to the several tales, containing detached portions of the history of the journey. But whether the tales are now preserved in the order in which their author would have finally retained them, and to what portions of the journey the various prologues refer, it is often impossible to decide. There is much reason to think that Chaucer, at his death, left what he had written very much in confusion, and that some other hand arranged the fragments.

The work naturally divides itself into two parts, the one dealing with the history of the pilgrims and the incidents of their journey, and consisting of the general prologue to the whole work, and the special prologues, or introductions, by which the tales are connected together; the other consisting of the twentyfour tales told by the pilgrims.

The prologue is the most remarkable of all Chaucer's works, and one of the most remarkable in the whole range of literature. It consists, for the most part, of a series of masterly portraits of the pilgrims, every one of which is now, after an interval of nearly five hundred years, as fresh, as clear, and as vivid as if it had been painted yesterday. Each one of them

embodies the characteristics of the class of which it is the type so fully, that we feel convinced that we know what kind of men the monks, the lawyers, the doctors of Chaucer's day were; that we know, in fact, what our forefathers and their manner of life were like. Yet each one is also marked by individual traits belonging to the man, not to the class, which impress upon the mind that those we read of are no mere abstract representatives of classes, but real living men and women. Every student of literature ought to make himself thoroughly familiar with this prologue. All that we can do is to show Chaucer's manner of description by means of a few selected examples. The first portrait we choose is that of the prosperous monk or abbot. In this extract we alter the old spelling in some places :

A monk there was, a fair for the maistrie,1
An out-rider, that loved venerye;"

A manly man, to be an abbot able.
Full many a dainty horse had he in stable;

And when he rode, men might his bridle hear

Jingle in a whistling wind so clear,

And eek as loud as doth the chapel bell.
There as this lord was keeper of the cell,"
The rule of Saint Maure or of Saint Beneyt,*
Because that it was old and somedeal straight,"
This ilka monk let forby hem pace,

And held after the newe world the space."
He gaf not of that text a pulled hen,"
That saith, that hunters ben none holy men;
Ne that a monk, when he is cloisterless,
Is likened to a fish that is waterles;"
This is to say, a monk out of his cloistre,

But thilke text held he not worth an oyster;

And I saide his opinion was good.

What should he study and make himselven wood,11
Upon a book in cloistre alway to pore,

Or swinke11 with his handes, and labour,

As Austyn bit p13 How shall the world be served ?

Let Austyn have his swynk to him reserved.
Therefore he was a pricasour aright;1
Greyhounds he had as swift as fowl in flight;
Of prikyng and of hunting for the hare
Was all his lust, for no cost wolde he spare.
I saw his sleves purfiled at the hand1
With grys, and that the finest of a land;"
And for to fasten his hood under his chin,
He had of gold i-wrought a curious pin;
A love knot in the greater end there was.
His head was bald, and shone as any glass,
And eek his face as he had been anoynt ;1*

20

He was a lad full fat and in good point;1o
His eyen steep, and rolling in his head,
That steamed as a furnace of a lead ;"1
His boots supple, his horse in great estate.
Now certainly he w's fair prelate;
He was not pale as pined" ghost.
A fat swan loved he best of any roast.

His palfray was as brown as any berry.**

Our next extract, also taken from the prologue, is the character of the poor country parson, and the contrast between it and the picture of the luxurious monk will at once remind the reader of what has been said of Chaucer's sympathy with the party of Wickliffe, and his dislike of the monks :

A good man was ther of religioun,
And was a pore parsoune of a toun;1
But riche he was of holy thought and werk.
He was also a lerned man, a clerk
That Cristes Gospel gladly wolde preche;
His parisschens devoutly wolde he teche.
Benigne he was, and wonder3 diligent,
And in adversite ful pacient;

And such he was i-proved ofte sythes.*
Full loth were him to curse for his tythes,6
But rather wolde he geven out of dowte,
Unto his pore parisschens aboute,

Of his offrynge, and eek of his substaunce.7
He could in litel thing han suffisance.s
Wide was his parisch, and houses fer asondur,
But he ne lafte not for reyne ne thondur,
In siknesse ne in meschief to visite
The ferrest1 in his parisch, moche and lite,"
Uppon his feet, and in his hand a staff.
This noble ensaumple unto his scheep he gaf,1
That first he wroughte and after that he taughte.
Out of the Gospel he the13 wordes caughte,
And this figure he added yit therto,
That if golde ruste, what schulde yren doo ?
For if a prest be foul, on whom we truste,
No wondur is a lewed man" to ruste;
And schame it is, if that a prest take kepe,15

A schiten scheppard and a clene schepe :

Wel oughte a prest ensample for to give,
By his clennesse, how that his scheep schulde lyve.
He sette not his benefice to huyre,"

And lefte his schepe encombred in the myre,
And ran to Londone, unto Seynte Paules,

To seeken him a chaunterie for soules, 15

Or with a brotherhede be withholde; 19
But dwelte at hoom, and kepte well his folde,
So that the wolfe ne made it not myscarye.
He was a schepperde and no mercenario;
And though he holy were, and vertuous,
He was to sinful men nought dispitous.20
Ne of his speche daungerous ne digne,21

10 From the French embonpoint, plump.

20 His eyes deep-set.
21 Like a lead furnace.
22 Wasted away.

" This last line illustrates a peculiarity of Chaucer's versification, which ought to be noted. Modern poets, writing in this metre, almost invariably end each paragraph with the second line of a couplet. Chaucer generally ends the paragraph with the first line of the couplet, making the end of one paragraph rhyme with the beginning of the next, and so connecting the two to the ear. Thus, it will be observed, the last line in the description of the monk ends with "berry;" the next paragraph, introducing another personage, begins, "A frere there was, a wanton and a merry."

A poor parson of a townland or rural parish.

2 Parishioners.

3 Wonderfully.

• Oftentimes.

15 Take note of it.
16 Foul, dirty.

17 Did not place a hired substi tute in his benefice. The abuses among the clergy referred to in these lines are the constant theme of the satirists of the period.

18 An endowment for saying masses for the soul of the giver of the endowment in St. Paul's Cathedral.

19 To be maintained in a monastic brotherhood.

20 Not uncharitable, not pitiless

5 Very disagreeable would it be to the sins of others.

to him.

21 Harsh or proud.

But in his teching discret and benigne,
To drawe folk to heven by fairnesse,
By good ensample, was his busynesse :
But it were any person obstinat,

What so22 he were of high or lowe estat,

Him wolde he snybbe23 scharply for the nones.24
A bettre preest I trowe ther nowher non is.
He waytud after no pompe ne reverence,
Ne maked him a spiced conscience, 25
But Cristes lore, and his apostles twelve,

He taught, and first he folwed it himselve.

The short passages of narrative which occur under the title of prologues between the various tales, are scarcely inferior to the general prologue in dramatic skill. The most noteworthy character in them is the good-humoured host, with his ready mother-wit, managing the somewhat troublesome pilgrims.

Of the other portion of the poem, the tales themselves, we must speak but briefly. We have already pointed out the judgment with which Chaucer adapted the tale to the teller. The stories may be roughly divided into two classes-the dignified, or pathetic tales told by the higher and more educated class of the pilgrims; and the broad, coarse, but humorous stories told by the travellers of lower rank. The first and longest of the tales of the first class is the Knight's tale, which contains the story of Palamon and Arcite, derived no doubt by Chaucer from Boccaccio. The Squire's tale is suited to the character of the squire. It is a wild story of love and enchantment, probably of Oriental origin, and only half finished. The Man of Law's tale is the pathetic story of Custance, borrowed by Chaucer from the "Confessio Amantis" of Gower, as it had been by Gower from earlier writers. The Doctor of Physic tells the Roman story of Virginia. The Prioress relates the characteristic story of a little Christian child murdered by Jews, and of the miracles that followed his death, and revealed the crime. The Clerk's tale, the most pathetic of the whole number, is the story of Patient Griselda, since become familiar in many forms to all readers, but then told in English for the first time, being taken from the Latin of Petrarch.

Among the stories of the second class, the most humorous

perhaps are those of the Miller, the Prior, and the Canon's humorous tales, are much too coarse to suit the taste of the present day. The Parson's tale is of a class by itself. It is in prose, and is, in fact, a sermon or moral discourse.

Yeoman; but the first and second of these, like most of Chaucer's

The nayl y-drove in the schode15 a-nyght;
The colde deth, with mouth gapyng upright.
Amyddes of the tempul sat mischaunce,
With sory comfort and evel contenaunce
I saugh woodnes16 laughyng in his rage:
Armed complaint, outhees,17 and fiers outrage.
The carroiguels in the busshe, with throte y-corve;
A thousand slain, and not of qualme y-storve;12
The tiraunte, with the preye by force y-raft;
The town destroied, there was no thing laft.
Yet saugh I brente the schippes hoppesteres ;**
The hunte1 strangled with the wild beres :
The sowe freten" the child right in the cradel;
The cook i-scalded, for al his longe ladel.
Nought beth forgeten the infortune of Mart;
The carter over-ryden of his cart,
Under the whel ful lowe he lay adoun.
Ther wer also of Martz divisioun,**

The barbour," and the bowcher, and the smyth,
That forgeth scharpe swerdes on his stith.
And all above depeynted in a tour
Saw I conquest sitting in gret honour,
With the scharpe sword over his heed
Hangynge by a sotil twyne threed.""

LESSONS IN SHORTHAND.-XIV.

HISTORY OF SHORTHAND.

semination of the art of Shorthand in modern times, ending respec193. There are three principal epochs in the improvement and distively at the publication of the matured systems of Mason (1682), of Taylor (1786), and of the first edition of Phonography (1837); and each may be assigned to some specific cause, or peculiar feature of the time. The Shorthand of the Romans, as practised by Tiro, (the freedman of Cicero), Ennius, and others, was an abbreviated longhand, both as to the forms of the letters, and the orthography. 194. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the principles of the Reformation were extensively promulgated in this country from the pulpit. A desire to preserve for future private reading the discourses of the principal preachers of that day, led to the cultivation of the newly invented art of shorthand writing. Teachers and systems increased rapidly; and by a comparison of one mode with another, and by experimenting with various series of alphabetical signs, Mason, at length, produced a system far superior to any that had preceded it. The pro

And downward on a hil under a bent,1
Ther stood the Tempul of Marz Armypotent,
Wrought al of burned steel of which thentre❜
Was long and streyt, and gastly for to see.
And thereout came a rage and such a prise,a
That it made all the gates for to rise.

The northen light in at the dore schon,
For window on the walls ne was ther noon,
Thorugh the which men might no light discern.
The dores were alle ademauntz eterne,
I-clenched overthwart and endelong+
With iren tough; and for to make it strong
Every piler the tempul to susteine

Was tonne greet, of iren bright and schene:
Ther saugh I first the dark ymagining
Of felony, and al the compassyng;
The cruel ire, ees rad as eny gleede;"
The pikepurs,7 and eek the pale drede;
The smyler with the knyf under his cloke;
The schipne brennyngs with the blake smoke;
The tresoun with the murtheryng in the bed;
The open werres, with woundes al bi-bled;"
Contek 10 with bloody knyf, and sharp manace ;11
Al ful of chirkyng1 was that sory place.
The slur of himself yet saugh I there,
His herte-blood13 hath bathed al his here ;14

23 Whether.

2

23 Snub, rebuke.

24 On that occasion, then and there.

25 Did not spoil the natural sim. plicity of his conscience.

A bend-that is, a slope.

2 The entry. This contraction

is very common in Chaucer. 3 Press or crowd.

arbitrary characters for words (or rather from the publication of the first shorthand alphabet by John Willis, in 1602), to the appearance of Mason's system in 1682, may therefore be considered as resulting from the dawn of RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. Mason's system was published by Thomas Gurney, in 1751, and it is used by members of his family, as reporters to the Government, to the present time.

195. No other marked advance was made till the middle of the next century. "It is singular," observes Mr. Bradley, in his shorthand treatise, "that although Stenography was introduced into this country at a very early period, yet that our forefathers should never, until a very recent date, have thought of adapting it to that which is now its primary, although by no means its only, use-we mean the transcript of addresses delivered to the public, or in which the community at large are interested. The example of Cicero ought to have incited them to this pursuit, even had not the obvious nature of the art done so. However, the use to which it has been since so successfully applied, seems not to have been considered by them; for, up to 1780, public proceedings, or rather miserably abridged sketches of them, were taken down in the ordinary writing for the London journals. Dr Johnson was one of the earliest reporters of the debates in Parliament, and the Doctor boasted that he took care the Whig dogs should not have the best of the argument-a course which he could well adopt; for, instead of reporting the speeches of noble lords and honourable members, he composed them; and it is recorded that he made them all speak in the same pompous and grammatical style in

NATURAL HISTORY OF COMMERCE.

CHAPTER III. (continued).

in the Devonian, carboniferous, Permian, and oolitic strata.

The carboniferous system contains our greatest sources of natural wealth. It yields the coal which gladdens our hearths, and heats our roaring furnaces. It supplies us with iron ores and lime, and with the fuel necessary for smelting the iron, for the most part in close proximity to the ores. We have thus two conditions especially favourable to the production of cheap ironabundant ore and fuel-occurring together. In no other country perhaps, save Belgium, do we find an equally favourable combination of circumstances. The absence from Ireland of any vast deposits of bituminous coal necessarily prevents the establishment in that country of those branches of industry in which the cost of fuel forms any very large proportion of the total cost of production. Hence, we have not had there any successful establishment of iron-smelting in recent times. The iron ores, however, both as earthy and bituminous carbonates and as hæmatites, are now largely exported from Ireland to England and Scotland to supply the enormously increasing demand.

Large quantities of copper and other ores raised in Ireland, Chili, Mexico, etc., are sent to Swansea to be smelted, as the proportion of fuel which is required would render the process in those countries too costly to be profitable. In other words, it is cheaper to carry ore to the coal than coal to the ore. Similarly the various clays raised in the south of England are transported to Staffordshire to be converted into useful articles.

Previous to the employment of steam as a motive force, water was the prime mover; consequently our manufactories, at that time, were located where water-power was at command. But on the application of coal to the generation of eam, the seats of manufacturing industry were necessarily transported to districts where this mineral could be obtained abundantly and cheaply. Norwich, York, and Spitalfields could then no longer compete with the towns more favourably circumstanced, and in course of time ceased to be the great manufacturing centres. Lancashire, on the introduction of steam machinery, soon became the greatest manufacturing district, owing to its situation with respect to our coalfields and to our outlets of commercial industry.

From the time of the Romans to the seventeenth century the Weald of Kent and Sussex was one of the chief sites for the production of iron, because of the close proximity of the fuel, wood, to the ore; but when coal came to be used in the reduction of the ores, this branch of industry declined, and was soon removed to districts where the more abundant and cheaper supply of fuel was to be found.

From the foregoing remarks we have an explanation why the coal-producing counties are the centres of our manufacturing industry.

(d.) Other bedded mineral products are met with in strata of various ages. Slates are quarried in Silurian rocks in Carnarvon and Merioneth, in Cumberland, and in some parts of Scotland. In these districts there is a very large population supported entirely by the quarrying and preparing of slates.

Rock salt is confined in Great Britain to the Keuper sandstone and marls.

Building and architectural stones are chiefly quarried

VOL. IV.

The mining of iron pyrites is a large branch of industry cal manufactures in which the cost of fuel does not form a preponderating item. This mineral is collected in Scotland, the north-eastern parts of England, etc., being derived from the carboniferous and newer formations.

Coprolites, the exuvia of extinct gigantic reptiles, and pseudo-coprolites, the osseous remains of large vertebrates, and nodular concretions of phosphate of lime of organic origin, cannot be expected to occur in strata of an epoch anterior to that in which those animals lived. They occur in the liassic, and neocomian, and cretaceous strata, and in the newer tertiaries, these last formations being characterised by the remains of whales and other mammals, as the first are by ichthyosauri, plesiosauri, and other huge reptiles. As a source of manure, coprolites have become important.

3. Detrital.

The chief minerals found in detrital deposits are gold and tin-stone, i.e., stream-tin. Being derivative, the occurrence of these minerals indicates the existence of rocks containing them, either in the immediate neighbourhood, or in tracts drained by a local stream or its tributaries.

Keeping in view the geographical distribution of the paleozoic rocks, especially of the Silurian, Devonian, and carboniferous systems, and the fact of these strata being the sources of our chief mineral wealth, let us now apply these phenomena to the industrial pursuits of the people of these areas.

III. Relation of Geology to Agriculture.

1. Botanical Aspect presented by Geological Formations. It has been stated that the soils of a country vary to a great extent with the nature of the underlying geological formations. This phenomenon may be best illustrated by reference to the district in the line of section shown in Fig. 1. (See page 225.)

pas

The western parts of Wales, where the land attains an elevation of from 2,000 to 4,000 feet above the sea-level, are covered with heath, and are only fit for inferior ture lands. Monmouthshire, Brecknockshire, Hereford, and parts of Worcestershire are occcupied by the rocks of the old red sandstone formation; and in consequence of their susceptibility of decomposition, the marls breaking up into rich earth fitted for tillage, they naturally form a more fertile soil than that derived from the slates of the west; hence we have in the former districts good corn lands and productive orchards

The low plain of new red sandstone presents facilities for agriculture similar to those of the old red sandstone

tract.

The configuration of the surface of the country occupied by the Jurassic rocks which succeed, may be viewed as an alternation of clays and limestones. The outcrops of the clays can actually be traced by the wide valleys, which are permanent grass lands; whilst the limestones compose ranges of low hills or more elevated grounds. These limestone ridges form escarpments (see Fig. 1) along the line of strike, that is, on the side (N.W.) on which the several clays rise up from beneath the calcareous beds. The soil on these limestones is well adapted for the growth of cereals, turnips, and clovers.

Passing on to the cretaceous series, which in the south forms extensive tracts, we meet with siliceous, argillaceous, and calcareous soils. The rocks in the western part of the wealden area contain little lime and much silica, and are covered by some very wide-spread heaths not worth bringing into cultivation. The natural forestlands of the Weald or Wold are on the wealden clay, which has been cultivated, though only of late years, by the help of deep drainage.

95

The base of the chalk escarpments is usually marked by a stratum of clay-the gault-which thus occupies a valley, and is a pasture tract. But the chalk strata | which form the South Downs and stretch far to the west, into the centre of England, and thence away to the north-east, are chiefly used for the purpose of sheeppasturage. There is little or no soil upon them, the herbage is short, and trees are absent; however, the chalk ranges, especially the broad, sweeping plain of Wiltshire and Hampshire, are gradually coming under tillage-the chief crops being grain, turnips, clover, and sainfoin.

The soils derived from the decomposition of rocks containing magnesia-such as the dolomite of the Permian, which ranges from Nottingham, through Derbyshire and Yorkshire, to Tynemouth, and the serpentines of Cornwall-are rich, but perhaps less so than those derived from ordinary calcareous strata. The Lizard Downs are, however, reckoned fine pasture-land; the cultivated parts are amongst the best corn-lands in the county, and agriculturists agree that the land in the Permian tracts is extremely fertile.

66

The tertiary beds of the basin of the Thames are for the most part cultivated tracts, excepting where the Bagshot Sands" form the superficial stratum. These are familiar to us as heathy wastes, such as Aldershot Heath, Bagshot Heath, Hampstead Heath, etc., and have been converted into camping and exercise grounds for our troops and volunteers.

The older palæozoic rocks, although rich in minerals, are generally barren, and seem peculiarly dreary and desolate. This arises partly from the nature of the strata, and partly from the circumstance that, occupying hilly regions, they are to a great extent above the limits of the growth of economic plants, even if within the reach of ordinary agricultural operations.

The Highlands of Scotland, composed of masses of gneiss and granite, are heathy and barren, since their hard rocky materials come almost everywhere bare to the surface, forming a wild pastoral country, browsed by black cattle, poor sheep, and red deer. The neighbourhood of Parys Mountain, in Anglesea, is singularly marked by sterility and gloominess-there is neither shrub nor tree, and the barrenness is unrelieved even by a single blade of grass. Other examples might be adduced in illustration of the unproductive nature of the soil of the oldest palæozoic and metamorphic rocks. But in all these regions the character of the surface will be more or less modified by the occurrence of alluvial deposits bordering the rivers, and by the presence of a glacial drift-the effect of denudation upon various rocks, producing a favourable mixture of clay, sand, and lime, which forms a rich soil.

LESSONS IN GREEK.—XXX.

EXERCISE 84.-GREEK-ENGLISH.

1. Οἱ στρατιωται των πολεμίων δισχιλιους διακοσίους ἑξήκοντα πεντε πεφονευκασιν. 2. Φερεκύδης έλεγε μηδενι θεῳ τεθυκεναι. 3. Νεος πεφυκως πολλα χρηστα μανθανε. 4. Ο μαντις τα μελ λοντα καλως πεπροφητευκεν. 5. Τα τεκνα εν πεπαιδευκας. 6. 7. Οἱ Λακεδαιμόνιοι

Μηδεια τα τεκνα πεφονευκυία έχαιρεν.
Πλαταίας κατελελυκεσαν. 8. Σαρδαναπάλος στολην γυναικεία»

ενεδεδύκει. 9. Ότε ήλιος κατεδεδύκει, οἱ πολέμιοι επλησίαζον. 10. Αλεξανδρος επιδιωκων Δαρείον, τον Περσών βασιλεα, πολλών χρημάτων εκεκυριεύσει.

EXERCISE 85.-ENGLISH-GREEK.

1. I have slain. 2. They have slain. 3. He had slain. 4. They will slay. 5. He slew (first aorist). 6. We will slay. 7. 8. We had slain. 9. They will sacrifice. 10. We have slain. They have sacrificed. 11. They had sacrificed. 12. They sacrificed. 13. The soothsayer sacrificed to the god. 14. The soothsayer has sacrificed to the god one hundred oxen. 15. I educate my children. 16. I was educating my children. 17. I will educate my children. 18. I educated my children. 19. I have educated my children. 20. I had educated my children. 21. Alexander destroyed Babylon. 22. Alexander had destroyed Babylon. 23. The boy puts on a woman's garment. 24. The boy has put on a woman's garment. 25. The boy had put on a woman's garment. 26. The boy will put on a woman's garment. REMARKS ON THIS EXERCISE.

In forming the tenses of verbs compounded with prepositions, the student is advised to drop the preposition while so doing, restoring it afterwards. For instance, in evovw I drop the ev, and form the stems according to rule; thus, dv-, dvo-, edva., δεδυκ-, εδεδυκ-, εν-ε-δε-δυ-κ, that is, ενεδεδυκ. So with καταλύω : λυ-, λυσα, ελυσα, λελυκ-, ελελυκο ή κατελελυκ : where observe that Kara loses its final a before the vowel e.

I have accented the proper names, as Diodorus, Sardanapálus, etc., according to the Greek, the rule being that in proper names, as well as generally, a long vowel in the Greek should receive the stress of the voice in English.

PRESENT AND IMPERFECT MIDDLE OR PASSIVE.

The present middle or passive is formed from the stem of the present active by adding ομαι, ας λυ-, λυ-ομαι. Οι ομαι the o may be considered as a connecting vowel, and as the personending. This connecting vowel is seen in other persons of the same tense ; thus, λυ-ο-μαι, λυ-εται, λυ-ο-μεθον, λυ-ε-σθον, λυ-οMeta, Av-e-σ0e, Au-o-vrai, where e and o are the connecting vowels -vowels, that is, that unite the stem with the person-endings.

The imperfect middle or passive is formed by prefixing the augment and changing μαι into μην—thus, λυομαι, ε-λυο-μην. It may also be formed from the imperfect active by changing the active termination or into the middle termination ounv. VOCABULARY.

brother. Αποδέχομαι,

γον, work),

I

Γυναικείος, -α, -ον, womanly, belonging to a woman. Aapelos,-ov, d,Darius.

VOCABULARY

I re- work. Epxoμai, I come, go. Λανθανω (Latin, lateo), I lie hid, am concealed. Πενομαι (πένης, poor ;

ceive, am favourable to, welcome. Αυλος, -ου, δ, a flute. Εγχώριος, -ον, domestic, belonging to the country (χωρα).

Efe (with the optative), O that!

τω καλως, I do well (that is, I am in a good condition). Στρατεύω (from στρα Tia, an army), I make an expedition.

Latin, penuria; Yevdoua (from e English, penury), dos, a falsehood),

I am poor.

I lie.