent, reflexed; two styles, two stigmata, both distinct; capsule septicidal, having one-seeded cells. The members of this natural order are trees or shrubs, ordinarily covered with hair arranged in the form of stars. Leaves alternate, petiolate, simple, bi-stipulate. Flowers almost sessile, disposed in panicles, capitula, or spikes. The few species composing this natural order are dispersed over North America, Japan, China, India, Madagascar, and the Cape. The Wirginian hamamelis (Hamamelis Virginica) is a shrub having yellow fasciculated flowers, the ovary of which does not ripen until the second year. It is cultivated in gardens for the sake of its oily farinaceous seeds; the decoction of its bark and leaves is charged with tannic bitter principles and a peculiar volatile oil. The alder-leaved fothergillia (Fothergillia alnifolia) is a shrub, a native of Carolina, but cultivated in Europe. Its inflorescence is a spike composed of white and odoriferous flowers. Its fruits discharge their seeds with a considerable noise. The Rhodoleia Championi (Fig. 218) is a small tree discovered in China by Captain Champion, in the forests which surround Canton. It is cultivated with facility in the open air of European countries. The leaves of this tree are persistent, its flowers grouped in five, surrounded with roseate bracts, which might be almost taken for a petaloid floral envelope. SECTION IXVII.-PHILADELPHACEAE, OR SYRINGAS. Characteristics : Calyx adherent to the ovary, valvate in aestivation; petals in number equal to the divisions of the calyx, with contorted aestivation; stamens, a multiple number of that of the petals; ovary, three or many celled; placenta central, multi-ovulate; ovules ascendant or pendent, imbricate, reflexed; capsule many-seeded; seeds enveloped in a loose testa; embryo dicotyledonous, straight, in the axis of a fleshy albumen, the length of which it equals. The members of this natural order are erect trees, having simple opposite leaves without stipules. Their flowers are complete, regular, white, odoriferous, disposed either in cyme or panicle. The Philadelphus coronarius, or garland syringa (Fig. 220), is indigenous to Central Europe, and a frequent garden ornament. Its flowers are very odorous, and were formerly held in esteem as a medicine. They contain a volatile oil sometimes employed as an agent for the adulteration of oil of jasmine. The Deutzia scabra, or rough-leaved deutzia, is a native of Japan, now cultivated in botanic gardens. The Japanese employ the inner bark of this tree as a plaster; its leaves are employed to impart a polish to wood. LESSONS IN ENGLISH.—XXX. WoRDs are undergoing constant change of signification. The changes are in general so slow as scarcely to be noticeable, except at considerable intervals. There is a certain elasticity of mind which contracts and expands, and expands and contracts. Corresponding with these internal movements is a contraction and expansion of the import of words. The term “import” furnishes an illustration. The import of a word is, according to the etymology of the term, that which the word carries in itself. That something, that load or freight, is a variable quantity; it varies in quality as well as in quantity. The vase swells with its contents, and so its capacity is augmented. Among the changes which words undergo, two of great importance may be specified: one is a change from good to bad, the other is a change from bad to good. On the former I add a few things here; the latter must stand over for a little space. Words which originally had a good meaning may degenerate so as to have a bad meaning. Conventicle is a harmless word, signifying only a small place of meeting. Our political and religious strifes, however, have thrown around it a feeling of contempt, and in this feeling it is sometimes applied to the chapels of the Nonconformists. “It behoveth that the place where God shall be served by the whole church be a publick place, for the avoiding of privy conventicles, which, covered with pretence of religion, may serve unto dangerous practices.” –Hooker. The word cunning derivatively denotes knowledge, and the skill that ensues from knowledge. In this sense it was current at the time when our present version of the Scriptures was made; for example— “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, Cunning is of the same origin as king, and both denote mental superiority. But, as is exemplified in the slang phrase, “a knowing one,” knowledge ill-directed may issue in craftiness. The word craft, from which the latter is derived, was originally, too, very innocent. Its inoffensiveness is preserved in the term craft as applied to a trade : “A poem is the work of the poet; poesy is his skill or craft of making.”—Ben Jonson. Our craft is the Saxon kraft, or the German kraft, which denotes internal strength, such as comes from essential virtues or from knowledge and skill. The students of these lessons should always bear in mind how necessary it is for them to acquire facility in composition. They cannot adopt a better plan than that which I have frequently pointed out, namely, to read a passage from some good English author, and then endeavour to reproduce it in writing. One of the most elegant writers in our language, Mrs. Bar bauld, who in her husband's school superintended the lessons in English composition, was accustomed to pursue a plan which to some extent is similar to what I recommend, and which for many years I followed in my own school. Lucy Aikin, her biographer, tells us: “On Wednesdays and Saturdays the boys were called in separate classes to her apartment; she read a fable, a short story, or a moral essay to them aloud, and then sent them back into the school-room to write it out on their slates in their own words. Each exercise was separately looked over by her; the faults of grammar were obliterated, the vulgarisms were chastised, the idle epithets were cancelled, and a distinct reason was always assigned for every correction; so that the arts of editing and of criticising were in some degree learnt together. Many a lad from the great schools, who excels in Latin and Greek, cannot write properly a vernacular (from the Latin vernaculus, native) letter, for want of some such discipline.” Latin stems. Latin Words. Meanings. Stems. English Words. (decoris) } grace decor decorous, decoration. Latin Words. Meanings. Stems. English Words. “Modern languages have only one variation, and so the Latin; bu the Greek and Hebrew have one to signify two, and another to signif more than two; under one variation (the former) the noun is said t be of the dual number, and under the other of the plural.”—Clark “Latin Grammar.” “A duel, called by the Greeks monomachia (single-fight), and by th Latins duellum, receiving its denomination from the persons engage in it, is properly a fight or combat between two persons.”—South. “I suppose I need not take any pains to prove the unlawfulness, no the sottishness of such duellings, when men sold their lives for a crow or an angel; and by a preposterous way of labouring not to get the living, but to procure their death,”—South. |