T.-It seems to me desirable, in most cases where it can be done, to trace back words to their origin: it gives a clearer conception of their meaning, and additional association for holding them in the memory: and to me it is full of interest, like tracing back the history of a noted personage. Master G., you are in the Greek class please to tell me what Trope is derived from?

G. The Greek word trope, comes from trepo, to turn; and means turning the word from a literal to a figurative meaning.

T-Who can tell what the Greek word Climax means ?

H.-It means a ladder; and comes from clino, to lean. T.-Very well: who can give the derivation of Apostrophe ?

I. From apo, and strepho, to turn away from; and is a turning off from the subject-as it has been defined. T.—Who can tell what Metaphor is from?

J.-The Greek word Metaphora is from metaphero, to transfer; and it means the transfer from a literal to a figurative sense.

T-Who can tell what Allegory comes from?

K.-The Greek word Allegoria comes from allos, other, or different, and agoreo, to harangue; and means a use of language which conveys a meaning different from the literal one.

T.-Who can give the derivative and meaning of Hyperbole ?

L.-The Geeek word huperbole, comes from huper, beyond, and ballo, to cast; and means, a throwing beyond.

T-Metonymy?

A.-The Greek word metonumia, comes from meta, opposite to, and onoma, a name; and means a change of name.

T.--How is Irony derived ?

G. From the Greek word eiron, a dissembler.

T-You have all answered so readily and acquitted yourselves so well in this review, that I shall omit the figures pertaining to etymology and syntax: and when we shall have examined Personification a little more in detail, I shall pass on to Poetic License.

Personification is one of the class of figures which lie wholly in the thought, the words being taken in their common and literal sense. All poetry abounds in this figure it often occurs in prose; and in common conversation, we make frequent approaches to it: as when we say, the earth thirsts for rain, or the fields smile with beauty; ambition is restless, or a disease is deceitful, we attribute to things inanimate, or abstract conceptions, the properties of living creatures. A thousand such expressions, from constant use, have become so familiar as to cause their figurative character to disappear. Who will give an example where inanimate objects exhibit the emotions and actions of sentient beings?

G.-I think Milton gives a fine one upon Eve's eating the forbidden fruit:

So saying, her rash hand in evil hour

Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ate;
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat,
Sighing through all her works, gave signs of wo,
That all was lost.

C.-I have one, Sir, from the same, where Eve makes that moving and tender address to Paradise, just before she leaves it:

O, unexpected stroke, worse than of death!

Must I thus leave thee, Paradise? Thus leave
Thee, native soil; these happy walks and shades,
Fit haunt of gods; where I had hope to spend
Quiet, though sad, the respite of that day,
Which must be mortal to us both? O flowers,
That never will in other climate grow,

My early visitation, and my last

At even, which I bred up with tender hand
From your first opening buds, and gave you names;
Who now will rear you to the sun,

or rank

Your tribes, and water from the ambrosial fount ?

POETIC LICENSE.

T-What is Poetic License ?

B.-It is a privilege granted to poetry, both in words and arrangement, which is not allowed to prose. It often places the adjective after its noun, where in prose it would be placed before it; as,

Come, nymph demure, with mantle blue.

C.-The objective often comes before, and the nominative after their respective verbs; as,

His listless length at noontide would he stretch. Snatched in short eddies, plays the withered leaf. D.-Prepositions are often placed after the words they govern; as,

Where echo walks still hills among.

E.—Words, idioms and phrases are often used, which would be inadmissible in prose; as,

By fountains clear, or spangled star-light sheen,

Thy voice we hear, and thy behests obey.—

On the first friendly bank he throws him down.
I'll seek the solitude he sought,

And stretch me where he lay.

F-A more violent ellipsis is allowable in poetry than in prose: e. g.,

For is there aught in sleep can charm the wise ?

Who never fasts, no banquet e'er enjoys.

G.-A syllable in poetry may be omitted or added; as, wail for bewail, wilder for bewilder, plaint for complaint, amaze for amazement, eve or even for evening, helm for helmet, morn for morning, lone for lonely, dread for dreadful, list for listen, ope for open, lure for allure, e'er for ever, ne'er for never, and o'er for over.

H.-Adjectives are oftentimes elegantly connected with nouns which they do not strictly qualify; as, The ploughman homeward plods his weary way. The tenants of the warbling shade.

And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds.

I. The ordinary rules of grammar are often violated; e. g.,

It ceased, the melancholy sound.

My banks, they are furnished with bees.

I. The use of or and nor instead of either and

neither; e. g.,

-And first

Or on the listed plain, or stormy sea.

Nor grief nor fear shall break my rest.

K.—Greek, Latin, and other idioms are allowable, though not allowed in prose; as,

He knew to sing, and build the lofty rhyme.

Give me to seize rich Nestor's shield of gold.

There are, who deaf to mad ambition's call,
Would shrink to hear the obstreperous trump of fame.

LESSON XIX.

A CONVERSATION-BETWEEN MR. GORDON AND HIS FAMILY, AND DR. ABBOT, THE TEACHER OF THEIR SONS.

Mr. Gordon.-Dr. Abbot, we are very happy to see you.

Mrs. G.-We have often wanted you here, Sir, as a court of appeal, and still more, I may say, for the pleasure of your society.

Dr. A.-Had I known that, I think I should scarcely have waited for a formal invitation. It is my wish to have frequent intercourse with those who have children with me; and particularly where they happen to be of a congenial spirit.