unstable. When their solutions are boiled, the corresponding manganous salt is formed.

Binoxide, Deutoxide, or Peroxide (MnO), is the pyrolusite of the mineralogist, the " manganese" of commerce. It is used in the laboratory in the preparation of oxygen and chlorine. When heated, it gives off one-third of its oxygen, and becomes the red oxide

=

3MnO, (Mn,O,,MnO) + 0,. When heated with strong sulphuric acid, half its oxygen comes off, thus

MnO2 + H2SO. = MnSO, H2O + 0. The commercial value of this black oxide depends upon the proportion of chlorine which it will liberate from hydrochloric acid, and this again is dependent on the quantity of oxygen present, which is over and above that requisite to make the ore a protoxide, for pyrolusite and psilomelane are never pure deutoxide. This is estimated on the principle that black oxide of manganese is decomposed in the presence of free sulphuric and oxalic acids. The oxygen which is liberated as the salt becomes a protosulphate (MnO,SO,), attacks the oxalic acid, causing it to become carbonic acid, thus

By allowing this CO, to pass through a weighed potash tube, its quantity may be estimated, and therefore that of the binoxide in the sample of ore.

Manganic (H,MnO) and Permanganic Acid (H.Mn,O,) When equal weights of caustic potash and manganese peroxide in fine powder are fused together, a bright-green mass is formed; this is potassium manganate. It forms a dark-green solution, which, when diluted, slowly passes through purple to a claret colour, and hydrated manganic dioxide is found to be deposited.

The

The cause of this is that the manganate absorbed oxygen, becoming a permanganate. Owing to these changes of colour, it has acquired the name of mineral chamelion. A solution of potassium permanganate readily oxidises organic matter; hence it is used as a disinfecting agent, as Condy's Fluid. presence of manganese is easily detected by "Crum's test." Add to the suspected body a little dilute nitric acid, and a little peroxide of lead; if any manganese be present, the red colour of permanganic acid will be produced. A bead of borax becomes violet if manganese be present in the oxidising flame of the blow-pipe, but the colour is lost in the reducing flame. With carbonate of soda, the salts of this metal give a bluish-green opaque bead in the blow-pipe flame.

IRON.

SYMBOL, Fe-COMBINING WEIGHT, 56

SPECIFIC GRAVITY, 7.8. This, the most important of all the metals, is never found native, except in "meteoric stones." Its ores are plentiful, and widely diversified. The chief are

Magnetic Iron Ore, Loadstone (FeО ̧‚FeO).—It occurs in the Swedish mountains, and in North America. Most of the celebrated Swedish iron is from this ore. It is found in masses in the primary rocks; and therefore, coal being absent, wood is used in its reduction, which fact contributes to the fine quality of the metal it yields. The Iron Sand, found in India and New Zealand, belongs to this class of ore. It is the only ore of iron capable of magnetism, and is magnetised by the influence of the earth's magnetism in its original state; hence the proper

ties of the loadstone.

Specular Iron Ore (FeO3).—This is found in Elba, Russia, and Sweden, and gives iron of a fine quality.

Red Hæmatite is another form of the peroxide. It is sometimes found massive, but generally as fibrous, crystallised nodules, which, from their colour and smooth mammillary surface, have obtained for this ore the name of the "kidney ore." It is seldom smelted alone, but generally with the clay ore. Brown Hæmatite is another variety of the peroxide, which is found in later deposits known as pea-iron ore.

Spathic Iron Ore is a carbonate of the metal, and so also is the great source of English iron

The Clay Iron Ore. This is found in bands in the coal deposits. It contains about 30 per cent. of the metal, the rest of its bulk being clay, lime, and magnesia.

The Bog Iron Ore contains phosphate of iron, and, as its name indicates, is found in alluvial tracts.

Iron Pyrites (FeS,), though very abundant, is never worked for iron, but for sulphur.

REDUCTION OF IRON FROM THE CLAY IRON ORE.-We may conveniently divide this operation into four stages :

1. Roasting. The ore, mixed with coal, is piled in large heaps, and a fire is kindled to the windward, which gradually extends through the mass. This heat expels all moisture and carbonic acid gas. The "calcined ore" is left in a porous state, containing iron as an oxide. This process requires months for its completion.

2. Smelting. The blast furnace is a structure, as in Fig. 50, about fifty feet high. It is built of solid masonry, and lined with fire-bricks. The lower part of the cone contracts into the crucible, E F. Below the tuyeres, or blast-pipes, the furnace terminates in the hearth &, where the melted metal collects previously to being drawn off; m is the tymp stone, over which the slag runs down, and thus leaves the furnace; T and F are the tuyeres. At the lowest point of the furnace is the tap-hole by which the metal is drawn off. The calcined ore contains chiefly oxide of iron, silica, and clay. No amount of heat will separate these infusible bodies from the iron; hence it is necessary to add lime in order that a fusible slag may be found. Thus the furnace is charged with alternate layers of coal, limestone, and ore. The air which forms the blast is driven by fans, and caused to

pass through heated tubes, so that when it issues from the tuyeres its temperature is about 350° Cent. If cold air were used, it would seriously detract from the heat of the furnace, for as the blast at once combines with the carbon of the fuel in that much as six tons of air pass through in an hour. The oxygen of part of the furnace called the "boshes," D, and becomes carbonic acid gas; ascending a little higher in the furnace this gas carbonic oxide, which, mixed with nitrogen and carburetted -as in an ordinary fire-takes an atom of carbon, becoming hydrogen, rises through the furnace. In the presence of these rature at that part of the furnace is not sufficient to melt the gases, the iron in the ore becomes reduced, but the tempecharge sinks down into the crucible, the fusion of the slag is iron, or make the silica and lime fuse together. determined, and the iron, which is in a finely-divided state, combines with the carbon, and fuses into the carbide of iron, known as cast-iron. This falls to the bottom of the crucible, and the slag, which is five or six times the bulk of the iron, swims upon it, and preserves it from the action of the air of the blasts. As the slag accumulates, it rises to the level of the iron box, and is thus removed. The iron is drawn from the tymp stone, over which it flows to N, where it is received into an furnace once in twelve hours, and run into sand-moulds, and finds its way to the market as pig-iron. A blast-furnace continues in action for six or eight years uninterruptedly.

But when the

LESSONS IN GERMAN.-XL. SECT. LXXXI.-VARIOUS IDIOMATIC PHRASES (continued). Nichts, or nicht dafür können, signifies "not to be in fault, or to blame," as :- -Ich kann nichts bafür, it is not my fault, or I cannot help it (literally, I cannot, or can nothing therefore). Gr fann nichts dafür, daß er so arm ist, he cannot help it-that is, he is not to blame that he is so poor. So also interrogatively; as:-Kann die Welt etwas dafür, daß sich ein großer Geist in ein schlechtes Kleid ceals itself in a plain dress? that is, Die Welt kann nichts dafür. versteckt? (Rabener)-is the world to blame, that a great soul con

dom of heaven unless you acknowledge the blessings of God. 5. My brother went off yesterday, and we have heard nothing of him. 6. It is self-evident that without nourishment man, animals, and plants cannot exist. 7. My knife is gone, and none of the children know where it is. 8. Our money is all gone. 9. I know very well how far I have to go in this matter. 10. Where do you go to ? 11. I am going to my brother. 12. How far have you to go? 13. Just to the park. 14. What distance have you to go? 15. About three quarters of a mile. 16. He believed the time had now arrived to open his own path through life.

KEY TO EXERCISES IN LESSONS IN GERMAN.
EXERCISE 115 (Vol. II., page 246).

1. Ist Ihr Bruder so vorsichtig als Ihr Onkel? 2. Er ist nicht so vorsichtig, als mein Dakel. 3. Nimm, weter mehr noch weniger als die Noth erfordert. 4. Obschon er ein schönes Landgut besigt, so will ich den noch einen Theil des meinigen an ihn abtreten. 5. Sie thaten nichts, als sich über ihr leytes Unglück beklagen. 6. Ich sah Niemand in dem Saal, als den blinden Pfeifer. 7. Je länger er bei ihm blieb, desto ungetultiger wurde er. 8. Den wievielsten wird Ihr Freund von hier abreisen? 9. Seine Abreise ist auf den vierzehnten nächsten Monats festgeseßt. 10. Wir wollen diesen Weg gehen, um die Landschaft in der Nähe zu sehen. 11. Nichts als Fröhlichkeit war in der ganzen Familie. 12. Nur Ein Wunsch blieb ihm übrig. 13. Niemand ist unserer Güte so würtig, als ter Freund meines Bruters.

HISTORIC SKETCHES.-XXXI.

THE MOSLEMS IN EUROPE.

It was a momentous issue that was decided on the last day of that seven days' battle between the Saracenic host and the army of European Christians under Charles the Hammer (so called from the way in which he smote the enemy on this occasion), which was fought on the banks of the Loire, at the spot where now stands the city of Tours, on October 10, A.D. 732.

The question at issue really was whether or not the dominion of the Saracens, who had already conquered so far and so thoroughly, should be extended to northern and western Europe, and whether Christianity should be subverted by the religion of Mahomet, whose intolerant disciples and zealous proselytisers the Arabian Saracens were. To the cries of "Death or the Koran!" "There is but one God, and Mahomet is the prophet of God!"-cries which were the knell of hundreds of thousands of Christians--the Saracens burst from their desert home in Arabia, and swept in one strong tide of conquest through northern Africa, western Asia, and eastern Europe, till they paused on the Morocco shores of the Mediterranean Sea. They looked northward; they were full of energy and restlessness, and they thought to gratify their ambition and to spread the religion of their prophet by further conquests on the continent of Europe. While in this frame of mind a renegade Christian knight, Count Julian, displeased with the treatment he had received from his master, the Gothic King of Spain, invited the strangers to invade his master's kingdom. Under the conduct of Tarik (whose name is preserved in that of the rock of Gibraltar, called by the Saracens Gibel-al-Tarik), a resolute band crossed the straits, landed in Spain, and, assisted by reinforcements of their countrymen, conquered the country, and reduced the Christians to a condition of dependence, if not of slavery. As soon as they had settled their new gain into something like order, they looked round for fresh conquests, and marching across the Pyrenees, pushed on as far as the Loire, overcoming the very slight resistance that was opposed to them. Their plans included the conquest of France, Italy, and Germany, the seizure and dismemberment of the Greek empire being reserved as a sort of bonne-bouche for the last. The effect of this would have been, in all human probability, to drive Christianity into the cold regions of the extreme north, where the remnants left of the European nations would have found a home, secure by virtue of its climate, from the attacks of the cold-dreading sons of Arabia. There seems, however, to be a rule of nature that the south shall not prevail over the north, but contrariwise, that in the long run the north shall be master. So it proved at the battle of Tours in 732. Though the accounts we have of the battle, and of the circumstances attendant upon it, are chiefly from Christian writers, whose record bears upon the face of it

| strong marks of exaggeration, especially in point of numbers, the Saracen host being computed at near half a million of men, we may yet gather that the contending hosts were vast, consider. ing the populations which furnished them, and also we may believe that the Christians were in the minority. For seven days the fight lasted; scarcely was night allowed to break the continuance of the fray; the cross and the crescent struggled for the mastery, and the iron-clad warriors of the Church struck hard and thrust deep against the lighter-armed Moslems, whose skill and bravery had brought so many nationalities to their feet. May we not join with the valiant and pious men who, having fought and conquered with Charles the Hammer, ascribed the victory, not to the strength of their own arms of flesh, but to the mercy of the Lord, who fought on his people's side?

Some accounts have it that 300,000 of the Saracens were

slain, an almost incredible statement when we consider the gunpowderless weapons with which all the butchery must have been done; but however that may be, the Saracens were routed with such tremendous loss that they never afterwards attempted an invasion of France. Their shattered army recrossed the mountains, and sought in the quiet of its Spanish provinces to be healed of the wounds which "so bloodily did yawn upon its face." Charlemagne, grandson of the Hamrecovered from the Saracens a large portion even of their Spanish territory, and established a military colony in the acquired districts to serve as a bulwark to Christendom against further encroachments from the south.

mer,

But who were the Saracens, and whence came they? The answer involves some mention of the origin of the Mahometan religion. About the year of our Lord 569 there was born at Mecca one Mahomet, the son of a Christianised Jewess and her husband Abdallah, who was an idolater. Mahomet's parents died when he was a lad, and from the age of thirteen till he was more than forty he was engaged in trade, having been instructed and brought up by his uncles, Abu-Taleb and Abd-al-Motalleb. While still a young man he married Kadijah, a rich widow, old enough to be his mother, and being by the marriage placed in affluence, gave himself to contemplation and to study. Every year he retired to a cave near Mecca in order to spend a month in solitude and prayer, and he announced that during these periods the angel Gabriel appeared to him and told him hidden things. Then he related how he had been taken by the angel into the presence of God, who had told him he was to be his prophet, that prophet which should unite all men under one religion of which the one indivisible God was head. The Koran, or "Book that ought to be read," contained the revelations which the angel Gabriel, as the mouthpiece of the Almighty, was supposed to have made to Mahomet.

The first to believe in Mahomet as the prophet of God was his wife Kadijah, whose example was followed by several of Mahomet's kinsmen and acquaintance; but the people were slow to accept him, and the authorities at Mecca were so scandalised at his professions, that after a short time spent in preaching to the people he was forced to fly to Yatreb, now Medina (the city), where he had many disciples. Medina became the nucleus of the prophet's power, and thither flocked the discontented and the converted to enrol themselves under his banner. Bands of armed men belonging to his sect infested the road to Mecca, hostilities broke out, and Mahomet succeeded, after several encounters in which fortune did not always favour him, in arranging for peace, one of the conditions of which was his public entry into Mecca in his capacity of prophet. From this time Mahomet became the most powerful prince in Arabia, converts by the thousand were made to his religion, and he began to turn his thoughts towards spreading his doctrines beyond the limits of his own country. For "the people of the book "-that is to say, people who claimed to have had special revelations, as the Jews and the Christians-he allowed his followers to have toleration on payment of tribute, but for idolaters of all kinds the message brought by Mahomet contained only a choice between the alternatives, Death or the Koran. Mahomet, beyond sending a few military missionary expeditions under enthusiastic commanders against some of the southern provinces of the Greek empire, does not appear to have done much more than to acquire for himself and his religion a complete supremacy in Arabia. All foreign rule was abolished by him, all other religious systems were forced to yield pre cedence to his within the borders of Arabia, and ready to do

On the 8th of June, A.D. 632, the prophet died from the effects of poison, administered, it is said, by a Jewess who wished to try whether he actually was, as he asserted himself to be, the Messiah that should come into the world. Discord sprang up among the chiefs upon the question of a successor, but the supreme command over the faithful was at length accorded to Abubeker, the father of Ayesha, Mahomet's favourite wife. Abubeker crushed by force of arms the efforts of rivals to depose him, assumed the title of Khaliph, or Vicar, and proceeded forthwith to enlarge the borders of the Saracenic empire. Making wise choice of commanders, chief of whom was the mighty Khaled, "the sword of God," he invaded Syria, Babylonia, and the nearest provinces of the Greek empire, and covered the Saracen arms with the laurels of victory. Damascus and Jerusalem were both attacked, and the former, though defended by a numerous garrison, and though the Emperor Heraclius sent an army of 100,000 men to relieve it, was captured on the very day that Abubeker died (A.D. 634). Under Omar, the successor of Abubeker, Persia, Egypt, and Syria fell, Jerusalem itself falling into the Khaliph's power in the year of our Lord 637. Upon the spot where Solomon's temple had stood, the great mosque of Omar was built; the Christians were allowed to retain their churches, and were promised protection in return for tribute, and at first it seemed as if the change of masters would prove beneficial-the change from the slothful mis-government by provincial governors appointed by the emperor, to the strong, just, and wise government of the Khaliph.

From the death of Omar, who was assassinated in 643, till the invasion of Spain in 710, the Saracen empire had extended its borders with little intermission. Besides establishing itself all along the coast of northern Africa, it had mastered the islands of Sardinia, Sicily, Rhodes, and Crete, and had effected a lodgment on the Italian peninsula. But during that time also divisions had sprung up among chiefs who each claimed the throne, and who appealed to the sword to decide between them. The Arabian simplicity and hardihood became diminished by contact with civilisation and refinement, and it was found by the middle of the eighth century that the authority of the Khaliph at Bagdad was practically set at nought, and his dominion confined to the limits of the city itself. Quasi-independent kingdoms were erected in Tunis, Tripoli, Egypt, Morocco, Damascus, and Spain, each under some successful soldier chief, who owned only a nominal allegiance, if any, to the Commander of the Faithful at Bagdad.

This decline in power, these splittings up of the unity of the empire, were the salvation for a while of the Greek empire. They were the causes, too, coupled with the establishment of the Christian kingdoms of Leon, Castile, the Asturias, and Navarre, and the continuous bearing down from the north upon the south of the large nationalities of the German and Sclavonic families, why the Saracenic wave of conquest did not sweep northwards after it was first stemmed by Charles the Hammer at the battle of Tours.

There was another and more deadly cause for the break-up of the Saracenic power, at least in the East. In the wars which the Khaliphs waged from time to time upon the barbarous people who dwelt on their north-eastern frontier, there had been captared many stalwart men, of large frame and sturdy constitution, who were allowed their freedom from labour and from the other incidents of conquest on condition of entering the military service of their captors. These men were from Turkestan, Tartars of the roughest, strongest kind. They accepted the conditions, and they formed the household troops of the Khaliph about the time when the energetic brethren of their master were establishing themselves in their newly-gained Spanish possessions. From guards they soon learned to become masters, and to dispose of the succession when that came in question according to their own liking. The Kaliphate declined visibly. Al Radi, who died in 940, was the last of the real Khaliphs; after him there was no head of the empire, and the Turkish soldiers seized for themselves the provinces immediately surrounding the capital city of Bagdad. The title of Khaliph was, however, maintained by the Turks for some

The separate kingdoms of Saracenic foundation remained in statu quo for long periods of years, excepting that the Sultan of Egypt assumed the lead among them, and, as it fell to pieces, absorbed such provinces of the Bagdad empire as the negligence or the impotence of the Turks suffered to drift away. It was with the Sultans of Egypt, most famous of whom was Saladin, that the Crusaders had to reckon when they endeavoured to recover the Holy Land. (See Historic Sketches.-X., Vol. I., page 311.) Syria had fallen to Egypt, and the Sultans of Egypt protected it, succeeding, ere they in due time fell before the westward march of the Turks, in driving the Christians out of the whole of Palestine, and in rendering barren of results all the work of the Crusades.

The kingdoms of Tunis, Tripoli, and Morocco remain to this day, though in them also the dominion has departed from the grasp of pure Arabian or Saracen hands to that of strong strangers. In Spain the Saracenic, or, as it was called from its identity of interest and from its origin, the Moorish kingdom, long remained in spite of the strenuous efforts of the Christian princes of the north to destroy it. Not until several of the small Christian states had been rolled into one, and made one in interest, one in political purpose, one as a nation, was an impression made on the kingdom of Granada, and even then the impression was, so to speak, a slight one. From indolence, incapacity, from whatever cause, the Christian princes who strove from the year 1100 downwards, with some prospect of ultimate success, to oust the Moors, proved unequal to the task. It was reserved for Ferdinand the Catholic, whose marriage with Isabella of Castile had welded into one the Christian power in Spain, to overthrow without hope of restoration the throne of the Moslem in Cordova. Many strong towns had been gradually won, the bulwarks of the kingdom had been sapped since many years, but on the 2nd of January, 1492, the Spanish king had the satisfaction of receiving as conqueror the keys of Granada, the last stronghold of the Moors.

Forty years had not elapsed since every echo in Europe had resounded to the crash of the Greek empire as its capital fell to the Turks. Fresh influxes of men, fresh leaders, new dynasties, had come to swell the might and to develop the resources of those invaders. An irrepressible ardour burned in their hearts to burst their bounds and to achieve conquests, and the weakness and the riches of the Greek empire proved an irresistible bait. With a multitudinous army, supplied with everything for the siege of the greatest city of the world—with skill, courage, and confidence in himself-Mahomet II. pitched his camp around the fated city, and carried it at last by assault. Constantinople passed into Turkish hands, by which it has been retained ever since; and for a while it was feared that the Moslem faith which had been kept out of Europe, save Spain, would be forced upon it by the Turks. Vienna was twice besieged by the Turks, the last time in 1683; and it was but owing to victories like the naval one of Lepanto in 1571, to those in which the king and people of Hungary so frequently sacrificed themselves, and to heroic efforts like those which enabled John Sobieski, King of Poland, to rescue Vienna in 1683, that the Turkish power was kept from encroaching further westward in Europe. Few and short, it is probable, are the days of its future pilgrimage.

LESSONS IN ENGLISH.-XXXI.
CONVERSATIONS ON ENGLISH GRAMMAR.-IV.

ABOUT ENGLISH DICTIONARIES.

William. I find the study of those Greek stems difficult. Thomas. Every study is difficult at the first, and often is a study the more difficult the more valuable it is, both for the information it contains, and for the mental discipline which it gives. Pursue the course which the Lessons in English take, exactly in the order in which it is presented, and master each lesson in succession.

William. If by mastering you mean that I should thoroughly comprehend and retain in mind every part, I must candidly tell you that I am unable to do so.

Thomas. Why? every word likely to cause difficulty is explained, and an example of its import and use is given; the etymology of the words is, too, so set forth, that I should have thought you would, from that alone, have been led to the several meanings.

William. Well, I have, I believe, made out the meanings of some of the words from a knowledge of their constituent elements.

Thomas. Doubtless you have, and with practice you will succeed in thus making yourself acquainted with them all; it is by this means that I have learnt the import of thousands of the words with which I am familiar.

William. Oh, you have had good dictionaries.

Thomas. True, I possess good dictionaries, but the best dictionaries will not suffice to give any one even a verbal knowledge of a language; and I assure you, it is very possible for a dictionary to be so used as to be a hindrance to a real, and thorough, and exact acquaintance with a language. A dictionary is a very good servant, but a very bad master. A slavish use of a dictionary retards and obstructs even a verbal knowledge of a language. You should aim at becoming your own dictionary; and to a great extent your own dictionary you may become, if you take the trouble to make yourself familiar with the roots of the English. Do you think you would ever acquire a knowledge of the steam-engine, so as to be able to make an engine yourself, if you confined your inspection to its exterior? The way to know how to put a steam-engine together is first to take it to pieces, and then carefully to examine the structure and use of every part.

William. Yes, there is sense in that; I had a proof last week; I took my watch to be repaired, and as I stood there at the counter chatting with the watchmaker, he began to take my watch to pieces; my curiosity was excited, I watched every step, and when he had done (or rather undone the watch), he explained to me the use and function of every part. To-morrow I am to go to see him put the parts together.

Thomas. A very good illustration; now you would understand what you see to-morrow very imperfectly if you had not seen the watch taken to pieces, and if, further, you had not carefully marked and studied every piece of the machinery. After all, your knowledge of the structure and the movements of the watch will remain very much inferior to the watchmaker's knowledge; why ?

William. I suppose, because he is more exactly and more thoroughly familiar with the several parts.

Thomas. Exactly. Apply this to a language: it is the parts or the elements of the English language that I want you to be master of, well knowing that when you are so, you will know and write the language well; but without that mastery you must not expect to become a proficient in our tongue. You did not, I fancy, entrust your watch to the watchmaker's apprentice? William. I should be very sorry do so.

Thomas. Why?

William. Why? because he is an apprentice, and a young

one, too.

Thomas. Very well, you thought he did not understand his business; and if he did not understand his business, it was chiefly because he was unacquainted with the structure and uses of the parts of your watch.

William. But why take the watch to picces in order to acquire that knowledge?

Thomas. Simply because that knowledge cannot well be otherwise acquired. I dare say you have looked at your watch very often.

William. Oh, yes, and I have tried to look into it, but never could get to know much about its works or its operations.

Thomas. No, and long enough might the watchmaker's apprentice look at and look into his master's watches before he would acquire the knowledge and skill requisite to make him a watchmaker. Now, in regard to the English, you wish to be a watchmaker, that is, you wish to write good English; how can you succeed unless by learning the parts of the structure with which you have to deal? No, no; you must follow the watchmaker's practice; you must take the language to pieces, study those several pieces, and then try to put them all together bit by bit. In this operation everything depends on your acquiring a correct knowledge of the several component parts. Therefore study etymology, study the Greek, Latin, and other stems. If you fail in this you will be, and you will remain, in the condition of the watchmaker's apprentice. William. Surely, I may become a master by studying a good English dictionary.

Thomas. Never; the mere use of the dictionary is like looking at the watch on the outside; at the best you will thus look only a small way into it, and after all, having given much more trouble than would be necessary to acquire the language thoroughly with the aid of etymology, you will, whatever efforts you may make, acquire nothing more than a superficial acquaintance with English. The etymological study of a language is the only wise and proper one; it is also the shortest and the easiest in the long run.

William. What do you mean by " etymological study ?" Thomas. That study which is founded on etymology or a knowledge of root-meanings, a knowledge of the meanings of the component parts or the elements of a language. Etymology is the A B C of a language; and as you cannot write without knowing "your alphabet," so you cannot read without knowing the materials you have to employ. I fancy I should ill succeed in your cabinet-making. Why?

William. For one thing, you don't know the tools. Thomas. No; but the tools of the English language I do know, and want to teach you what they are, and what they are for. Therefore study the Greek and Latin stems or roots.

William. But you do not forbid the use of a dictionary. Some of the words given in the lessons I cannot make out-what am I to do?

Thomas. Consult a good English dictionary. I am not against the proper use of a dictionary; it is the abuse of a dictionary I wish to guard you against. Do not expect too much from a dictionary. Do not place your reliance on a dictionary. Do not fly to a dictionary the moment you meet with a word you do not understand. Instead of consulting the dictionary, consult your own head. Surely you will be better off if you carry a dictionary about with you.

William. Yes, I will get a pocket dictionary.

Thomas. No, no; I don't mean that. Pocket dictionaries are of little more use than "pocket pistols;" it is a head-dictionary that I wish to recommend. If you have a dictionary in your own head, you will never be at a loss; and the way to acquire such a treasure is by systematic study the etymological study of the English tongue.

William. Still you think a dictionary may be useful; what dictionary do you recommend?

Thomas. I think it indispensable that you should possess a good English dictionary. Talent and industry of the first class might do without a dictionary; and you yourself will fail in your duty if you do not learn far more without, than you learn by means of a dictionary. Nevertheless, there are occasions when a dictionary is useful, not to say necessary, and on that account I will set before you means for determining which of the dictionaries of the English language you should purchase.

William. I suppose, from what you say, that there are several dictionaries of the English language? Thomas. Yes, there are several.

William. Well, then, which am I to choose? Thomas. The selection, in part, depends on the amount of money you can spare for the purpose.

William. My stock is small, but I would rather wait until it has increased than purchase an inferior book.

Thomas. Very good, but what should you say to five guineas for a dictionary?

William. I can afford no such sum; the utmost that my